Sharing a news from a fb page:
CANADA IMMIGRATION STOPPED CONDUCTING EXPRESS ENTRY DRAW SINCE LAST DRAW HELD ON 17TH APRIL 2015 AND THERE ARE THREE REASONS FOR THIS DECISION(1)FACING BACKLOG OF PREVIOUS APPLICATION FILED BEFORE 31ST DECEMBER 2014(2)TRYING TO MAKE ADJUSTMENT FOR PROVINCIAL NOMINEE PROGRAM(3)LOOKING TO PROCESS ALREADY EXPRESS ENTRY APPLICATIONS FOR WHICH FIXED SIX MONTH PERIOD PROCESSING TIME
(SO FAR 8491 INVITATION HAS BEEN ISSUED IN 8 DRAWS UNTIL 17TH APRIL 2015)
Why CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) has not made any more draws from Express Entry since April 17th, 2015?
CIC has an annual target number (not a quota, but a rough number only) of immigrants to bring into Canada. For 2015, it is between 260,000 and 285,000. Out of that total rough number, CIC is looking to select about 65% for economic applicants. The initial plan was to select them (roughly 185,000 economic immigrants) via new Express Entry system. So, why has CIC not selected applicants via Express Entry since April 17, 2015?
One of the main problems is the backlog in application processing – those applications were received by CIC until December 31, 2014. CIC anticipates more than 50% of 2015 economic immigrants would be covered by those backlogged applicants. Therefore, in fact, there is less than 90,000 applicants CIC would seek via Express Entry; if you take into account for any provincial nominee programs that are outside of Express Entry system, the number is much less than 90,000 applicants.
Furthermore, CIC anticipates to draw between 15 and 25 times in 2015. If 15 is the more accurate number of draws, then CIC already have done more than 50% of draws – 8 out 15.
Finally, a lot of provinces are still working out how to incorporate their provincial nominee program into Express Entry, such as Ontario.
With all these factors, CIC is cautious as to when to make next draw and how many applicants to invite because they wish to meet their promise of “6 months or less processing time” under Express Entry system.