Canada introduced the Express Entry in the year 2015. This program has since become the primary avenue through which the country welcomes people into the country to plug any skill gaps.
Positions in this program are reserved for people applying for economic purposes. Applicants must prove that they have skills or other resources that will benefit the country.
Below is the application process.
The Process
The application process requires you to provide personal details such as education, work experience, and language proficiency. Age is also an important consideration since it indicates how long you will be productive. The younger you are, the higher you will score in this respect.
The system that ranks people at this point is known as the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). Candidates with the highest CRS scores are thereafter invited to apply for permanent residence by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the program with the travel ban that has been in place since March 2020. IRCC has suspended ordinary draws due to the pandemic. However, the process continues for some categories that have been exempted.
Exemptions include people who are already living in Canada. Applicants with relatives who live in Canada can still travel into the country if they qualify for the Express Entry. Other successful applicants in the economic class of migrants will have to wait for the government to lift the travel ban to get into the country.
The travel ban is federal. Therefore, it affects the Federal Skilled Worker Program most adversely. Provincial rotaries for skilled labor haven’t been affected as adversely as the federal programs. All provinces in Canada have local rotaries except for Quebec and Nunavut.
Applicants who live in Canada currently or have lived there are known as the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) in terms of immigration programs. This program is ideal for people who have studied in Canada, who intend to live and work in the country permanently, such as international students.
Unlike previous years, the Express Entry Program, which usually gets the lion’s share of positions, accounts for only a quarter. The authorities reduced the EEP numbers because they recognize the sustained effects of the pandemic on international travel.
IRCC gave more slots to CECs to compensate for the low entries into the country in 2020 that were occasioned by the pandemic. This is because CECs aren’t affected by the travel ban as long as they are in the country.
