Finally, some good long-awaited news for foreign workers. The Federal Skilled Worker and Canadian Experience Class of Express Entry which have been on pause for more than a year now are going to resume soon.

Apparently, this is due to the labour shortages that employers are facing since entry of immigrants through these 2 important immigration pathways that were paused due to Covid lockdowns throughout the world. In September of 2021, 1,11,900 immigrants entered Canada through the high skilled processing streams, but in 2022, only 48000 immigrants entered the country till March. Immigration is the most important way to fill the labour shortages in the country. The Minister for Immigration, Sean Fraser announced the restart of the important streams from July with Invitations to Apply for Permanent Residence starting to be sent out in early July.

Travel Restrictions and lockdown measures throughout 2020 and 2021 had put a lot of pressure on the Immigration Office with a huge number of applications in the processing que. Officers are still faced with a massive backlog. As a fallout the Immigration Office found it prudent to apply a temporary pause on these economic streams. CEC (Canadian Experience Class) was paused mid of 2021 while FSWP (Federal Skilled Workers) didn’t see a draw ever since January of 2021. The Immigration Office did rely on the Canadian Experience Class Stream to offer ITA’s to workers inside Canada with historical draws that saw massively reduced CRS scores and huge intake sizes of even 27000 in February and March of 2021

But this move of pausing the Federal Skilled Worker Stream that brings in foreign talent to Canada resulted in foreign applicants being left in a lurch. Most had paid their agents to get their profiles in the Express Entry Pool. No draws meant that their profiles expired, money wasted and loss of a good chance of immigration. Even one year rising in age means a loss of precious 5 points that could be a game changer for many.

This announcement of re-start of the crucial immigration streams has brought much relief to applicants worldwide who had been speculating and waiting anxiously. For many around the world, Canada is a dream of a better life and better economic conditions. For employers too, this is good news as many have been struggling with availability of skills issues as they had traditionally been relying on the two economic streams to fill vacant positions.