Blog Posting: Express Entry Program

Over the past month, the federal government has revealed further details regarding the Express Entry Program. Essentially the Program will be a catchall for the remaining Economic Classes including the Federal Skilled Worker Class; Provincial Nominees; and the Canadian Experience Class. Applicants will submit an online profile by which they will be assessed points based on the well known criteria of: age; work experience; language ability; and education. Additional points will be assessed based on Canadian work experience (very likely only skilled work experience will result in points); an offer of arranged employment; and being selected as a provincial nominee.

The initial points scale indicates that provincial nominees will obtain proportionately large amount of points for their nomination. Similarly, persons with arranged employment also will receive a large amount of points for having this status. The arranged employment will either be through an unspecified and untested matching system through the National Job Bank or through the Labour Market Impact Assessment process. Either way, it is difficult to discern at this time how the matching process is going to work practically especially given the low number of LMIAs now being issued, which would rule out widespread use of Arranged Employment through that route.

In any event, after the online profile is created, Applicants will be thrown into a pooled lottery system. If their points meet the cutoff for selection for the amount of persons selected in the draw and they meet eligibility requirements, such as having an LMIA in their name from their employer, , they will be selected and invited to apply for permanent residence.

The new system is supposed to be operational starting on January 1, 2015, however, given previous delays in rolling out of other widespread changes under this government, it would not surprise anyone if rollout is delayed. Nevertheless, we have been advising all of our client, if they are now eligible for permanent residence, to apply prior to the new program wiping out the old classes of immigration. Their remains substantial ambiguity and debate to how certain individuals will be affected by the new provisions. For instance, there is a possibility that provincial nominees and NAFTA work permit holders will require new LMIAs from their employers to be invited under this program. At this time, we hope this is an unintentional drafting error that will be rectified by the government shortly, however if it remains the case then this could cause widespread issues for employers and applicants as these individuals, at present, can obtain work permits without positive LMIAs.

It also seems difficult to square the need for LMIAs for applicants under the Express Entry system with the much more difficult process to obtain LMIAs from Service Canada for employers. One wonders if in the effort to score cheap political points in limiting the foreign worker program if Minister Kenney has not undercut the projected “big idea” initiative of Minister Alexander who claims that, in part because of the Express Entry program, Canada will see its highest volume of educated, economically viable immigrants in 2015. Whatever happens with the program, with an election coming up, and given the government’s well known blustery style and suspect methodology it would be wise to heed the famous quotation “There are three types of lies – lies, damn lies, and statistics” before pasing judgement on the effectiveness of these changes.