After a one week delay, Immigration Refugees Citizenship Canada (IRCC) conducted Federal Express Entry draw #166 under the Federal Skilled Workers (FSW) program. As in the last few draws, 4,500 invitations to apply (ITAs) were issued. The Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score increased quite a bit for this draw, to 478, which was an 8 point draw from the October 14th draw. Candidates are eligible for a maximum of 1200 CRS Points through Express Entry.
The last few weeks have been very busy with Canadian Immigration. First, on October 27th, IRCC announced that express entry candidates will receive additional points if they are French-speaking and/or bilingual. Under the Express Entry online system French-speaking candidates were awarded a maximum of 15 Comprehensive Ranking Score (CRS) points and bilingual candidates would be eligible for up to 30 points. With the change, the current number of points will increase to 25 points for French-speaking candidates and 50 points for bilingual candidates. This will definitely help to increase Francophone immigration outside Quebec.
Second, on October 30th, announced Canada announced its multi-year immigration plan for 2021, 2022 and 2022, which aims to continue welcoming immigrants at a rate of about 1% of the population of Canada, including 401,000 permanent residents in 2021, 411,000 in 2022 and 421,000 in 2023. This is an increase of approximately 200,000 new immigrants for the next 3 years, as a result of the pandemic slowing immigration down for many months.
The Federal Skilled Worker Express Entry program continues to be the fastest and most popular way to immigrate to Canada. If you are thinking about applying for Express Entry, do not delay your application! Complete our free online assessment and someone from our office will get back to you! Poonah Immigration Law Firm for more information.
