Having No Job Offer is not a Problem Anymore: A Confirmation by Latest Express Entry Report

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has released new statistics, which reveal that almost 90 percent of Express Entry candidates having no job offer received an Invitation to Apply (ITA) during the first half of 2017. This move has prominently favored the candidates with higher human capital scores by awarding them a major share of ITAs.

Human capital factors play a key role in calculating the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of a candidate. These factors include age, education, work experience and proficiency in English or French language.

Apart from this, there were some other changes, which relates to the addition of points for Canadian study, an increased time limit for filing a complete application after receiving an ITA and broadening the spectrum of a qualifying job.

The comparison drawn by the IRCC regarding the Impacts of these changes duly confirms the following:

• These changes are responsible for the shifts in the occupations and citizenship of candidates who received the ITAs
• Because of these changes, the number of profiles necessary for the Express Entry pool has increased
• The percentage of those invited candidates who got their degree in Canada has also raised up to 40%.
• The percentage of invited candidates having no job offer increased from 62% to 90%.
• The percentage of candidates invited to apply under Federal Skilled Worker has also increased from 25% to 48%.

Increased Number of Skilled Worker ITAs

According to IRCC, after the reduction in job offer points, the candidates in the Express Entry pool are relying on their human capital scores with a view to receive an ITA. Before the CRS modifications, only 45% of all the candidates receiving an ITA, scored less than 400 CRS points. This figure has dropped to 11% since the introduction of CRS improvements. The average CRS score of invited candidates was 417 during first five months of 2017.

Now when the Canadian job offers have less importance, some other elements have gained prominence with reference to improve the CRS score of a candidate. These factors include Provincial Nominee Programs, which can still provide an additional 600 CRS points. The data reveals that in the first half of 2017, almost 3,722 ITAs were issued to Express Entry candidates with provincial nominations.

[Read more about: Manitoba Introduces New Changes to its Provincial Nominee Program]

The November 2016 changes have some other positive impacts including the 48% increase in the ITAs for the candidates in the Federal Skilled Worker Class. The FSW candidates used to receive 25% of the ITAs via Express Entry before the introduction of CRS changes.

Attorney David Cohen, a senior partner at the immigration law firm Cohen Campbell shared his thoughts in the following words.

“IRCC’s findings confirm what we’ve been witnessing in Express Entry, namely the system’s growing emphasis on human capital scores”.

Extension in the Time Limit for Application

The time limit extension has also played its role in providing more candidates with higher CRS scores. The IRCC confirms the benefit of giving extended time (90 Days) to the invited candidates. According to a study, the extension in time to submit the application for permanent residence provides maximum time to the candidates for collecting required documents and submitting a thoroughly complete application.

During a period of 11 months before the introduction of changes, 10% of overall applicants missed the deadline. The IRCC confirms that the addition of 30 days has minimized the instances of late submissions to 2%.