In a year mired by the COVID-19 crisis, Canada still managed to post some record numbers through its flagship Express Entry system in 2020.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) belatedly released its 2020 Express Entry Report this week. Usually released much earlier in the year, the document offers an insight into the figures behind the main route for immigration to Canada.
The story of 2020 was dominated by the pandemic, with travel restrictions imposed in March and the movement of people all over the work plummeting in response to the spread of the deadly virus.
Canada’s response was the switch to a strategy of inviting candidates already in the country temporarily to apply for permanent residency. This resulted in a swing to the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) as the most popular Express Entry-linked federal program.
Despite the pandemic, 2020 was still record year in many ways for Express Entry, including for invitations issued and profiles submitted.
However, the drop in immigration caused by travel restrictions meant that significantly fewer newcomers arrived in Canada having applied through the system.
Some of the 2020 Express Entry highlights include:
- Total of 360,998 profiles submitted, up 8% on 2019.
- 74% of profiles submitted were eligible for one of the three federal programs, up from 72% in 2019.
- Processing times at least doubled for every Express Entry-linked program.
- Record 107,350 Invitations to Apply (ITAs), up from 85,300 in 2019 and beating 2018 record of 89,800 in 2018.
- More than 67,500 ITAs, or 63%, went to candidates already in Canada.
- Canadian Experience Class overtook Federal Skilled Worker as dominant Express Entry-linked program.
- 47% all ITAs issued to Indian citizens, exactly the same as 2019.
- Admissions through Express Entry dropped to 63,932, from 109,595 in 2019, a drop of 42%.
Despite the pandemic, the number of profiles submitted into the Express Entry pool continued to rise, as it has done since 2015 when Express Entry first opened.
In 2020, nearly 361,000 people submitted Express Entry profiles, up from just over 332,000 in 2019, showing the continued and growing interest in immigrating to Canada from all over the world.
That so many profiles were submitted in a year when many people had their minds on other matters due to the pandemic is a stark indication of Canada’s popularity as an immigration destination.
Of those submitted profiles, nearly three-quarters, or 266,658, were eligible for one of Canada’s immigration programs, namely Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Worker, Federal Skilled Trades and parts of the Provincial Nominee Program.
This shows not only an increased number of profiles but also an increase in the quality of candidates looking to come to Canada.
It also shows how some of the changes to the Express Entry points system, such as points for French language ability, Canadian education and for having a sibling in Canada, make more and different candidates eligible for immigration.
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Canada’s processing backlog has become a major story in 2021, with a reported 1.8 million applications in the system.
Signs of this were already emerging in 2020, with processing times jump to 12 months for FSW candidates, three times what they were in 2017.
The processing times were also at least double for the other three Express Entry-link programs, with these figures likely to have gotten worse in 2021.
The good news is that the federal government pledged to spend $85 million on tackling these processing times in 2022 and 2023.
Express Entry Processing Time By Year and Program (In Months)
| Express Entry Program | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| Canadian Experience Class | 4 | 5 | 7 | 8 |
| Federal Skilled Workers | 4 | 6 | 9 | 12 |
| Provincial/Territorial Nominees | 6 | 6 | 9 | 11 |
| Federal Skilled Trades | 6 | 7 | 12 | 16 |
| All Programs | 5 | 5 | 8 | 9 |
* Processing times refer to the time in which 80 per cent of applications were finalized by IRCC
As already mentioned, the pandemic also resulted in a significant shift in the most popular programs for invitations through Express Entry.
In 2020, the Federal Skilled Worker Program was knocked off top spot for the first time, with the Canadian Experience Class dominating invitations, a trend that has grown significantly in 2021.
IRCC made the move to program-specific draws for CEC and Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) draws in March, as a direct response to pandemic restrictions.
Candidates who qualify for these programs are much more likely to already be living and working in Canada.
Although all-program draws had returned by September, the change was still enough to influence the numbers. Meanwhile, in 2021 there has not been a single all-program Express Entry draw, meaning the number of FSW invitations issued was zero as of mid-December.
