According to the internal memorandum of IRCC obtained through the Access to Information request, Canada extended the pause on invitation rounds in the Federal Skilled Workers (FSW) and Federal Skilled Trades (FST) programs extended from November 1, 2021, to January 31, 2022. The FSW and FST draws are on pause since December 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the memo admits that the current inventory includes enough candidates to meet the quota allocation for 2022. Furthermore, the memo said that in order to meet the six-month standard of processing time, the inventory must be reduced by half before the renewal of the FSW and FST draws. The average processing time for FSW candidates has increased to over 20 months, while in the CEC it remains about 7 months. The possibility of renewal of the general admission intakes will be available to the public after the announcement of the 2022-2024 Immigration Levels Plan.
