On February 27, 2025 the Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship introduced changes to the Express Entry system’s categories. It was also indicated that the emphasis for 2025 draws will be on candidates in the Express Entry pool who qualify under the Canadian Experience Class, a category that requires applicants to have at least a year of high-skilled work experience in Canada in the last 3 years and English or French language skills.
Category-based draws were introduced in 2023 to allow the Government to focus on Express Entry invitations in priority areas. At the time, 6 categories were introduced:
- French-language proficiency
- Healthcare occupations
- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) occupations
- Trade occupations
- Transport occupations
- Agriculture and Agri-Food occupations
With the exception of the French-speaking category, each category includes a list of occupations. In addition to meeting the requirements of the Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Worker program or the Federal Skilled Trades program, candidates need to meet the requirements of the category to be considered for a Category-Based draw. For the French-speaking draws, candidates are required to have achieved a French level of at least 7 on the Niveaux de competence linguistique canadien (NCLC) in Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing on the Test de conaissance du français (TCF) or Test d’évaluation de français (TEF) exams. For the other category-based draws, candidates must have 6 months of full-time experience in the last 3 years in an occupation listed in the category. In a category-based draw, the highest-ranking candidates within the category are selected and the score of the lowest ranking score selected is published.
New Category: Education
Since the inception of category-based draws in 2023, there have been no changes to the categories or the list of occupational codes within each category. The announcement yesterday marks major changes to the categories for 2025. The Minister has introduced a new category for candidates with experience in Education-based occupations. This category now includes 5 occupational codes:
- Elementary and secondary school teacher assistants (43100)
- Instructors of persons with disabilities (42203)
- Early childhood educators and assistants (42202)
- Elementary school and kindergarten teachers (41221)
- Secondary school teachers (41220)
Instructors of persons with disabilities (42203) was previously part of the Health Care category. While this new category has been introduced, the Trasport category has been removed.
Changes to the List of Occupations within Categories
There also have been changes to the list of occupational codes listed in the existing categories. For example, the Agriculture and Agri-food category used to have 3 occupations listed and now only has one, Butchers – retail and wholesale (NOC 63201).
In particular, there are significant changes to the STEM category. The table below illustrates both the old and new occupational codes[1]:
There are also changes to the Healthcare category of note. This category is now called Healthcare and social services occupations. There has been the addition of additional occupations such as: Animal health technologists and veterinary technicians (32104) and Cardiology technologists and electrophysiological diagnostic technologists (32123).
The Trade occupations list has expanded considerably including occupations such as Roofers and shinglers (73110), Heavy duty equipment mechanics (72401), Bricklayers (72320), and Cooks (63200).
Conclusion
After over a year and half, we will now see considerable changes to who can be selected under category-based draws with a continued emphasis on areas such as health care and Francophone immigration. Time will tell how many people will be selected in the various categories which will affect the scoring required to be invited.
For more information or if you wish to learn how these changes may impact you or your employees, please contact our office.
[1] Based on the previous and new version (effective 27 Feb, 2025) of Express Entry: Category-based selection – Canada.ca
