Introduction: Before July 2022, Canada’s EE Express Immigration Channel temporarily stopped inviting invitations. The main reason was the impact of the pandemic on the immigration approval progress, and the border closure that prevented some new immigrants from landing smoothly.
According to a report by CIC News on July 4, all Express Entry projects will resume on July 6. Today we have an exclusive interview with the Canadian Immigration Minister to analyze how Bill C-19 will affect Express Entry in the future. What impact does it have.
After Canada announced its extremely ambitious five-year immigration plan, many students are waiting for the Immigration Department to announce more details. However, due to the pandemic, the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) draws have been suspended since December 2020, as have the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) draws in September 2021.
On July 4, Canadian Immigration Minister Sean Fraser confirmed on Twitter: After an 18-month interruption, all Express Entry projects will be fully resumed on Wednesday (July 6). Including the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) in the Express Entry, the Federal Skilled Trade Program (FSTP) and the Canadian Experience Class Program (CEC) that international students are most concerned about.
Image source: Twitter screenshot @SeanFraserMP
Canada had to implement this temporary suspension due to border closures and a backlog of applications for permanent residence status due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to better understand the latest announced details, let’s briefly introduce Canada’s Express Entry immigration.
Express Entry is the application management system used by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to select the best candidates to live and work in Canada. The Canadian government hopes that through this system, it will select immigrant applicants who are of core working age, will be able to be economically independent in Canada, and at the same time contribute to the labor market and Canada's economic development. These candidates can often obtain immigration status more quickly than applicants under other immigration programs, such as family sponsorship or as a refugee or humanitarian immigrant. The Immigration Department promises that most application cases will be processed within 6 months.
Although due to various reasons, many students reported that the results of their cases were not available until 6 months later, the Immigration Bureau recently promised to restore the pre-pandemic 6-month processing standard starting from July 2022.
Image source: CIC News Screenshot
The Express Entry system sets a baseline for application eligibility for each of its projects, and candidates must meet specific criteria to apply. The first step is for candidates to assess whether they are eligible to apply through Express Entry. If they meet the eligibility criteria, they must upload their personal data on the IRCC website. Once the profile is complete, IRCC will score the candidate using the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). The comprehensive ranking system takes into account factors such as occupation, work experience, education and language proficiency when scoring. Candidates with the highest scores are most likely to receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA). Once a candidate receives an ITA, they have 60 days to submit an application for permanent residence. It can be said that the Express Entry is the most mainstream application channel for international students to transfer to immigration.
Recently, Canadian Immigration Minister Sean Fraser was interviewed and talked in detail for the first time about the C-19 bill recently passed by the Canadian government. The bill will allow the immigration minister to quickly invite candidates based on Canada's domestic economic goals.
Bill C-19 received royal assent on June 23, 2022. It will authorize Immigration Canada to invite candidates based on criteria such as occupation, language proficiency, and intended landing destination to support Canada’s economic development goals.
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser told CIC News in a face-to-face interview on June 21 that he hopes Bill C-19 will pass the Senate and that despite the competitive advantage Express Entry provides Canada, there are still Room for improvement.
"If our economy faces particular challenges over the long term, where the current [Express Entry system] could be improved is to invite candidates who can meet the needs of the labor market," Sean Fraser said. "If a large number of applications are in a particular field and that field is not in high demand in Canada's labor market, the Express Entry system as it exists today may bring in immigrants who do not fully meet the needs of the Canadian economy."
The minister said Bill C-19 will allow Canada to select more immigrants who are ready to succeed in the labor market. "Our goal is to maximize the contribution of newcomers to the community and to prepare them for employment upon arrival." Sean Fraser said
But critics of the bill said the authorities may allow special Interest groups lobby authorities to accept certain types of candidates, thereby hastily revising the professional standards for invitations. Early drafts of the bill also went through several revisions to ensure a high degree of transparency in the invitation process. Frazier acknowledged the concern. "If I were sitting in my office in Ottawa and starting to decide which regions and which occupations would benefit from the new policy, I would be on a very dangerous path; I would be interacting with people in the local community, but I would also be interacting with provincial and territorial "
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Finally, let's analyze the changing trends of Canada's Express Entry in the future based on this interview with the Immigration Minister: The editor predicts that after the Express Entry is resumed on July 6, The Immigration Bureau will expand the number of people invited at each time in order to complete this year's immigration target. After all, the total number of immigrants in 2022 has increased, and the most mainstream immigration projects have stopped inviting invitations for nearly half a year. However, students should also note that during the period when the express lane is closed, many candidates who have accumulated enough work experience and have completed their English language scores have entered the pool early. They will definitely be invited by the Immigration Bureau in the first few batches. Candidates, competition is bound to be fierce in the first few months of invitations.
In addition, if Bill C-19 is passed, the list of occupations that meet immigration standards may change. Occupations that previously had high technical content but low market demand may be the first to be affected. On the contrary, after this pandemic, the Canadian government has repeatedly emphasized the need for medical workers, and related occupations may become more popular in fast-track invitations.
If you have not met the application conditions yet, then the most important thing is to continue to accumulate experience and make an appointment for the English test as soon as possible. I believe that in the long run, Bill C-19 will be beneficial to international students with high language proficiency, education from Canadian universities, and local work experience.
Finally, I wish all students who plan to apply will get their invitations as soon as possible!
ref: https://www.cicnews.com/2022/07/canadas-immigration-minister-confirms-express-entry-draws-will-return-to-normal-this-wednesday-0727760.html#gs.5gq3k2
https: //www.cicnews.com/2022/06/immigration-minister-sean-fraser-discusses-express-entry-reforms-0626504.html#gs.5gq34b
