Express Entry system is what was referred to before as Expression of Interest system, announced more than a year ago.
EOI works in two steps. Prospective immigrants would indicate their interest in coming to Canada by providing information electronically about their skills, work experience and other attributes. Individuals who meet certain eligibility criteria will have their “expressions of interest” placed in a pool and ranked against others already in the pool. CIC would only invite the best candidates, including those with in-demand skills or with job offers, to apply for a visa. Expressions of interest that are not chosen after a period of time may be removed from the pool. As a result, application backlogs would not accumulate and processing times will be kept to a minimum. [Source:cic.gc.ca]Express Entry will be open to skilled immigrants and allow the government to select the best candidates who are most likely to succeed in Canada, rather than those who happen to be first in line. It will also prevent backlogs and allow Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to better coordinate application volume with the annual immigration levels plan, according to CIC's news release today.
Those chosen will be processed within six months or less! If this will be the case, this is express indeed! Express Entry system will be offered in four key economic streams: the Federal Skilled Worker Program, Federal Skilled Trades Program, Canadian Experience Class, and a portion of the PNP. [Source: cic.gc.ca]
Express Entry system is not a replacement for the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), which will end this April 30, 2014. But will Citizenship and Immigration Canada announce a new list of in-demand occupations and accept applications under FSWP between May 1, 2014 up to December 31, 2014?. Probably not. But when they do, it probably would be just an extension of the current list of 24 in-demand occupations and may just accept a max of 100 applications per occupation and a maximum of 5,000 applications only. This is of course just a wild guess. But let's see. :-)
