In a recent interview with the Apply Board, immigration minister Sean Fraser revealed that the IRCC department is willing to restart the invitations for skilled workers by this spring.
The virtual meeting was held for the discussion on international students. In between the interview, one of the ministers proposed creating a PR program for temporary foreign workers and international students.
At last, Minister was interviewed concerning resuming the draws for Federal High Skilled candidates.
The candidates under the Federal High Skilled category are eligible for three different programs such as CEC, FSTP, and FSWP.
The candidates eligible for these programs were not able to apply as IRCC arrested the Express entry draws for the FSWP program since December 2020 and CEC draws since September 2021.
Although Minister Sean Fraser did not mention any particular date regarding the FSWP draws but emphasized IRCC’s anticipation to resume the draws in “sometime this spring.”
He also mentioned the Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) in his interview. He said that the people with PGWP on its expiration threshold could not apply for Immigration without an Invitation to Apply (ITA).
Those PGWP holders became eligible for the Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP), with which they can legally stay in the country and be able to work even after the expiration of PGWP.
As there is no way to renew or extend the PGWP, therefore after its expiration, the candidate has to apply for a different work permit. Otherwise, as per the laws, he has to leave his job, or he could be forced to leave the country.
On this, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser stated that the department is looking for a way to tackle the PGWP situation as the country doesn’t want to lose talented individuals. Further, he added that the department would discuss it in more detail shortly.
The reasons why FSWP draws were put to rest
Prior to covid, the FSWP program was the most popular program used by individuals to apply for PRs. IRCC used to invite more and more FSWP candidates as these constitute a large portion of the Express Entry pool.
However, IRCC has to pause the FSWP draws due to the rising pandemic in march 2020.
The Canadian government locked its border for international immigrants with some exemptions. Nobody was allowed to complete their PR landing.
Until June 2021, the government stopped approving the candidates for PR as during the covid situation, it would be difficult for the FSWP candidate to complete their PR landing, and in the meantime, their Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) validity may end. Thus, the candidate could not immigrate to Canada with invalid documents.
Meanwhile, IRCC focused on the candidates already present in Canada to achieve the immigration goal during pandemic restriction.
In order to achieve its goal, IRCC created a new pathway named Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence (TR2PR) and organized the Express Entry draws for CEC candidates.
Due to this, the Immigration applications in the backlog grew extensively. With a huge number of FSWP and CEC applications, the department fails to meet its 6 -month standard processing time.
The recent IRCC data suggest that this year, the application processing time for FSWP could reach up to 36 months. However, Canada’s official website is still displaying six months of processing time. On which the immigration minister earlier expressed it as a webpage issue and said that the government is trying to fix this shortly.
Reason to stop CEC draws
Last year, IRCC invited A large number of CEC candidates throughout the year. In February 2021, the department sent nearly 27,332 invitations to all the candidates in the express entry pool.
IRCC invited the CEC candidate with a minimum CRS score of 75.
IRCC invited roughly 6,000 candidates every two weeks during the following months.
Like FSWP inventory, the CEC inventory also hiked the backlog and posed the processing challenge to the department. Thus, the IRCC department stopped organizing the CEC draws. And the department utilized the time to process the backlog inventory applications.
According to both internal records and the Canada official website, the standard processing time for CEC applications is about seven months.
Present Express Entry status
Presently, IRCC is inviting the PNP candidates via express Entry twice a month.
For receiving the nomination, the applicant must qualify for one of the Federal high-skilled programs.
With the invitation, they got 600 points added to their CRS score and the chance for the invitation to the PNP-specific round.
As per the internal reposts, IRCC will continue these PNP invitations; meanwhile, the department processes the backlogs.
Advancement within the backlogs
Recent inventory data suggests that the department is showing advancement in processing the backlogs. Until mid-march, IRCC processed around 4,000 FSWP applications from the backlog, which is much more than it processed within seven months in 2021.
More immigrants landed in the country in 2022 as compared to 2021.
As of March 15, only 10,400 CEC applications remained in the backlog. IRCC is aiming to cut down the backlog by this spring.
New Memo By IRCC
A new memorandum released by IRCC suggests that candidates whose work permits are up for renewal would go on facing uncertainty for receiving their invitation to apply ( ITA ) in the short term.
In 2022, When ITA rounds will restart, these candidates can check their CRS score for the required minimum CRS score needed for ITA.
IRCC has made notable changes to the new memorandum. It notifies IRCC’s position and aim of resuming invitations for FSWP and CEC candidates.
IRCC will continue the pause until the end of March and may extend as needed to cut down the backlog. However, IRCC is looking forward to restarting the Express Entry Draw for FSWP and CEC this year.
Importance of Resuming the FSWP and CEC draws for this year
To achieve the target of Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024, IRCC has to organize the ITA round for 2022.
A PR application for an Express Entry candidate requires nearly a year.
Once the nominee gets an ITA, they have two months to apply for the PR. After applying, the department takes six months to process it. After approval, you have a specific amount of time in which you have to land in the country.
Thus, IRCC has to resume the Express Entry draw for FSWP and CEC to achieve its goal.
In addition to this, the IRCC department has to tackle the situation where workers are losing their status in the country.
On this issue- Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said that he is unwilling to see the people losing their jobs. He doesn’t want the people to let go who are contributing to the country in any way and the one who doesn’t want to leave.
Further, he added that he is trying to overcome the labor shortage by welcoming immigrants to the country.
