In late 2020 and early 2021, the Canadian government closed off Express Entry invitations for the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) and Federal Skilled Trade (FST) immigration programs. Since then, those channels have remained dormant, allowing the IRCC to deal with the COVID-induced backlog of immigration applications. 

Until now.

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser recently announced that Express Entry would reopen to applicants in those programs in early July, alongside more generous post-graduate work permits. 

If you’re looking to apply for permanent residency in the next year, you’ll need to be prepared by the time July comes around. Here’s why it’s more important than ever to be ready for an ‘Invitation to Apply’ from the IRCC, and how to ensure your application is successful.

For a complete breakdown of Express Entry, check out our guide.

An optimistic future with short-term challenges

The government have made no secret of the fact that they’re interested in increasing immigration to Canada. Immigration targets for the ‘Federal High Skilled’ category (of which things like CEC and FSW are a part) will reach a record-high 111,500 for 2024 alone. 

That’s in large part thanks to the incredibly high number of vacancies, but also to the unemployment rate for recent immigrants, which is at a “historic low”. Highly skilled workers from outside of the country are desperately needed to fill those roles. 

Why Express Entry in 2022 presents a serious challenge

In simple terms – why is Express Entry competitive in 2022? The pool is larger than ever, and the number of invitations on offer has been cut in half. 

A skills gap doesn’t change the fact that in the short term, it’s going to be more challenging to receive an invitation through Express Entry. IRCC have made a dent in their backlog, but the remaining work means that their target for Federal High Skilled invitations in 2022 is just 55,900. That’s almost half of the invitations they’d originally planned. 

Will the CRS score come down in 2022, or increase?

It’s a safe bet that the criteria for success with Express Entry will be more demanding to reflect the IRC’s workload. In a competitive environment, the cutoff for the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS – the score that determines Express Entry success or failure) will likely increase. 

In fact, we can almost be sure it will – a memo from the IRCC released in March of this year explains: 

“…the minimum CRS score necessary to receive an invitation to apply would likely rise above 500 and remain high.” 

For some context, the cutoff in 2019 hovered around the 450-mark. Many people will need to boost their CRS scores with either a Labour Market Impact Assessment or a Provincial Nomination in order to have a competitive score.

The risks of Express Entry application errors

It should come as no surprise that IRCC’s tolerance for incomplete or erroneous applications will be lower than ever. We’ve said elsewhere on the site that it’s easier for them to reject an application than to ask for information that’s missing. 

If you’re lucky enough to be considered but miss your chance because of an avoidable mistake, you could face delays – or have to wait for a future draw. 

That applies even after you’ve received an invitation – you’ve got just 90 days to complete the application for permanent residency. IRCC can ask for updated travel history documents, too, giving you just seven days to respond. 

If you don’t have all your documents in order, you may have to start again.

Getting yourself invitation-ready

In simple terms – what do you need to receive an invitation to apply? After making sure that you’re eligible, you’ll need to create a complete application. Applying early and increasing your CRS score can help, but without the right documents at the right time, you’ll be less likely to succeed. 

Are you eligible for Canadian Experience Class, FSW or FST?

What steps can you take to improve your chances at receiving an invitation, then? 

Before you do anything else, make sure that you are eligible to apply through Express Entry. You’d be surprised at how many people spend money on education assessments and language tests, only to find out that they weren’t eligible for CEC, FSW or FST. In 2015, it was 43.2% of profiles. That’s a costly waste of time.

Just because you’re not eligible for those programs doesn’t mean Canada is closed to you – plenty of options exist. Check out our blog to learn more about the different immigration programs on offer or our Canada Express Entry Consultant page for more information!

Prepare a complete application

To avoid the disappointment of a rejected application. For an invitation to apply that fails because of missing documents or documents that do not meet the requirements. It’s crucial to ensure that you’ve got everything that will be requested throughout the application process.

If you’re one of the lucky ones that receive an invitation to apply in 2022. You’ll want to have everything in order ahead of time. Some documents can take a while to gather. You’ll need police reports from any country you spent more than six months in since you turned 18, for example. 

Those are required for Express Entry, and you risk having your application rejected or delayed.

Confusingly, the ICRC’s instructions telling you what to include are far from clear – or complete – even in 2022.

Enter the pool as early as possible

Thanks to something known as the ‘tie-breaker rule’, Express Entry can occasionally be a first-come-first-served situation. If your CRS score matches that of another applicant, they’ll look at who applied first to decide who gets through. 

If you still need to get in the pool of over 200,000 but are likely to get a high CRS score, enter soon.

Add to your CRS score

The higher your CRS score, the more likely you are to receive an invitation through Express Entry. That’s especially true in 2022. There are myriad ways to increase it that a professional will be able to identify, but you’ll find a good outline of your options in the CRS section of our Express Entry guide. 

Start preparing for the return of Express Entry today

July’s just around the corner, and if you’re not already in the Express Entry pool. You’ll want to do that as soon as possible. There’s a chance it’ll be easier to receive an invitation in the coming years, but that’s not guaranteed. 

If you’ve already entered the pool. Now is the time to make sure your application is decision-ready should you receive an invitation to apply. There’s still some time to work through this before Express Entry draws begin again. So revisit your application as soon as you can and fill in any gaps!