Canada attracts a diverse range of foreigners, including international students and skilled workers, who seek to live, work, and settle in the Land of Maple Leaf. Canada’s Express Entry program offers permanent residence to skilled candidates who have demonstrated potential for successful integration and economic contribution.

Express Entry continues to attract applicants from various parts of the world. According to the Canada Express Entry Year-End Report 2023 Fact sheet, India remains by far the most popular country of citizenship among principal candidates and their accompanying family members in 2023, followed by Nigeria and China. In 2023, 120,770 principal applicants and their accompanying family members were admitted to Canada as permanent residents through Express Entry.

Express Entry takes care of four immigration programs – the Federal Skilled Worker Program [FSWP], Federal Skilled Trades Program [FSTP], Canadian Experience Class [CEC], and a portion of the Provincial Nominee Program [PNP]). Canada Express Entry Year-End Report 2023 Fact sheet reveals the top five most common occupations, Processing times, Top provinces of destination and Rounds of invitations conducted in 2023.

Software engineers and designers, software developers and programmers, and information systems specialists were among the top five most common occupations in 2023.

Category-based selection rounds introduced

Category-based selection in Canada’s Express Entry system was launched in 2023. Category-based selection is aimed to enhances immigration response to economic needs, inviting applicants with French-language proficiency or work experience to support economic growth and address labour market shortages.

Candidates with French-language proficiency or with work experience in the occupations that were eligible under the following categories are invited to apply for permanent residence through category-based selection in 2023:

• Healthcare occupations
• Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)
• Trade occupations
• Transport occupations
• Agriculture and agri-food occupations

Changes to Eligibility Criteria for Physicians

IRCC in 2023 improved Canadian healthcare system physicians’ access to permanent residence through Express Entry, addressing barriers they faced due to the “fee-for-service” model. Physicians working in a fee-for-service model with public health authorities in Canada have been exempted from certain program requirements as of April 25, 2023, to help address labour shortages in the healthcare sector and access permanent residence.

Rounds of invitations

In 2023, 488,571 EE profiles were submitted through the system and 70% of the profiles submitted were eligible for at least one of the FHS immigration programs managed by EE.

Among the submitted profiles, 39% of all eligible profiles submitted qualified for category-based selection criteria. Among the eligible profiles submitted to Express Entry, 23% qualified for the STEM category, 6% qualified for the French-language proficiency category, around 6% qualified for the healthcare category, 2% for transport category and trade category and around 0.5% for agriculture and agri-food category.

Through 42 rounds of invitations, IRCC issued 110, 266 invitations in 2023, a significant increase from 46,539 invitations issued in 2022.

Comprehensive Ranking System

The minimum Comprehensive Ranking System scores of eligible candidates in the pool remained consistently concentrated in the 301–500 range, meaning that they consistently demonstrate high levels of human capital. For instance in 2023, 92% of invitees claimed a post-secondary educational credential of at least three years.

Top provinces of destination

In 2023, Ontario remained the most popular province among principal applicants, followed by British Columbia and Alberta. These have been the top provinces of destination over the past three years.

Processing times

In 2023, IRCC met its processing standard for 2023 by finalizing 80% of all applications for Canadian Experience Class and Federal Skilled Worker Program in 6 months, marking a significant decrease from 2022. Provincial Nominee Program-nominated Express Entry candidate processing has seen a reduction from 12 months at the end of 2022 to 8 months in 2023. The processing times for all Express Entry programs except Federal Skilled Trades Program decreased from 2021 to 2023.