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The impact of the switch to program-specific draws was also felt in the countries of residence of candidates receiving ITAs. This is a statistic normally topped by foreign nationals already living in Canada, but it was entirely dominated by these candidates in 2020.
Some 63 percent of ITAs issued went to candidates listing Canada as their country of residence. The 67,570 invitations that went to Canadian residents eclipsed second-placed India by more than 55,000.
However, when it came to the countries of citizenship of those receiving ITAs, Indians remained dominant, with 47% all ITAs issued to Indian citizens, exactly the same proportion as 2019.
The year also saw China return to the second-most common country of citizenship, having lost that spot to Nigeria the previous year.
In terms of the top occupations of candidates receiving an ITA, the top three remained dominated by technology jobs, namely software engineers, systems analysts and computer programmers.
However, the fourth occupation on the list represented a major change, with food service supervisors jumping from 12th most popular job in 2019.
This is an indication of where labour shortages are being felt most during the pandemic, with restaurants as the forefront of the struggle to find sufficient qualified staff.
Most Common Primary Occupations On Invitation
| Primary Occupation | Skill type | Invitations |
| 2173 Software engineers and designers | A | 6,665 |
| 2171 Information systems analysts and consultants | A | 4,846 |
| 2174 Computer programmers and interactive media developers | A | 4,661 |
| 6311 Food service supervisors | B | 4,228 |
| 1241 Administrative assistants | B | 4,041 |
| 1111 Financial auditors and accountants | A | 2,623 |
| 1221 Administrative officers | B | 2,366 |
| 1123 Professional occupations in advertising, marketing and public relations | A | 2,327 |
| 1311 Accounting technicians and bookkeepers | B | 2,128 |
| 6211 Retail sales supervisors | B | 2,119 |
| 2282 User support technicians | B | 2,043 |
| 4011 University professors and lecturers | A | 1,823 |
| 2172 Database analysts and data administrators | A | 1,767 |
| 0621 Retail and wholesale trade managers | 0 | 1,699 |
| 1122 Professional occupations in business management consulting | A | 1,680 |
Furthermore, another industry at the sharp end of the labour shortage – retail – also saw a related occupation jump up the list.
From not featuring in the top 15 jobs for at least the previous two years, retail sales supervisors jumped to receiving the 10th highest number of ITAs in 2020. This is another example of the impact of coronavirus on the Canadian immigration system.
As would be expected, Ontario dominated the figures in terms of province of intended destination.
Nearly 48,000 candidates intended to live in Canada’s most populous province saw as per their immigration application, with British Columbia the second-most popular province.
With Canada’s second-largest province, Quebec, not included in Express Entry, Ontario is always likely to dominate these figures.
Perhaps the most surprising on this list was the 1,568 candidates who included Northwest Territories as their province of destination.
Conclusion
Clearly, there is limited worth in reviewing figures for Express Entry in 2020, given we are nearly at the end of 2021.
However, what the figures do show is some of the trends emerging in 2020 that have continued in 2021, namely the shift to all-program draws, increased processing times and the impact of the pandemic on the type of immigrant being invited.
However, the one thing that remains clear from these figures is that Canada remains one of the foremost destinations for skilled immigrants looking to move to a new country.
Despite the pandemic and the resulting immigration and economic slowdown, candidates were still lining up to get their profiles in the Express Entry pool to put themselves in the mix for Canada immigration.
One of the highlights of 2020 was impressive was IRCC was able to nimbly switch the direction of Canada’s immigration system in response to the pandemic.
Just days after travel restrictions were put in place, Canada had changed to program-specific draws to tap those already in the country on a temporary basis.
This continued into 2021, with more program-specific draws and an entirely new TR to PR Pathway for workers and international graduates.
In 2022, there is buzz around the potential for the introduction of NOC-specific invitations through Express Entry, which has never been seen before.
In the Liberal government’s pre-election platform in 2021, reforms to the Express Entry system were promised. With a new immigration minister in place, we can expect to see what form those changes will take early in the new year.
