The Government of Canada is set to make a major provision in the Express Entry system after 2015 when it introduced the application management system.
Bill C-19 is under evaluation by the Canadian Parliament and their decision will define if it will become a law in the month of June. According to the new Express Entry system, the immigration minister of Canada will have the authority to formulate groups of Express Entry applicants and then grant ITAs to the respective groups.
The IRCC explains the grouping of applicants will be performed by the immigration minister which will be based on various criteria like occupation requirements, policy objectives, etc.
The updated format of Express Entry will allow the IRCC to depart the previous method of issuing ITA for Canadian Permanent Residency. The earlier method of issuing the ITA was through CRS scoring and qualifying the eligibility criteria of the Express Entry program.
The IRCC was prioritizing the applicants with the high scores to grant the ITAs as the IRCC believed that the high-scoring candidates have a stronger intention of settling in the country permanently.
This signifies that the high-scoring candidates have more probability of securing a position in the Canadian Labor market.
The IRCC had temporarily discontinued the processing of the application this way, but it will restart with the same procedure in the early days of July month.
Contrastingly the IRCC was issuing ITAs to program-specific draws. The IRCC was more focused to process the application of the CEC category as it was one of the categories to transition many into Canadian permanent residents in order to accomplish its objective of inviting a total of four lakh immigrants every year.
The country was calling eligible candidates through Provincial Nominee Program to help its provinces to match its labor requirements.
Although both the methods of granting ITAs were not very reliable the candidates had a high probability through this method.
Uncertainty is one of the major drawbacks of implementing the amended Express Entry system as it will be working on the concept of grouping applicants. The discretion of selecting candidates to issue ITA and the criteria is totally dependent on the IRCC.
This emerges a risk of granting ITAs which do not have an objective like public sentiments. It can be explained through an imaginary example- there might occur a situation in which certain interest groups may pressurize the IRCC to grant ITAs
The new structure of Express Entry is concerned with a lot of uncertainty from the applicant’s perspective.
In short, you may have a high CRS score but still not get an ITA.
For example -A candidate might have a score of 495 points, which was considered to be a more than enough score before the pandemic but according to the new Express Entry, a candidate scoring 495 points will have no significance until he/she belongs to the occupation in-demand category even with a CRS score of 200 points.
This is the new concept of the Canadian Government to prefer lower scorers over the candidates with a high score.
The concept of the CRS system was launched by experts of Statistics Canada after rigorous research concerned with human capital criteria.
This was based on the fact that applicants with high scores are young, have a high educational background, and have a higher level of language proficiency.
The IRCC will grant ITAs without demanding proof from certain immigrant groups who are worthy of getting an ITA as compared to others
Another drawback of the new Express Entry is the shortage of public consultation. The provision of Express Entry is attached with the BILL C-19 which is the composition of several other reforms which revolve around different policies.
The introduction of provision is concerned with any crises or problems. Making provisions during the pandemic was apparent because of the struggle the country was facing. So, in order to tackle such a situation making provisions and introducing new policies becomes a necessity. But the reason to implement such major changes in the Express Entry is not understandable.
The ongoing debates and discussions regarding the Express Entry into the Parliament seems to be a formality as the Liberal Party of Canada is being supported by the New Democratic Party.
This signifies that the whole curriculum of Express Entry is about to change and the major stakeholders i.e the immigrants have no say in it.
The IRCC claims that making such major provisions in the Express Entry requires a say of immigration applicants.
Whereas the advantage attached to the new Express Entry system is that it will specifically target the economic sector which was badly impacted by COVID-19.
So, giving IRCC the opportunity to grant ITAs in accordance with the number of job vacancies will have a positive impact on the Canadian economy.
For example- The country is facing a huge shortage of healthcare professionals because of the majority of senior citizens and simultaneously COVID19. So giving preference to such professionals in the Express Entry system will lead to a positive impact on the Canadian economy and its citizens.
Also, it can be a beneficial way as IRCC will have to grant ITAs to immigrants after considering policy goals.
As the official languages of Canada are both English and French and giving preference to francophone applicants can be a great step by the federal government of Canada.
This amendment may soon transition into law, but it is unpredictable as to when the IRCC will start to implement its novel authority which can be answered by the IRCC themselves.
In all the hustle, applicants and other stakeholders can only expect Express Entry to be transparent before it takes the big step of grouping applicants and issuing the ITAs through this new format.
