The Conference Board of Canada supports Canada’s move to lower the requirements for immigration scores as this will allow more people to gain permanent residency, ultimately leading to Canada achieving its immigration target for 2021. High immigration levels lead to higher economic growth, improves the ratio of the working population compared to retirees and results in lower labor market shortages for important skills.
According to Ian Reeve of the Conference Board, immigration will be critical in restoring the functioning of several key sectors affected by the global pandemic. Therefore, the government has good reason to maintain high immigration levels despite the ongoing travel restrictions imposed due to Covid-19.
How Have the CRS Immigration Scores Dropped?
The government body of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) surprised everyone by inviting 27,332 applicants with a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score requirement of just 75 points on February 13, 2021. This was 5 times more invitations with a score requirement of roughly 5 times lower compared to the usual.
IRCC feels that it is important to retain talented and experienced foreign workers to help the economy recover post-pandemic. Therefore, they have shifted their focus entirely on encouraging temporary residents to transition to permanent residence.
That is why in the latest Express Entry draws, IRCC is targeting applicants to the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) who are already residing in Canada and can integrate quickly into the community as they have prior work experience in Canada.
It seems that the IRCC will maintain this low requirement for immigration score for the remaining duration of the pandemic. This means that the IRCC will not be hindered by the existing travel restrictions that would otherwise prevent selected applicants from traveling to Canada.
