Canada Targets 100,000 Express Entry Applicants as Federal Skilled Worker Class Merges

(CANADA) — Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has proposed folding three of its core Express Entry programs into a single new pathway, a move that would retire the Federal Skilled Worker Class, the Canadian Experience Class and the Federal Skilled Trades Class if adopted.

The proposal, set out in IRCC’s Forward Regulatory Plan: 2026-2028, would replace those streams with one new class featuring streamlined eligibility requirements. IRCC said the restructuring aims to create a more diverse pool of international talent, meet labor market needs and simplify the system for applicants, employers and partners.

Officials have not announced a final decision or an implementation timeline. Public consultations are planned for Spring 2026, leaving the plan in the proposal stage as of April 9, 2026.

The move would reshape the structure at the center of Canada’s economic immigration selection system. Express Entry currently manages applications across multiple federal programs, and the proposed merger would collapse three long-standing routes into a single class under one framework.

IRCC has given limited detail on how the new class would work, but the department has tied the idea to labor demand and economic goals. The proposal appears in the government’s Forward Regulatory Plan, which outlines regulatory initiatives for the next two years.

That places the measure inside a broader policy cycle already underway in 2026. Earlier this year, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab announced a separate set of updates to category-based selection under Express Entry that changed how certain candidates could qualify for targeted invitations.

On February 18, 2026, Diab announced 2026 category-based selection updates that introduced five new categories requiring one year of work experience in the past three years, up from six months. Those categories covered medical doctors with Canadian work experience, researchers with Canadian work experience, senior managers with Canadian work experience, transport occupations, and skilled military recruits with a Canadian Armed Forces job offer.

Renewed categories include French-language proficiency, healthcare/social services, education, STEM, and trades. Those category-based changes are separate from the merger proposal, but they show how Ottawa is continuing to adjust Express Entry selection around work experience, job offers and sector needs.

The proposed single class would go further by changing the structure of the underlying federal programs themselves. Instead of maintaining separate tracks for skilled workers abroad, candidates with Canadian work experience and skilled trades workers, IRCC would channel those applicants through one new class if the regulatory change goes ahead.

That would mark a shift in how candidates enter the pool and how the system defines baseline eligibility. While IRCC has not laid out the full rules for the new class, the department has framed it as a way to simplify the process for users of the system while broadening the talent pool available to Canada’s labor market.

The timing also aligns with the government’s 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan, which targets 380,000 permanent residents in 2026. The category-based changes announced in February were presented as part of that larger plan, which ties immigration selection more closely to labor shortages and economic priorities.

In that sense, the merger proposal fits into a year of active redesign inside economic immigration policy. Ottawa is adjusting not only who gets selected through Express Entry categories, but also considering whether the program streams beneath the system should remain separate at all.

A separate measure points in the same direction. Diab has also confirmed a one-time pathway to move up to 33,000 temporary foreign workers to permanent residency over 2026-2027, with a focus on in-demand sectors and rural communities.

That temporary resident to permanent resident route stands apart from the Express Entry merger proposal. Still, both measures point to a policy focus on matching permanent immigration routes to labor demand in specific sectors and places.

Full eligibility details for that one-time pathway are still pending. For now, the measure adds another layer to a year in which permanent residence policy is changing through both targeted pathways and possible structural reform.

Meanwhile, Express Entry draws continue under the current system. On March 31, 2026, Canada held a Canadian Experience Class draw that issued 2,250 ITAs at CRS 509.

That draw underscored that the existing programs remain active while the government consults on the proposed merger. Candidates in the pool are still being invited through the current framework, including the Canadian Experience Class, even as IRCC weighs whether that class should eventually disappear into a new single pathway.

For applicants, that creates a split-screen moment. The rules in force today still govern invitations and applications, but the regulatory agenda signals that the federal government is considering deeper changes to how economic immigration works under Express Entry.

The Federal Skilled Worker Class has long served candidates with foreign work experience who meet selection criteria. The Canadian Experience Class has focused on applicants with qualifying Canadian work history. The Federal Skilled Trades Class has targeted eligible workers in trade occupations.

IRCC’s proposal would replace those distinct entry points with one new class, though the department has not yet published the full design. What it has said is that the future model would feature streamlined eligibility requirements and support the economy by addressing varied labor demands.

For employers, the department has cast simplification as part of the goal. IRCC said the merger would simplify the system not only for applicants, but also for employers and partners who rely on immigration pathways to fill jobs.

That makes the proposal more than a technical rewrite. It would change the way the federal government organizes some of the country’s best-known economic immigration programs, while keeping them under the broader Express Entry umbrella.

If implemented, the merger would represent the most far-reaching change to Express Entry since the system launched in 2015. That would put it in a different category from routine draw updates or category revisions, because it would alter the structure of the programs themselves.

No final outcome has been set. Public consultations planned for Spring 2026 will give applicants, employers and others a chance to weigh in before the government decides whether to proceed and how the single class should operate.

That consultation period will matter for people following the Federal Skilled Worker Class and the Canadian Experience Class in particular, because both remain central routes into permanent residence under current rules. It will also matter for candidates in trades, whose pathway under the Federal Skilled Trades Class could also be absorbed into the new model.

The same is true for advisers and employers trying to plan around program criteria. They now face a period in which the current system stays in place while the policy direction points toward a more unified structure.

Recent changes to category-based selection provide a clue to the kind of labor targeting the government is already emphasizing. The five new categories announced on February 18, 2026 all required one year of work experience in the past three years, and several focused directly on candidates with Canadian work experience.

Renewed categories in French-language proficiency, healthcare/social services, education, STEM, and trades reinforced that trend. Together with the proposed merger and the one-time pathway for 33,000 temporary foreign workers, the measures show Ottawa pairing selection reform with labor market priorities in 2026.

For now, though, the central fact is simpler: Canada has not yet replaced any of the three programs. Express Entry continues to operate under the current framework, and applicants are still receiving invitations through existing classes while IRCC considers whether one new stream should eventually take their place.

The next signals will come through the Spring 2026 consultation process and any later regulatory decisions tied to the Forward Regulatory Plan. Until then, candidates in Express Entry, including those under the Federal Skilled Worker Class and the Canadian Experience Class, remain in a system that is still functioning today even as Canada considers its biggest redesign since 2015.