Canada to resume FSWP and CEC invitations in July
This week, the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, officially announced that Express Entry draws under the federal high-skilled streams will resume in early July. This includes the: Canadian experience class (CEC), federal skilled worker class (FSWP), and federal skilled trades class (FSTP).
This is a relief for certain candidates since Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has not invited CEC candidates since September 2021. Moreover, we haven’t seen an FSWP draw since December 2020.
IRCC also noted that new applications under these streams will be processed within the 6-month service standard. “The federal high-skilled processing inventory has been cut by more than half,” added IRCC. The inventory decreased from approximately 111,900 people in September 2021 to just 48,000 people by March 2022. Moreover, IRCC plans to reduce the inventory by July 2022, which will allow them to return to the service standards that clients expect.
Open-work permit extension
On Friday, April 22, the Minister also announced that starting in summer 2022, those with an expiring PGWP between January and December 2022 will qualify for an additional open work permit of up to 18 months. IRCC is working on a simplified process and will provide further details “in the weeks ahead”. You can read more about this in the following article:
Other major changes
The minister ended the announcement with the following policy changes taking effect this summer:
- Applicants will no longer be required to remain in Canada throughout the entire time their application is being processed.
- Applicants who also apply for an open work permit while they wait for their permanent residence application to be processed will be able to get work permits that are valid until the end of 2024. This will ensure all permanent residence applications will be finalized before applicants need to apply to extend their temporary status again.
- To support family reunification, the immediate family members included in a principal applicant’s permanent residence application who are outside of Canada will be eligible to get their own open work permit.
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