EE Category based selection draws for 2023

After a long wait to hear the details about how IRCC is changing its flagship Express Entry system, today, Minister Sean Fraser, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, released key details about how Express Entry will be changing for 2023.

On our Holthe Immigration Law blog, and on our Express Entry live Q&As, and in our Canadian Immigration Institute sessions, we have speculated quite a bit about the what the new “targeted draws” would involve once Bill C-19 was passed.[i] The wait is over.

Here is what you need to know

PNP draws and no program specified draws and FSW or CEC draws will sill occur in 2023. Category based rounds “will add to add to general and program-specific rounds by inviting top-ranking candidates who can help us meet these specific economic goals.”

If you have a valid Express Entry profile and you do not meet the new categories, never fear, there is sill hope if you have a strong Comprehensive Ranking Score (CRS).

If you do happen to have strong French skills or work in certain healthcare jobs, in certain STEM jobs, in a certain regulated Trade under Major Group 72, or in certain transport or agriculture jobs, the new EE Category based draws are good news for you this year and something you should act on right away.

Express Entry Category based draws for 2023 allow the Minister of Immigration to target EE candidates with French language skills and work experience in certain NOCs with certain levels of education. Category based EE draws will focus on 6 new categories:

1.     French language proficiency;

2.     Healthcare occupations;

3.     Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) occupations;

4.     Trade occupations;

5.     Transport occupations;

6.     Agriculture and agri-food occupations.

How does category based Express Entry work?

Remember that you will need to have a valid EE profile to be eligible for an Invitation to Apply (ITA). It seems like all the regular rules about eligibility for EE should apply but IRCC has not yet released full details yet. At this point, we assume that candidates must still meet the regular pass mark of 67 points under the selection grid and then be eligible for either CEC, FSW or FST. You can find a helpful layout of how Express Entry works from the government website.

Then, IRCC can release instructions for a category based round of invitations. (They have not yet released these new instructions so we don’t know what they will involve just yet.)

What you should do now to be eligible for the new EE category based rounds

French skills

To be eligible for the new French-language proficiency category make sure you have a minimum score of 7 in each of the 4 language abilities on the Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens. Keep in mind that each of your scores for Speaking (expression orale), Listening (compréhension de l’oral),  Reading (compréhension de l’écrit), and Writing (expression écrite) must be above NCLC 7. If any one of your scores is below NCLC 7, you won’t be eligible.

You should book an exam with TEF Canada or TCF Canada right away if you do not already have a valid French language exam that is less than 2 years old on the day you create your EE profile and on the day you apply for PR.

Healthcare occupations

To be eligible for the new category for healthcare occupations, you must be able to prove you have, within the past 3 years, at least 6 months of continuous work experience (in Canada or abroad) in a single occupation listed in the table below: