Federal Express Entry Q1 2020: Great First Quarter In Spite Of Coronavirus

04 Apr 2020

There was a higher number of Express Entry applicants invited to apply for Canada PR in the opening quarter of 2020 when compared with the opening quarters of the two prior years.

Though coronavirus is transforming the landscape of Canada immigration, the year began off looking like it would be a great year for the Federal Express Entry. The 2020-2022 Plan of Immigration Levels was published less than a week prior to Canada started executing coronavirus preventive measures. Canadian target for 2020 was fixed at 341,000 new immigrants, in those 91,800 were estimated to be Highly Skilled workers and 67,800 were estimated to be invited by provincial nominee programs.

Express Entry draws were continuously conducted every two weeks since the initial draw of 2020 held on 8 January. After Canada executed specific measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus Canada conducted an Express Entry draw on 18 March 2020 that solely invited provincial nominees. Canada conducted another outstanding draw 5 days later that is on 23 March 2020, invited applicants from the immigration program of Canadian Experience Class.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (I.R.C.C) tweeted that Express Entry Invitation rounds are still occurring and they will be allowing and processing applications. They also stated that applicants invited to apply now will be expected not to have their applications processed for a minimum of six months.

So far in 2020, there were 22,600 principal appellants in the pool of Express Entry were announced Invitations to Apply (ITAs) for Canada PR. By this point of time in 2019, Canada had announced 21,200 ITAs for Canada PR, and in 2018 it was 17, 500 ITAs for Canada PR. The opening quarter of 2017 produced more ITAs that are 24,632.

Enhanced PNP Draws

Provinces in Canada have been practicing their enhanced Provincial Nominee Programs to choose Express Entry applicants for Canada PR. Practically all provinces and territories, excluding Nunavut and Quebec, have enhanced programs.

Enhanced PNP's work in association with Federal Express Entry. They permit provincial governments to choose Express Entry applicants who promote their population and labor market objects. They also have a lower processing time than provincial base programs that run separately from Federal Express Entry.

Ontario conducted 3 draws in this preceding quarter by two immigration streams: Stream of Human Capital Priorities (HCP), and the stream of French-Speaking Skilled Workers (FSSW).

The FSSW stream was the primary Ontario PNP draw of 2020. On 9 January 2020 Ontario invited 242 french-speaking applicants to apply for an Ontario provincial nomination. The two HCP Streams invited a huge total of 1,440 Express Entry applicants to apply for an Ontario provincial nomination.

The Alberta PNP held 5 draws in this quarter by the Alberta Express Entry Stream. Alberta PNP’s enhanced stream has announced 751 invitations so far in 2020.

Provinces such as Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Manitoba, and PEI have also been publishing the draw results of their Express Entry-Associated streams.

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