Canada’s immigration department has confirmed most new Express Entry applications will be processed in 6 months.

Prior to the pandemic, the Canadian government aimed to process most Express Entry immigration applications within six months.Due to the pandemic, however, applicants have had to wait much longer.

Non-Canadian Experience Class (CEC) Express Entry applicants are waiting well over 20 months on average for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to finalize their permanent residence applications.

Fortunately, IRCC has recently confirmed it will soon be processing most new Express Entry applications within six months. This will take effect once IRCC resumes Express Entry invitations to Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), CEC, and Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) candidates in early July.

• The normalization of Express Entry in early July is major news for several reasons. First, Express Entry is the main way IRCC welcomes skilled workers to Canada. Permanent residence invitations to FSWP candidates have been temporarily paused since December 2020 while CEC candidates have not received invitations since September 2021, but this will no longer be the case come July.
• The FSWP was the main way Canada welcomed skilled immigrants between 1967 and the start of the pandemic, while the CEC accounted for one-third of the record-breaking 405,000 immigrants Canada landed in 2021. Resuming invitations for these two programs will provide hundreds of thousands of candidates with the opportunity to achieve their goal of gaining Canadian permanent residence.

The resumption of draws is also welcome news for Canadian employers. Statistics Canada reports Canada has over 800,000 job vacancies and its lowest unemployment rate on record. Employers need more immigrant talent to help address their worker shortages. That Express Entry is returning to normal and most new applications will be processed within six months means that employers will have access to more talent in the near future, which will be crucial to supporting Canada’s post-pandemic economic recovery.