Immigration in Canada – Express Entry: two months into the launch

We are two months into the launch of Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s (“CIC”) Express Entry system for managing certain applications for permanent residence. The new system has come under serious fire and there is pressure on the government from the Canadian Bar Association and affected stakeholders to change the way the system works and impacts foreign nationals. So, what have we seen so far? 

Four draws from the pool of candidates have taken place from January 1, 2015 to February 27, 2015; all of which have selected applicants with Comprehensive Ranking System (“CRS”) scores of at least 735-886 points. Since applicants cannot score more than 600 points without a Labour Market Impact Assessment (“LMIA”) – formerly known as the Labour Market Opinion (“LMO”) – or a qualifying provincial nomination, we know that every foreign national chosen to date possesses a LMIA or provincial nomination. Anyone without one is left waiting in the pool, regardless of how much education, Canadian and/or foreign experience, skills and talent they have that could benefit our labour market.

In total, just over 3,700 applicants have been selected and invited to apply for permanent residence. In 2014, CIC planned to admit about 15,000 foreign nationals under the Canadian Experience Class alone, not including the numbers under the Federal Skilled Worker, Federal Skilled Trades and Provincial Nominee Programs. If CIC continues at the current rate of selection, it will only invite about 18,000 foreign nationals under Express Entry in 2015, which isn’t much when stacked against the anticipated 65,000 Express Entry invitations it hopes to issue (out of its 250,000 annual immigration target for new permanent residents). With little transparency from CIC on what it is thinking, the best guess is that CIC is slowly edging into the program to give itself a chance of meeting its 6 month processing time promise.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  Express Entry: What Have We Seen So Far? | Dale & Lessmann LLP | Canadian Legal Counsel.