So recently a report came out showing many early immigrants who got the first dibs on Express entry are already in Canada. According to the report,

“Nearly half of the skilled immigrants who qualified for a chance to obtain permanent residency within the first three weeks of the launch of a new immigration system were not applying from abroad but were already in Canada.”

The said report was obtained by immigration lawyer Richard Kurland through an Access to Information Act request. Report prepared on Jan 22 shows information about 775 candidates made it to the top of the express entry pool in first-ever draw. This data also lists their country of residence and their citizenship.

Now here is the thing.
– 346 (45%) out of those 775 were already working in Canada.
– 13% were working in India.
– 4.5% in the United Arab Emirates.
– Smaller percentages resided in other countries.

However, An immigration official mentioned following in an email dated Jan. 22.

“Please note that data is intended for internal CIC use only and has not yet been released to the public,”

The cautionary note was underlined.

After looking at the data it appears India, Philippines and Pakistan were the top three source countries for prospective skilled immigrants under express entry.

Top 10 source countries for 775 highest-ranking candidates:

1. India: 228 candidates or 29.4 per cent

2. Philippines: 122 candidates or 15.7 per cent

3. Pakistan: 46 candidates or 5.9 per cent

4. Ireland: 34 candidates or 4.3 per cent

5. Nigeria: 29 candidates or 3.7 per cent

6. China: 29 candidates or 3.7 per cent

7. Iran: 21 candidates or 2.7 per cent

8. U.K.: 19 candidates or 2.4 per cent

9. Egypt: 18 candidates or 2.3 per cent

10. South Korea: 14 candidates or 1.8 per cent

Source: Jan. 22. report by Citizenship and Immigration Canada