After an extended hiatus, Canadian immigration minister Sean Fraser announced that Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) and Canadian Experience Class (CEC) Express Entry draws will resume by early July.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada put a pause on Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) draws as of December 2020.
The Canadian government continued to pause these draws as the immigration application backlog grew. As of September 2021, IRCC paused all Federal High Skilled Worker draws (including the Federal Skilled Worker Program, Canadian Experience Class, and Federal Skilled Trades Program).
In a January 2022 teleconference, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser confirmed the pause would continue as IRCC worked at reducing the backlog. To help reduce the backlog in time to resume draws this spring, Canada has allocated significant funds in the federal budget to speed up immigration application processing.
Following the progress made in reducing the application backlog, Canada is now able to resume all-program draws by July.
On April 22nd, 2022, Sean Fraser announced a series of measures to address Canada’s labour shortage. Minister Fraser’s announcement centred largely on the economic need for immigration as Canada recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to Canada’s strong demand for skilled workers, the government is implementing measures to help attract and retain foreign talent. As part of these measures, Immigration, Refugee, Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will also be providing another post-graduate work permit extension.
Since pausing Federal High Skilled Worker (FHS – including CEC, FSW, and FST) draws in September 2021, IRCC has cut processing inventory in more than half. The inventory will be even further reduced by July 2022. This will allow IRCC to process most of these applications within the 6-month service standard.
During today’s announcement, Minister Fraser addressed the following:
During the FSW and CEC draw pause, the number of candidates in the Express Entry pool grew significantly.
For this reason, IRCC believes that the FSW and CEC CRS cut-off would likely rise above 500 and remain high for about 6 months. Targeting candidates with this high CRS score would result in a very homogenous pool of newcomers, which may point to an upheaval of the system altogether.
Due to the high volume of candidates in the Express Entry pool, the next all-program Express Entry draw may target in-demand occupations.
Rather than targeting a homogenous group of FSW candidates, the invitation system may change to better suit Canada’s labour needs. The government has previously alluded to starting occupation in-demand Express Entry draws this year. With the current CRS composition of the Express Entry pool, it may be the only way to select a diverse group of applicants that respond to Canada’s labour market needs.
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