The last Express Entry draw for Federal Skilled Workers Program (FSWP) candidates was held by the IRCC on December 23, 2020. Back then, we were not aware that this draw was going to mark the starting of a temporary pause on Canada Express Entry draws for FSWP candidates.
The FSWP was launched in 1967, and since then, it has been a popular pathway among candidates for application for Canadian immigration. In 2008, the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) was also introduced by the IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) to support the FSWP. The purpose of CEC is to offer a dedicated immigration pathway to those candidates who have Canadian work experience. In other words, the CEC majorly targets international students and skilled workers who have prior work experience in Canada and are willing to make an application for Canada PR. Later, in 2013, the IRCC launched Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP), which will serve as a pathway for skilled trades workers who want to apply for immigration to Canada.
In 2015, the federal department of IRCC introduced the Express Entry, which will manage the immigration applications received under all three programs. Candidates who meet the eligibility requirements of any of the Express Entry programs can apply through Express Entry by submitting an online profile. Under Canada Express Entry, all candidates are assessed on the basis of certain human capital factors, such as age, language skills, education, work experience, and others, and then candidates are given a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score. The IRCC organizes it almost every two weeks, and then the candidates with the highest CRS scores are issued an invitation to apply (ITA) for permanent residence in Canada.
Canada’s Express Entry is popular for the fast processing of immigration applications, as the IRCC only needs to process those applications which are already issued an invitation rather than reviewing all applications. Furthermore, the Express Entry will give a better chance for new immigrants to settle in the country’s economy, as only the highest-scoring candidates are invited.
From 2015 to the starting of the pandemic, the majority of Express Entry invitations were issued to the FSWP candidates. Also, in 2019, around 45 percent of the total invitations were issued to FSWP candidates, followed by the candidates under CEC. However, the FSWP invitations were put to a temporary pause in 2021.
The IRCC started 2021 with a goal for meeting its Immigration Levels Plan target before this year ends. They will complete 401,000 new permanent residents before 2021 ends. To achieve the plan, the IRCC decided on transitioning many temporary residents to permanent residents who are residing in Canada during the pandemic. The reason behind this transition was that due to COVID disruptions (including safety concerns and travel restrictions), the completion of the permanent residence process for candidates outside of Canada could be challenging; thus, the IRCC decided on transitioning those who are already within Canada to achieve their target of landing 401,000 newcomers to the country in 2021.
For the majority of this year, the plan of the IRCC shifted to inviting CEC candidates, and this resulted in the historic Express Entry draw on February 13, in which 27,332 CEC candidates were issued invitations at a time (around six times more than the previous record). The plan also included the introduction of a one-time special public policy that allowed 90,000 international graduates and essential workers to make an application for Canada PR.
Exclusion of FSWP for a year and still continuing is debatable. However, before going straight into the debate mode, there are a number of factors involved which need to be considered. In reality, as a variety of developments continue to emerge, such as the pandemic situation at a global scale, IRCC’s future policy choices and operating capabilities. Furthermore, with the country’s labour market situation, and the economic dependency on overseas immigrants, we will have plenty of opportunities to argue the decision’s merits and outcomes. It is likely that in the forecastable future, it may not be easy to give a conclusion to this debate.
Benefits of excluding FSWP
At present, the federal department is close to achieving its annual target. They have already onboarded around 360,000 new immigrants this year. The average stood at over 45,000 a month. This gives the department a safe opportunity to claim that the exclusion was not a bad plan. That has allowed them to land more immigrants even during such difficult times.
Another benefit is that people who have already worked in the country tend to mend well as per the requirements as they are already aware of the situation. It becomes comparatively easier for them to transit into permanent residency. While working as a temp, they build connections and improve their language fluency, which eventually helps them in settling after getting the PR.
The country has been experiencing a gap in their labour market, which was aided by this experiment. The immigration department was able to target specific professions (especially the essentials) and was able to fulfill a lot of gaps during this year. For example, most of the applicants seeking immigration under these streams may have been overlooked if FSWP was still in operation.
Disadvantages
Despite the maximum benefits, there have been some shortcomings in this discussion as well. Some people estimate that the immigration department may have been able to achieve this huge number while simultaneously working on FSWP applications. That is possible because the time difference between getting an invite and landing in Canada is around 12 months for FSWP applicants. So the procedure could have begun during the latter half of 2021.
An internal memo from the IRCC suggests that this option was under consideration but, due to unknown reasons, did not get implemented.
Another disadvantage is the biased treatment and trust issue between applicants for FSWP and the immigration team. The government of Canada and their immigration department sell themselves as being transparent; however, they lacked in providing clarification to FSWP aspirants. This factor is quite important as many applicants submit their requests when they have eligibility for the stream. Some language tests and Educational competency assessments have validity, which is no longer useful if expired and the applicants have to take them again. We understand that this may not be a big concern for them, but the immigration department could have been considerate enough to provide clear communication so that they could decide for themselves or look for alternatives.
The third con to the decision is about the country’s inconsideration towards its own policies. According to the immigration department, they had launched the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) to fairly treat an applicant on the basis of their demographic details and achievements. However, now with the CEC eligibility plan, the CRS requirement has been plummeting since the beginning of the year. Let us simplify for you that how it is not useful. The plummeted scores allow people with fewer competencies to become eligible for PR, which will eventually impact the labour market outcomes. The outcomes could have been better in normal instances where only the folks with higher CRS scores were selected.
The immigration department has always put this argument forward that they have created the Express entry system while keeping the future of Canadian immigration in mind. They give the option for permanent residency to only those applicants who have high human capital (good CRS scores) that helps them mend easily with the requirements of the region.
To give a face to this argument, the country invited people with 75 CRS in February this year (eligible under CEC) over an applicant with 470 for FSWP (approximate cut-off for the last year).
An additional disadvantage was shared by the department itself that they are under a huge backlog because of the country-specific operation this year. They have been processing the applications of overseas applicants at a very slow pace.
Going Forward
The immigration department has not been very transparent about the application for Canada immigration for FSWP, so it is not easy for anyone to predict anything about this stream as of now. Still, there are some/couple of important points to remember.
They are now excluding applications for CEC after September. The action is implemented so that they can clear their backlogs. They have mentioned that they want to reduce the backlog to 50% before they consider opening gates for FSWP. Based on the current pace, they should be able to achieve this by the first half of 2022 in Canada.
Ultimately the country will have to open its gate for FSWP since they made up around 45 percent of the total count in 2019. They approximately have 85% of the share in the current pool. It will not be much time when the department will run out of CEC applicants who are eligible or may have already reached that point.
Another major factor is that immigration plays an important role in improving the economy of Maple country. Due to the pandemic, the country witnessed the weakest growth in its population that it has done in over 100 years. Also, the country is not able to sustain its labour market needs, and hence there are a lot of vacancies throughout the nation. Bringing more immigrants from overseas will help aid both situations; hence FSWP comes into the picture.
At last, it was understandable when the country had strict travel rules in place, and they did not allow anyone from the outside to enter the country. However, when the lifted the ban in June, the FSWP exclusion still remained intact. The reason is still unknown when the country is allowing all other travel agendas, so what was stopping them from allowing COPR holding FSWP applicants.
All the discussed matters indicate and present a strong case for IRCC to resume invites for FSWP in the next year.
