The Canadian Government Resumes Immigration & Express Entry draws

The Canadian government has announced that it will resume immigration and Express Entry draws through the Federal Skilled Trades Program, Federal Skilled Worker Program and other immigration classes.

“Starting July 6th, 2022, qualified candidates will be invited to apply for permanent residency from the following programs:

1. Federal Skilled Worker program

2. Federal Skilled Trades program

3. Canadian Experience Class,” Canada’s Immigration minister Sean Faser said on Twitter.

November 24, 2021 internal IRCC Memo states that FSWC processing times are expected to rise to 36 months in 2022 and that the Federal High Skilled admissions target in upcomming years could be reduced by more than 50% due to the TRPR backlog and Afghan refugee resettlement. pic.twitter.com/49wsic2VYV

— Steven Meurrens (@smeurrens) January 19, 2022

The policy resumption on Wednesday comes months after Canada suspended its express entry visa program in January. At the time, an internal memo released by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) noted a backlog of qualified candidates. The suspension was enable processing times.

Changes to the Express Entry system

According to the Official Canadian Website

“We rank candidates in the pool using a points-based system called the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). We select the highest-ranking candidates from the pool and invite them to apply for permanent residence.

Each invitation round has a set of instructions that are:

• posted online at the time of the invitation round
• used by the Express Entry system to invite candidates from the pool

The instructions include:

• the date and time of the invitation round
• the number of candidates that will get an invitation to apply
• which immigration program(s) are included in the round (some invitation rounds may only invite candidates for 1 program, for example only from Federal Skilled Trades)

In June, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that a new task force had been established to handle immigration processing delays.

“We know service delays, particularly in recent months, are unacceptable…we will continue to do everything we can to improve the delivery of these services in an efficient and timely manner, and this new task force will help guide the work of the government to better meet the changing needs of Canadians and continue to provide them with the high-quality services they need and deserve,” Mr Trudeau had said.

IRCC’s backlog currently stands at about 2.4 million people. Between April 29 and June 1, the number of applicants increased by 257,499. CIC News attributes the rising numbers due to more people seeking temporary residence.