By Rodrigo Coelho
Certified Immigration Consultant for Canada
The Canadian government, through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), announced in May 2023 that it would begin issuing invitations to desired candidates for Canada. In this type of selection, candidates eligible for the Express Entry register are invited into a specific category, established by the Minister, in order to meet an identified economic objective.
The selection is based on criteria such as:
1) Professional experience in specific trades;
2) Specific pedagogical training;
3) Ability to communicate in French.
The introduction of Targeted Calls complements general and program-specific rounds, inviting top-ranked applicants who can help Canada achieve specific economic goals. The chosen categories are usually announced in advance.
The Canadian federal government selects the categories based on labor market information and projections, feedback received from partners, including provinces and territories, and other stakeholders across the country. Each year, IRCC must submit a report to Parliament on the categories chosen the previous year; why and how they were chosen; instructions for establishing a category; the number of invitations issued for each category; information on targeted selection in the Express Entry year-end report, as well as regular monitoring and evaluation of these categories.
To be eligible for an invitation under a category-targeted round, you must: meet the minimum criteria for Express Entry, including being eligible for one of the 3 immigration programs it covers (FSW, CEC and FST), and meet all requirements of the instructions for that trick. When IRCC organizes a series of categorized invitations, it ranks the candidates in the pool who meet the category requirements and invites the top-ranked candidates to apply for permanent residence.
As of the date of this article, Express Entry has organized specific rounds for applicants with experience in the health field (rounds 252 and 255), with experience in STEM fields (round 254), fluent in French (rounds 256, 258 and 260). ) with experience in trades in the commercial sector (round 261). Everything indicates that this trend will continue in the months to come and we highlight the mastery of French as something that will long remain a differential, since from year to year the mastery of the French language positively differentiates those who wish to immigrate to Canada.
I hope that the categorized approach will be, on the one hand, an effective strategy to meet the specific demands of the Canadian labor market, ensuring that the most qualified candidates are selected to contribute to the country’s economic growth, and on the other hand, on the other hand, to help people who are or will be integrated more quickly into the labor market and into Canadian society.
For 2023, IRCC has chosen the following categories:
- Mastery of the French language
- health professions
- Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) occupations
- commercial professions
- transport professions
- Agriculture and agri-food professions
