The IRCC had stated that the Economic Class had 2,31,187 pending applications due for decisions by the end of February.
In the early days of February 2022, the backlog of applications was 2,30,573 and by the end of the month, it increased by 614 more pending applications. The backlog numbers may seem to decline but actual backlog numbers seem to rise especially among CEC and FSWP programs.
Although applications of Economic Class backlog may seem to decline as a whole TR2PR application is steadily progressing
From October, the backlog of economic class applications has declined by 24,400. This declining number is also a result of TR2PR.
While the pending applications of PNP increased by 4,685. Paper-based processing is one of the reasons for rising numbers. While PNP positioned with Express Entry witnesses a speedy processing time through virtual mode.
The TR2PR faced a rise in pending applications by 14,153. Although the program has been put on a halt since November. One of the reasons for such an increase in inventory may be IRCC observing the applications of this category.
CEC and FSWP inventory are declining
All the programs under Express Entry are facing a decline in inventories.
In total, 23748 applications have been resolved by the Express Entry and regarding it as the largest progress.
The pending applications were 1,19,389 at the end of the year which declined to 95,641 by February end.
Particularly in February, the CEC and FSWP inventory was reduced by 3,051 and 4,314 persons respectively.
The undecided applications have extended the processing time of 180 days. Moreover, the IRCC mentions the same time for processing. The IRCC wishes to reduce the processing time by completing the decision procedure of pending applications.
From December 15, 2021, to February 28, 2022, pending applications under the CEC category had significantly reduced by 12,587.
The applications under the FSWP category were also reduced by 9,092.
In 2021, the IRCC completed 600 applications
The processing for FSWP was slacking because the IRCC was more focused on converting Canadian immigrants to permanent residents. The IRCC preferred so to accomplish its target of four lakh landings of immigrants which was successfully achieved.
If the backlog clearance work moves at the same pace, the IRCC will have 0 CEC backlogs by Summers, whereas it will take a year to reach 0 FSWP backlogs.
The commencement of the Express Entry draw is set to start soon with no confirmed dates given by Sean Fraser.
By the year-end of 2021, a total of 1.8 M backlogs were present. This included all the pending applications. The increase in the backlog was caused because of the pandemic.
The Canadian Government will call 4,32,000 immigrants from all over the world according to its Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024. The government aims to call 4,50,000 immigrants within 2 more years. An increase in immigrants’ targets and IRCC’s constant evolving efforts will surely be led to a decline in backlogs in the future.
