On 28 February, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) provided the data which states that Canada’s economic class immigration backlog bears 231,187 people who are waiting for the decisions for their applications.
The economic class inventory at the start of February includes 230,573 persons, which increased by a total of 614 persons. It’s clear from the data that last month’s progress has been made. More detailed analysis suggested that the Federal Skilled Worker Program inventories and the Canadian Experience Class are the reason for the rise in data.
Economic class inventory goes down due to the TR2PR program.
Since October, The economic class applicants in the backlog were reduced by 24,400.
The other economic class pathways were gaining, which slowed down these gains. The Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence (TR2PR) program and non-Express Entry PNP streams were the major reason for the rise. The number of base (PNP) Provincial Nominee Program applicants in IRCC’s inventory increased by 4,685. The Base PNPs program is a paper-based program, due to which it takes much time to process applicants in comparison to enhanced PNP streams. The enhanced PNP streams are aligned with Express Entry; therefore, they enjoy faster processing as the applications are submitted via an electronic medium.
The (TR2PR) Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence program was shut to applications since November. However, it encountered a rise of 14,153 people between December 2021 and February 2022.
We wonder why the TR2PR program has undergone such a remarkable increase even after the program has shut. The reason for this could be IRCC has recently started to examine the TR2PR program applications, and therefore, only now have they been counted towards the department’s inventory.
The Progress of IRCC on FSWP and CEC inventories
Express Entry-The managed program inventories are lowered over the board.
The express Entry has experienced the most noteworthy progress among all economic class pathways, falling by 23,748 persons in December. A decline in the express Entry inventory was observed. It was at 119,389 persons in December and is reduced to 95,641 persons by February.
Only in February, the Class inventory was witnessed to fall down by the Canadians by 3,051 persons, and the Federal Skilled Worker Program inventory was noticed to be decreased by 4,314 persons.
When Express Entry draws were paused for everyone except the PNP candidates, this was highly observed by the future immigrants. The backlog in applications boosted the processing times above the six months standard, even though IRCC’s website continues to outline the processing standard as six months. The Internal IRCC documents suggest that the department is willing to lower its inventory enough to meet the processing standard and then restart the Express Entry draws for candidates in other programs.
If we look into the data, between 15 December 2021 and 28 February 2022, the number of (CEC) Canadian Experience Class applicants who were waiting on decisions has dropped by 12,587, and the (FSWP) Federal Skilled Worker Program inventory is decreased by 9,092.
This data suggests that IRCC processed more FSWP applicants in these two and a half months. It was way more than the whole 2021 year.
The IRCC processed around 600 FSWP applicants per month during the second half of the year 2021. The recent data indicates around an eight-fold increase in the number of applications of FSWP, which is now being processed every month.
According to the survey, IRCC slowed down FSWP processing last year. It was mainly to move many Canadian immigrations applicants to permanent resident status, largely via the CEC program. This procedure was implemented as the department felt this would help to achieve its goal of landing over 400,000 immigrants in 2021. Accordingly, the goal was achieved, and it broke the record of Canada’s annual immigration data.
It was mainly to move many Canadian immigrations applicants to permanent resident status, largely via the CEC program.
The CEC backlog would reduce to zero by the summer, and the FSWP backlog would be achieved by the end of the year if IRCC continues its present processing rates.
According to a February report, Sean Fraser, the Immigration Minister, focuses on the Express Entry draws for skilled workers. He added it would probably restart in the future. Also, he did not mention any date related to this.
In December, the total Canadian immigration backlog holds around 1.8 million, covering all lines of business which includes citizenship, permanent residence, visitors, and temporary residence. IRCC has reported the rise in its application inventory during the pandemic as it has tried to manage the immigration system in between the challenging environment.
On the basis of Canada’s new immigration Levels plan 2022-2024, it figured out that around 432000 new immigrants will come this year, and by 2024, it is supposed to touch the 450000 new immigrants. The IRCC’s modernization efforts and the Higher immigration goals should notice the immigration backlog gradually lowering from the highs experienced during the pandemic’s peak.
On the basis of Canada’s new immigration Levels plan 2022-2024, it figured out that around 432000 new immigrants will come this year, and by 2024, it is supposed to touch the 450000 new immigrants.
