On May 31, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced the launch of category-based selection draws for Express Entry candidates.
Find out if you’re eligible for category-based giveaways
Canada Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship (IRCC) intends to focus on Express Entry Candidates who have a solid command of the French language or work experience in the following fields:
- Health care
- Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers
- Trades, such as carpenters, plumbers, and contractors
- Transport
- Agriculture and agri-food
These categories were chosen based on labor market information and projections, and input received from IRCC partners, provinces and territories, and stakeholders across the country.
Category-based giveaways are expected to start sometime this summer.
Why was healthcare chosen as a category?
Canada relies heavily on immigration to fill vacant positions in the healthcare system. In the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2022, there were 143,695 open positions in the Health and Social Care category, bringing the vacancy rate to 6%. This is the sector with the highest number of job vacancies in Canada.
A quarter of all registered nurses and 36% of doctors in Canada were born outside the country. Despite this, foreign-trained medical professionals often have difficulty obtaining accreditation from Canadian authorities, making it difficult for healthcare professionals to find work in their field.
In response, IRCC is taking steps to make it easier for foreign-trained healthcare workers to immigrate to Canada, such as removing some of the barriers for doctors already in Canada in a temporary resident visa.
Who is eligible for the health care occupations category?
To be eligible under the new category for health professionals, you must:
What are the occupations?
There are 35 occupations in the health care occupations category. Some of these occupations include:
- dentists
- General practitioners and family practitioners
- masseurs
- Nursing aides, stretcher bearers, and patient service associates
- optometrists
- physiotherapists
- Respiratory Therapists, Clinical Perfusionists, and Cardiopulmonary Technologies
- Surgery specialists
- Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and acupuncturists
- vets
What are the Express Entry category-based invitation rounds based on?
IRCC explains that for category-based invitation rounds, they will invite candidates who are eligible for a specific category. IRCC will invite candidates to apply for permanent residence based on criteria such as:
Category-based sweepstakes build on general and program-specific sweepstakes by inviting the best candidates who can help meet financial goals.
Will candidates be ranked using CRS?
Express Entry candidates in the pool are ranked using a points-based system called Comprehensive rating system (CRS). The CRS evaluates a candidate based on human capital factors, looking at age, education, language skills, work experience, and more.
This score will still be relevant when sending invitations for category-based giveaways, as IRCC will send invitations to the highest ranking categories that are eligible for the category being entered in that drawing.
reference: www.cicnews.com