The Express Entry’s history has never witnessed such a record-breaking number as it did in 2020.
Every year new immigrants from one country move to developed countries like Canada and try to get the country’s citizenship for living there permanently. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, the country, as well as the world, has suffered many challenges in the traditional process of express entry performance among the citizens. Despite all of the social distancing norms and travel bans, the Canadian government has faced a record-breaking rise in the number of enrolled citizens in Express entry. This will create a better opportunity in the future for Canada to increase its permanent resident number as well as focus on strengthening its economy in the process.
What is Express Entry performance?
Express entry performance can be identified as the online process of the Comprehensive Ranking System popularly known CRS. This online procedure provides a more significant opportunity for foreigners to immigrate to Canada in the period of six months. This was introduced in the year 2015, becoming one of the essential and easy procedures for immigrants in Canada. This express entry process in Canada invites citizens to apply. One candidate needs to use within a time period of 90 days for submitting the documents for becoming one of the permanent residents in the country. Then the Canadian government will provide scores to the applicants, and the most compatible ones among the express entry candidates will be chosen for becoming a permanent resident with supporting documents. The whole process would take a total time of 6 months or less after the submission of the applications.
Figure: Express entry performance in 2020
An overview of Express Entry performance in 2020
In 2020, Canada experienced issuing a total of 107,350 applicants or invitations to apply in the express entry process. The three federal immigration programs are Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), Canadian Experience Class (CEC), Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP), and Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP), which help in segmenting the applicants and simplify the process. Due to the coronavirus pandemic in the year 2020, the IRCC department has held a total of 36 invitations in the span of two weeks. This is more than any number in the past 5 years of the procedure.
Sizes of Draw in 2020
The entry draws this year were both the smallest and biggest draws in the past few years. The immigration department of Canada or also known as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), has the smallest draw of 118 invitations on the date of April 15, 2020. However, the size of the draws increased as time passed to the end of the year, reaching the draw number of 5,000 at a time. This performance of IRCC would help in meeting the target of 401,000 new permanent residents in Canada from the population of immigrants. The express entry candidates will get their permanent residentship in Canada in the mid-way of 2021 if selected.
Required Minimum score
The four authorized entities for monitoring this process have a different set of rules in providing scores to the express entry candidates for permanent residentship. The high-scoring candidates have the advantage of prioritizing the provincial nomination and adding more scores to the CRS score. This year, the cut-off score for express entry was 415; however, the highest draw of the number was 468. On the other hand, later on, the score requirement for CEC was 431 instead of 415.
Scope of Express Entry in 2021
Meeting the targets, the express entry will approve over 8,946 candidates in the future while allocating almost two draws per month and maximizing the drawing capacity of over 4,400 candidates. This will help in supporting over 100k applications in the year 2021. The Canadian government has the aim of meeting the target of immigrants turning in a permanent resident number of 113,750 in 2023. At the same time, the government has been planning to allocate around 108,500 invitations to apply in the process of express entry. This will need to maximize the drawing capacity of both four authorized entities in Canada and attract more immigrants to the country in the long term.
