Express Entry selection system for immigration to Canada

In a comprehensive and informative report, Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees Canada (IRCC, formerly known as CIC) has provided valuable insights on the first 12 months of the Express Entry selection system for immigration to Canada, which came into operation on January 1, 2015.

The end-of-year report provides a range of highly useful information for Express Entry candidates for immigration to Canada. The data given in the report covers the entirety of 2015, encompassing the first 23 draws (also known as rounds of invitations), while also providing a snapshot of the composition of the pool taken from a data extract on January 3, 2016. CICNews.com has published a series of articles analyzing this report. In addition to this article, there are also articles covering Canadian provinces and the Comprehensive Ranking System.

Focus on occupations

CWC Immigration Consultant

In the run-up to the launch of Express Entry, the government of Canada stated that the new system would ensure that

Canada’s economic and labour market needs are met. For the Express Entry system, as compared with previous systems, intake caps for specific occupations were done away with.

Express Entry is intended to be a flexible system that is more responsive to the immediate needs of Canadian employers and provinces. As such, eligible candidates who obtain a qualifying job offer (supported by a Labour Market Impact Assessment) or provincial nomination certificate are issued an ITA at a subsequent draw from the pool, regardless of their occupation. It should be noted, however, that a job offer is not required in order for a candidate to receive an ITA. Indeed, at least 40% of all ITAs issued in 2015 were issued to candidates who did not have a job offer.

The top 10 most invited occupations made up 10,685 (or 38%) of the total number of ITAs issued. These occupations were:

NOC 6311	Food Service Supervisors	8%
NOC6322	Cooks	8%
NOC2171	Information Systems Analysts and Consultants	4%
NOC2173	Software Engineers	3%
NOC2174	Computer Programmers and Interactive Media Developers	3%
NOC4011	University professors and Lecturers	3%
NOC6211	Retail Sales Supervisors	2%
NOC5241	Graphic Designers and illustrators	2%
NOC1111	Financial Auditors and Accountants	2%
NOC1112	Financial and Investment Analysts	2%

IT professionals (NOCs beginning with 21) and business and finance professionals (NOCs beginning with 11) have been successful at obtaining ITAs. According to IRCC, these candidates often have high human capital with no valid job offer, while candidates with NOCs beginning with 63 are more likely to have first arrived in Canada on a work permit and later obtained a job offer.