ISA Global

Canada’s Immigration sector witnessed yet another record-breaking incident with regards to its Express Entry system, sending out approximately 44,590 invites to potential candidates to opt for Permanent Residency status within the nation, all of this recorded within the second quarter of 2021.

This past quarter’s records have easily surpassed the previously recorded 44,120 as observed in the first half of the year 2021.

2017 records have long since been left behind as the IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) proceeded to distribute about 88,700 ITAs (Invitations to Apply) for those potentially interested in securing a PR status, according to the statistics from the 30th of June.

Details on Canadian Express Entry

Deemed as the most renowned immigration processing system within the Maple country, this is a type of online application submission system quite well-known amongst potential migrants. Canada has set its bars high with a targeted goal of sending out approximately 108,500 novel invites to fresh immigrants through Express Entry pathways in this year of 2021 alone, easily surpassing its previous numbers as accounted in alternate immigration programs.

Applications and processing take place for the following three streams which are managed as Federal High Skilled programs, namely, the Federal Skilled Trades Program, the Federal Skilled Worker Program, and the Canadian Experience Class.

Through the assistance of such systems, it’s possible for interested foreign nationals to submit their profiles and additional details into the pool of Express Entry entrants to be considered for a probable PR status via obtaining an ITA.

The decision regarding the eligibility of candidates to gain an ITA is taken solely by the IRCC using a feasible and seamless integral system called the CRS (Comprehensive Ranking System) which consists of a scoring matrix.  Via this ranking pattern, candidate profiles placed with the Express Entry pool receive rankings as distinguishing factors on the basis of a variety of parameters like their age group, educational background, language proficiency skills, and past working experience. A candidate’s work could be labeled as being of ‘Skilled’ type provided it’s listed on the NOC (National Occupational Classification).

Now, the IRCC hosts a series of frequent draws on behalf of the Express Entry system in order to issue out ITAs to potentially eligible candidates possessing high scores as per the CRS. Upon receival of an ITA, applicants are permitted to apply for Canadian immigration by connecting with decision-makers from the IRCC itself. The country’s immigration is referred to as a distributed responsibility between the provincial and federal government, however, the sole authority to approve/reject one’s PR status lies only with the federal entity, i.e., the IRCC.

2021’s Second Quarter sees Many Draws and Reduced CRS Cutoffs

Ever since 2021 began, Canada’s draws for immigration have been very specific to its programs. The common pattern followed is always the CEC (Canadian Experience Class) draw happening right after the PNP (Provincial Nominee Program) draw.

The main reason the IRCC abides by such a pattern is to ease the pathway for potential Express Entry candidates within the nation, thereby avoiding problems associated with those present overseas. As per statistics revealed by the IRCC, May showed a whopping 95% of such CEC candidates residing within the country itself, while it was 30% for those belonging to the PNP stream.

Within the span of the second quarter, the IRCC held additional draws, that is a rise to 14 from the previous 10 draws. This is because the department was taking a much-deserved break after sending out invites to almost every single pending candidate waiting within the entrant pool.

Another observation was the increase in the size of the draw. Leaving aside the 13-sized draw held in February, Canada’s draw sizes kept increasing ever since the dawn of Q II.  Few of the CEC draws crossed the 6000 ITAs mark back in April, while PNP numbers crossed the 1000 mark when last checked towards the end of June.

The cutoffs for the CRS systems started reducing as these draw batch sizes kept increasing. Now, the IRCC was focusing more on the cream crows towards the top, hence it started permitting those CEC candidates having scores in the range of 300s. These eligibility criteria for the CRS have been lowering ever since May 2021. The past draw conducted had an eligibility criterion of just 357, which could easily account for the lowest CRS criteria in the history of Canadian immigration.

6 months’ Projection for Canadian Express Entry

Candidates belonging to the streams of the FSTP (Federal Skilled Trades Program) and the FSWP (Federal Skilled Worker Program) have been kept aside from being considered in any of the draws this year. Before this period, potential candidates from the latter group were garnering nearly half of all the ITAs.

Ever since the strike of the pandemic, Canada has been hell-bent on focusing all its efforts on offering PR status to those potentially favorable immigration candidates who are already residing within the country. In this manner, a lot of those settled within the nation wouldn’t be subjected to problems like travel restrictions already prevalent and the closure of a variety of services.

In comparison to the CEC class, Canadian working experience is not a mandatory requirement for those belonging to the FSWP stream, which allows a majority of them to reside overseas. May data from the IRCC reveals that approximately 95% of them are living outside of Canada.

In the year before this also, the IRCC had taken a break from sending out invites for draws for the all-program Express Entry, inclusive of the FSWP candidates too. During this period, Canada lacked any COVID-19 approved vaccinations and also had very stringent restrictions over traveling in and out of the nation. The 8th of July marked the preliminary all-program draw being held by Canada ever since the installation of the lockdown back in March 2020.

In today’s period, public health measures that had formed a barrier onto individuals are slowly starting to subside. On the 21st of June, three major events took place, namely, the lifting of the mandatory quarantine period by the Central Government over those exempted travelers who had been fully vaccinated with an approved vaccine; this exempted travelers list also increased to include those PRs with approval; and lifting of the flight ban by the Federal Government upon air travel pertaining to Canada and Pakistan. These measures will still remain in place with regards to Indian travel, but they’re due to be revised by the 21st of July.

The Maple country has achieved yet another feat by completing vaccinations on a partial basis for almost 75% of its population over the age group of 12 years. Out of these, approximately 23% of Canadians have received both vaccine shots. The country’s government authorities aim to have about 75% of the country’s total population completely vaccinated before the end of July approaches.

Keeping all this into consideration, the second half of 2021 could witness some all-program draws pertaining to Immigration. This year shall be fruitful to FSTP candidates too, as they stand a chance to receive their own private draw. If this doesn’t happen, it’ll be for the first time since the year 2017 that the nation hasn’t held a private draw for this category. May 2020 witnessed a total of about 56% of this stream’s applicants within Canada. As the demand was consistently on the rise, the population of this stream surpassed the PNP.

Ever since the pandemic struck, the Canadian government has been very forward with its motive of aiding the economic recovery of the nation through immigration. As per IRCC reports, the majority of the Express Entry candidates get hired well within the first year of them landing in the Maple country. This stream is specifically targeted towards those potential applicants who are capable of supporting Canada’s economy, labor market and help promote its growth.