Global сhanges in the Express Entry system - comments from an immigration consultant

Since December 2020, Express Entry has held no draws for skilled workers, with provincial programs inviting candidates every week. What does this mean? When will the draws resume, or will they resume at all?

There is speculation that while the draws are paused, Canada is preparing important changes to Express Entry. And this isn't just any speculation. Back in April, the Canadian government published the 2021 budget, with a separate focus on immigration.

According to the budget, Canada plans to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and modernize Express Entry. How exactly, is not yet known, but the budget items may give us some clues.

Labour market needs

Now about the budget. First, it states that Canada will give the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) the authority to select the candidates who best fit the needs of the Canadian labour market.

Now, skilled candidates get points for their age, education, language skills, work experience, and other similar factors, but not for how in-demand their occupation is in Canada. That is, the system allows the selection of more educated and experienced candidates, but it is less effective in terms of meeting the needs of the Canadian labour market.

For this reason, Express Entry may change, but so far there is only speculation as to how:

• the first option: there will be a certain list of occupations, whose representatives will be able to apply for the Federal Skilled Worker stream;
• the second option: on the contrary, there will be a list of excluded occupations, and people with certain professions will not be able to apply;
• the third option: in each draw specialists of certain occupations will be invited.

All of this is just speculation. But when we first thought about immigrating to Canada about 15 years ago, there was a list of priority professions, and ours were not included. As a result, in 2011, we applied for immigration through Quebec's provincial program.

In 2015, when Express Entry was launched at the federal level, the notion of priority occupations was removed. But the world is changing, so immigration may change, too.

Many provinces in their provincial immigration programs also require a candidate to qualify for a certain profession. Ontario recently launched a new candidate evaluation system that is considered a competitor to Express Entry, and it does not score on age, education, or language skills, but on the occupation in which the applicant found work, what salary is offered, and so on. Maybe Express Entry will do something similar.

Immigration for women

A second possible change: Canada has allocated a significant amount of money to support immigrant women to make it easier for them to get jobs and advance in their careers. Now statistically, most of the principal applicants are men. Again, exact information is not yet available, but women may be given more points on Express Entry.

The funny thing is that in our family it was Ivanna who was the main applicant. She learned both English and French at the C1 level. That’s an example of a qualified immigration consultant who speaks two of Canada's national languages.

Immigration for professionals with work experience in Canada

Immigration for professionals with work experience in Canada

Another point in the 2021 budget says that professionals who are already in Canada will get permanent residency much faster. This can already be seen now because there are no Federal Skilled Worker draws but candidates with experience in Canada are invited every two weeks by 5-6 thousand people.

Plus, for in-demand professionals who are in Canada, several new immigration streams were launched in May. Also recall the record Express Entry draw, when more than 27,000 people at a time were invited to the Canadian Experience Class program.

Conclusions

Canada is now prioritizing those who come on work visas and in the future plans to target specialists who are most in demand in the labour market. It is not known when the Federal Skilled Worker draws will be resumed, or if they will be resumed at all with the conditions that are in place now.

If you want to immigrate without waiting for Express Entry to change, look at provincial immigration programs. There are regular draws, and Express Entry consistently invites candidates with a provincial nomination, though in smaller numbers than candidates with Canadian experience. Also, for many programs, applicants are evaluated by provincial systems with different criteria.

Another option is to try to look for a job in Canada. Many people complain at consultations that it is impossible, but often people are simply unprepared: they have poor English, no evaluated diplomas, and no proper CV made according to Canadian standards.

If you have questions about immigration, you can book a paid consultation with Ivanna. She will assess your chances not only for Express Entry, but also for provincial programs, and help you prepare your immigration documents.

We also recommend taking free chances assessment to see how realistic you are about moving at all. Simply fill in the questionnaire and our information system will compare your answers with the requirements of all the immigration programs that exist in Canada. If you have good or excellent chances, then book a paid consultation.

Alex Pavlenko, founder of Immigrant.Today
Ivanna Pavlenko, licensed immigration consultant