CIC News year in review: Our top 10 articles of 2025
Over the past year, we saw many immigration developments—from a complete overhaul to Express Entry occupational categories to deepened cuts to the international student program, and the removal of Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) points for arranged employment.
Here are the CIC News articles which garnered the most interest from readers in 2025.
Join the Angus Reid Forum and get $5 in points!
1. Canada announces major changes to Express Entry categories
In February of 2025, readers learned that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) did a complete reshuffle of its Express Entry categories—adding the new Education category, removing the old Transportation category, and changing the eligible occupations under all the other categories.
Candidates with qualifying work experience in an occupational category are more likely to receive Invitations to Apply (ITAs) for permanent residence (PR) through Express Entry, Canada’s flagship management system for PR applications.
Canada issued 18,250 ITAs through occupational category-based draws in 2025.
IRCC launched the Rural Community Immigration Pilot (RCIP) on January 30, 2025—which has since seen considerable demand—as well as announced the 14 designated communities participating in the pilot.
To qualify for the RCIP, a foreign national must have a job offer from a local employer in a participating region. The job offer must be endorsed by the regional economic development organization.
3. What’s Mark Carney’s immigration agenda?
After Marc Carney became prime minister, we reviewed his plans for reforming Canada’s immigration system.
These included goals such as capping immigration (to ease housing pressures), prioritizing those already in Canada for PR, and reducing the number of temporary foreign worker admissions.
4. The top 10 universities in Canada, according to new report
In early March and beyond, readers tuned in to see which Canadian learning institutions made it onto the Times Higher Education (THE) 2025 World Universities Ranking report, based on various factors (like research qualify, or international outlook).
Our article detailed which universities ranked in the top 10 nationally (such as the University of Toronto), and how Canadian universities performed on a global scale—spoiler: three made it onto the top 100 worldwide.
Foreign nationals wishing to study in Canada can consult this annual report when deciding which institution to choose for their studies.
In a landmark development in Canadian citizenship law, “Bill C-3, An Act to Amend the Citizenship Act (2025),” restored citizenship to thousands of Lost Canadians, and established a new framework for Canadians to pass down their citizenship to children born outside Canada.
This article covered the bill passing the primary hurdle for most Canadian federal legislation—the vote after the bill’s third reading in the House of Commons.
In late July, we covered the US administration’s introduction of a US Visa Integrity Fee ($250 USD) for certain parties applying for non-immigrant US visas—including tourist and business (B-1/B2) visas, student (F/M), work (H-1B/H-4) and exchange visas (J).
As readers learned, this legislative change would impact certain Canadian PRs, foreign nationals in Canada on temporary residence status (from non-waiver countries), and Canadian citizens seeking select non-immigrant US visas.
Articles 7 & 8
IRCC to implement restrictions on family Open Work Permits in January 2025
In this article, our audience learned that the immigration department would soon be restricting eligibility for family open work permits (OWPs). Family members of international students now had to be enrolled in qualifying programs, while family OWPs for foreign workers would be limited to spouses of workers in TEER 0, 1, and select TEER 2 or 3 occupations in in-demand sectors.
This change was one of a suite of measures announced in September of 2024 to scale back on work permits with the aim of reducing Canada’s temporary resident population.
These are the TEER 2 and 3 jobs that can still get your spouse a family open work permit
On January 22 we provided a comprehensive list of the TEER 2 and 3 occupations which allow primary work permit holders' spouses to qualify for open work permits under the new rules.
Under the National Occupation Classification (NOC), the Canadian federal government’s system for categorizing occupations, jobs are assigned a TEER level based on their required training, education, expertise and responsibilities, with TEER 0 being the highest skilled and TEER 5 the lowest skilled.
9. Canada removes bonus CRS points for arranged employment from Express Entry
On March 25, 2025, IRCC implemented the removal of bonus points for valid job offers under the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS), which had been announced on December 17, 2024.
As a result of this change, Express Entry candidates with valid job offers saw their CRS scores decrease by 50 or 200 points—depending on the amount they had been awarded.
Candidates with lower CRS scores are less likely to receive invitations to apply for PR.
10. Major drop in CRS scores after removal of points for arranged employment
Following IRCC doing away with CRS points for arranged employment, the CRS score distribution of candidates in the pool changed significantly. We highlighted the major changes, such as the 501-600 CRS score range decreasing by 5,740 profiles, even as the number of profiles increased significantly.
- Do you need Canadian immigration assistance? Contact the Contact Cohen Immigration Law firm by completing our form
- Send us your feedback or your non-legal assistance questions by emailing us at media@canadavisa.com
