Canada moves to cut Express Entry job-offer fraud

Image credit: Youself Alfuhigi on Unsplash.

Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced that Express Entry candidates will no longer receive additional points for having a job offer. 

This change will come into effect in spring 2025. 

Currently, Express Entry candidates seeking Canadian permanent residency receive additional 200 points in the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) for having an LMIA-based job offer.

LMIA stands for Labour Market Impact Assessment.

These bonus points often make the difference between a candidate receiving an invitation to apply (ITA) for permanent residency, or not being invited at all.

The government believes this measure will reduce fraud by removing the incentive to illegally buy or sell labour market impact assessments to improve a candidate’s chances of being selected to come to Canada as a permanent resident. 

Once they take effect in spring 2025, the changes will impact candidates pursuing permanent residence through the Express Entry system, including those currently working in Canada temporarily. The changes will not affect candidates who have already been invited to apply or who have an application in progress. Once the change is introduced, it will apply to all candidates with job offers in the pool as well as new candidates entering the pool.    

 Express Entry is Canada’s flagship application management system for those seeking to immigrate permanently through the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Federal Skilled Trades Program, the Canadian experience class and a portion of the Provincial Nominee Program.

In June 2022, Canada made changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to allow for the selection of immigrants based on key attributes that support economic priorities, such as specific work experience or knowledge of French.