Every month, the IRCC completes about 14,000 CEC applications and less than 600 FSWP applications

According to new IRCC data, the Department of Homeland Security is currently prioritising Express Entry applications. Canada immigration consultants in Delhi are there to help you with this.

The figures show the number of permanent residence applications approved by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada under the Express Entry programme.

Express Entry is the primary pathway for economic-class skilled immigrants to enter Canada. Candidates who fit the requirements of an Express Entry programme can register on the IRCC website and submit their profile.

The Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) assigns a score to candidates based on human capital factors like age, education, language skills, and work experience. IRCC invites the highest-scoring individuals to apply for permanent residency every two weeks. After that, they have 60 days to submit an application to IRCC for permanent residence.

A candidate obtains a Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) whenever IRCC approves their application, allowing them to officially land in Canada as a permanent resident. A COPR holder who was previously resided in Canada as a temporary resident may be able to convert their legal status to permanent residency as part of the landing procedure. It can also refer to a person arriving from another country with their COPR in order to become a permanent resident.

In the wake of the epidemic, the IRCC has made significant revisions to its Express Entry policies. This year, the agency is working on a plan to bring in 401,000 new permanent residents. It decided to focus on transferring more temporary residents to permanent residence at the start of 2021 in order to have a greater chance of meeting its 401,000 immigrant objective.

As a result, under Express Entry this year, it has exclusively welcomed candidates from the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). This is a significant break from previous practise, as the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) accounted for over half of all successful Express Entry applicants prior to the epidemic. The IRCC has implemented this policy change for two reasons.

For starters, it claims that because 90% of CEC candidates are currently residing in Canada during the pandemic, they are less likely to experience COVID-related delays that would prevent them from completing their permanent residency landings in 2021. Second, the IRCC continues to invite PNP candidates to assist provinces in meeting their labour market needs around the country. You can get more advice on the same, with the help of Canada immigration consultants in Delhi.

Another consequence of this adjustment is that, instead of inviting the highest-ranking candidates from the whole Express Entry pool, as it did before the epidemic, IRCC has instead invited the highest-ranking CEC and PNP candidates. Because the government wanted to invite as many CEC candidates as possible to support its immigration target for this year, overall CRS cut-off scores have decreased. On February 13, the most significant draw of the year occurred when IRCC invited 27,332 CEC candidates to apply for permanent residence, a feat accomplished by setting the CRS cut-off score at just 75.

To put this in context, this draw was approximately six times larger than the previous high (Express Entry has been in place since 2015), and the cut-off score was nearly 400 points lower than it was before the pandemic.

FSWP candidates are the ones who suffer the most. Only 6,795 COPRs were awarded to them this year. This represents barely 5% of all COPRs awarded to Express Entry candidates this year, a figure that is nearly 9 times lower than before the pandemic.

Source: IRCC

Through May, IRCC had a poor start to the year, completing between 7,000 and 10,000 Express Entry applications every month. This nearly quadrupled in June, and IRCC has continued to process Express Entry applications at a high rate in the second half of this year. Candidates for CECs will benefit the most from the enhanced processing capacity.

IRCC has also raised the amount of PNP applications it is finalising, but it is still far below the number of PNP candidates it handled in January. The data implies that, in order to meet its 401,000 newcomer objective, IRCC has shifted its resources to processing as many CEC applications as possible.

The amount of FSWP applications handled has not improved significantly. In each of the months of September and October, IRCC completed over 600 FSWP applications.

According to the IRCC, there are now 1.8 million permanent and temporary residency applications on hold. As of October 27, there were just fewer than 100,000 Express Entry applications. By January 2022, IRCC will have processed all of the remaining 48,000 CEC applications, assuming it keeps up its current pace. Before considering resuming invitations to CEC and FSWP candidates, the department has stated that it would like to reduce its Express Entry inventory by more than half. This year, the IRCC held 27 CEC draws, but they have been on hold since September 14.

IRCC is on track to meet its immigration objective for this year. It has landed about 314,000 permanent residents as of October, and has been averaging over 45,000 each month in recent months. The department is presently deciding on Canada's immigration objective for 2022, as well as which Express Entry approach to pursue the following year. In the next months, we may expect to learn more. The issue of mandate letters to each federal minister, including immigration minister Sean Fraser, is one of the major announcements still to come.

In addition, on February 10th, Fraser will present Canada's Immigration Levels Plan 2023-2025. The mandate letter and new levels plan will provide further clarity on IRCC's policy priorities in 2022 and beyond to stakeholders.

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