Canada conducted a draw on 19th January. They sent invites to 1,036 applicants in the draw under Express Entry.
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) sent invites to Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) applicants, and the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score threshold was kept at 745. Applicants under PNP get an extra 600 score with the nomination; that is why the threshold seems high.
Since September last year, IRCC has been conducting PNP-specific draws only. Draw for Canadian Experience Class (CEC) was conducted on 14th September, and no draw was conducted afterward.
So far, IRCC has sent 1,428 invites under PNP this year. In the last 10 PNP draws, the threshold has been kept in the range of around 700-800. The first draw of the year had a threshold of 808.
FSWP and CEC applicants share in the Express Entry pool
As of 4th January, the IRCC had 194,000 applicants in the Express Entry pool. Around 80% of these applicants fall under the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), and the rest are for CEC. These are rounded figures, whatever the difference is, that are divided between streams similar to PNP and the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP).
Since December 2020, the immigration department has not conducted any draw for FSWP applicants. Before the outbreak, around 45% of the invites went to those applicants only. However, since they did not receive invites in over a year, the share kept increasing in the pool.
A similar case is for CEC applicants, where the share increased from 6% in June 2021 to 20% in January this year. They were sending around 6000 invites a month during that time.
An internal document from the immigration department revealed that they had stopped the applications for CEC because they wanted to tackle the backlog. The aim was to bring back to processing duration to six months from the average of 9 months during that period.
The average processing stood at around 45,000 applications per month during the end of 2021. The backlog went down to 119,000 from 138,000 in two months. The major share was of the CEC backlog, which went down from 48,000 to 25,000. For FSTP as well, the numbers went down from 931 to 805.
The backlog for FSWP increased by four thousand during this duration. The numbers of PNP as well increased and reached 39,000 by the end of the last year.
Understanding Express Entry
It is a platform created by the Canadian government to handle the particulars of applicants. The medium assists in handling the below federal programs:
- Canadian Experience Class (CEC),
- Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), and
- Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP).
Applicants for PNP are already eligible/qualified for any of the above-mentioned streams.
The platform uses the CRS to allot points to applicants based on their demographic details. Individuals who get the maximum score have a chance to get an invite in the next round of invites. After getting the invite, they need to apply for PR with relevant documents. An officer at the immigration department reviews the details/docs to conclude a final say on the application. They have the authority to request biometrics and may ask for more doc if not satisfied. Sometimes they may ask you to come for an interview as well.
Finally, after the approval, you will gain a Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR). The document helps you transit into permanent residency and if you are overseas, then helps with landing and the rest of the settling requirements.
Who got the invite?
Sharon is 33 years old and did her bachelor’s education. She has been in the social services sector for the past 5.5 years. In IELTS, she got 7.5 in listening and 6.5 in other abilities. She does not have an education or professional history in maple country. She had a score of 332 in CRS. However, she got a nomination from a province that made her score 932, sufficient enough to get the invite in the last draw.
