Express Entry Strategy for 2022 Is Still Under Development As Per The IRCC

According to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) are still in the process of assessing its Express Entry strategy for this year. It is known that the Express Entry is the main pathway where Canada welcomes economic class immigrants. A candidate may upload an Express Entry profile onto the IRCC’s website if they meet the eligibility criteria of the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), or Federal Skill Trade Program (FSTP). A candidate will be able to get a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) based on their education, age, work experience, language skills, and other criteria.

The recent internal briefing memo that the IRCC made public created a fuss and speculations about this year’s Express Entry strategy. The memo explores the chance of extending the halt on Express Entry invitations to the candidates of CEC, FSWP, and FSTP until the middle of 2022 to give the IRCC more time to catch up with their backlogs.  However, with much context that is missing from the memo readers are continuously guessing on how will the department manage the Express Entry moving forward this year? As of December 2021, a total of 1.8 million immigration backlogs stands waiting in a queue of whom some 120,000 are from the Express Entry.

January 20, 2022 – Immigration Minister Sean Fraser put some of the speculations to rest as he gathered the Canadian Bar Association’s Immigration Section for a meeting. It was stated by the minister that the IRCC has yet to schedule the next CEC and FSWP draw. However, they are still seeing through their Express Entry draw options for 2022. It was made clear by Minister Fraser that the IRCC does not have any plan to cancel and refund those who have already submitted their permanent resident applications in order to reduce their backlogs. In addition to this, it was pointed out by the Minister that the IRCC is working to stabilize the processing of its applications so that the backlogs could be reduced and noted that the Canadian government has already allocated an additional $85 million to support the immigration’s goal.