The end of the year Express Entry Program report was made public by the IRCC on 13th December, and the annual report of the year before that was released in the summer. This report tells information regarding who was invited to Canada through the Express Entry system, what effect the Covid-19 pandemic had on the program, and the entire immigration and application system of the country.
Although the number of invitations issued this year under the Express Entry system has hit a record, the number of candidates who gained permanent residency in Canada under this program was the lowest recorded in 3 years.
Under normal conditions, the number of permanent residents entering the country is greater than the invites that have been sent by the IRCC, because a single application can contain a request for Canada PR for a person as well as their family. But in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic saw the admissions of PR applicants through the Express Entry Program decrease to a level below the number of Invitations issued. 107,000 invitations were sent in 2020 compared to the 85,300 Invitations sent out in 2019. But of the invitations sent out in 2020, 63,923 applicants along with their family members gained permanent residency in Canada, this can be compared with 109,601 Canada PR applicants entering Canada in 2019.
The IRCC admits that they were unable to meet the standard for the processing of up to 80% of the Express Entry applications that were submitted within the 6 months. The average processing time had increased to around 9 months, 51% of the applications being processed in 2020 within the 6 months standards.
The Covid-19 pandemic caused IRCC to increase the period of validity of an invitation from 2 months to 90 days, which also allowed the applicants to have more time for the preparation of their final application. Around 36% of the Express Entry applicants made use of the extra time provided but around 49% still submitted their Application within the timeframe of 2 months.
The IRCC says that the Invitations sent out were mostly concentrated on those candidates who were eligible under the Canadian Experience Class as well as those who fulfilled the eligibility criteria of various Provincial Nominee Programs. This is because these candidates were more likely to migrate to Canada as well as less likely to have an impact on the health measure of the country.
The percentage of candidates who were sent Invitations and we’re already in the country at the time also saw an increase from 47% to 63%. The IRCC made this decision because of the increase in the number of invitations sent out for candidates under the Canada Experience Class pathway. The number of candidates invited for India decreased to 10% from 18%, but still more candidates were invited from India in comparison to any other foreign country.
Canada, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, UAE, and the US continue to be the top 6 countries to whom invitations are sent out, with Lebanon making the list of top 10 since the Express Entry Program began in the year 2015. Citizenship was most commonly granted to candidates from India, followed by China.
Express Entry Pool
As is seen in previous years, the number of male candidates on the Express Entry pool continues to be greater than female candidates. The proportion of female candidates in the pool however grew from 41% to 43%. Even if the pool contains fewer female candidates, they are more oily to be eligible under the Express Entry system in at least one immigration program compared to men, as is seen from the trend in the last 2 years. 77% of the female candidates and 71% of the male candidates are eligible under at least one immigration program, says the IRCC.
From the candidates who applied to gain Canada PR, the proportion of male candidates was slightly higher than the female candidates in 202, but both the gender submitted applications most often under the Canada Experience Class program as well as the Federal Skilled Trades Program. In each of these programs, the male candidates were more likely to submit their applications than the female candidates, and this difference was more in the FSTP than in the FSWP.
Tech Talent Leading The Immigration
Following the trend, the jobs in the field of Information Technology, business, and finance continue to be dominating among the applicants for Canadian permanent residency. However, 2020 also saw increased immigration of workers in the foodservice sector as well as supervisors and administrative assistants. The IRCC also states that this may be the result of sending Invitations to the candidates of the CEC programs.
The most common occupation seen among the candidates who received an arranged form of employment was in the field of foodservice and programmers. This too may be the result of CEC-centric Express Entry draws.
Breakdown Of The Comprehensive Ranking System
Although the usual trend is that the applicants in the Express Entry pool score around 351 to 400 in the CRS system, more candidates in 2020 were in the range of 451 to 500. The percentage of candidates in this range increased from 18% to 27%. 27% of the candidates also feel in the 300-250 range of the comprehensive ranking system.
42% of the total invitations to apply that were issued in 2020 were to applicants who had previously completed the sole form of education credential in Canada, another result of the Express Entry draws being CEC centric.
21 of the total 37 Express Entry draws held in 2020 were designed to be based around a specific immigration program by the IRCC. 10 were for the Canada Expression Class program, 10 were for some of the other provincial nominee programs, and one draw was for the Federal Skilled Trades Program. The minimum score for the CEC program-based draw was set in the range of 687-808, for the provincial nominee program it was 431-467 and the cut-off for the draw for FSTP was set at 415.
If only the program-centric Express Entry draws are taken into consideration, the range of the CRS score for 2021 may be slightly higher than it was in 2019. The average CRS score in 2020 was 472, the average in 2019 being 461. The increase in the barrage CRS score tells us that the Express Entry pool will become more competitive in the future.
The number of points that can be awarded to people who can speak French as well as bilingual candidates were also increased by the IRCC. This was to achieve the goal of increasing the immigration of French-speaking immigrants to provinces other than Quebec. This leads to an improvement in the chance of French-speaking candidates receiving an ITA. The percentage of applicants in the Express Entry pool who gained additional points for French-speaking skills increased from 4% to 5%.
