IRCC explains why there are no FSWP draws
A recent internal IRCC memo explained why the department is not currently inviting Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) candidates.
According to the memo obtained by CIC News, IRCC stopped FSWP invitations in December 2020 to pursue an aggressive strategy. The strategy was to invite CEC candidates and candidates under the TR to PR pathway. IRCC wanted to support its target of welcoming 401,000 immigrants to Canada.
“This strategy led to significant inventory growth, creating a backlog of applications, and processing times in excess of the service standards for all economic categories.” the memo states.
Express Entry backlogs
The briefing notes the backlog was at about 108,500 as of the date of the note (September 3, 2021). According to CIC, this suggests the Express Entry backlog decreased by about 8,500 applications between Sep. 3rd and Oct. 27 of this year.
At the same point last year (September 2020) the backlog of Express Entry candidates was 62,450 candidates.
IRCC briefing also states that “Adjusting to meet the Afghanistan resettlement objectives has created the need for trade-offs” in other programs. These programs are the Spousal Sponsorship category, CEC, and the TR to PR program. “As a result, the Department now anticipates concluding 2021 with a PR inventory in excess of 760K persons, with 360K in the economic class.”
IRCC mentioned that it will need to reduce the backlog of EE applications by more than half to achieve its processing standard. It was six months or less.
The memo concludes by stating that:
Senior IRCC officials will return to the department’s highest ranking civil servant (i.e., non-political employee) the Deputy Minister Catrina Tapley, in November 2021 with a plan for Express Entry intakes throughout the remainder of 2021, and early 2022, once there is a better sense of the composition of immigrants IRCC will look to target in 2022.
Source: CIC News
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