Express Entry: Immigration Confirms That Application Process Returns To 6 Months Processing Time

Before the pandemic occurred, the goal of the Canadian government is to process most of its Express Entry applications within the span of six months. However, due to the rise of the pandemic, the goal was not reached and applicants had to wait longer than the aimed span of time. On average, applicants under a non-Canadian Experience Class (CEC) Express Entry has to wait for more than 20 months on average for their permanent residence application to be processed by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada.

Recently, the good news was confirmed by the IRCC. It was mentioned that the processing for most of the new Express Entry applications will soon be within six months. It is said that this new processing time will take effect once the IRCC resumes the invitations for Express Entry for Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) in early July. This said normalization of Express Entry is major news for many reasons. Firstly, Express Entry is the main pathway where IRCC welcomes new skilled workers to Canada. Since December 2020, all permanent residence invitations to FSWP has been temporarily paused, while the candidates under CEC haven’t been receiving invitation since September 2021. But this will no longer be the case this coming July. The resumption of invitations for these two programs will help provide hundreds of thousands of candidates with the opportunity of achieving the goal of gaining Canadian permanent residence.