By admin (May 21, 2024)

Canada Just Held the Ninth Express Entry Draw

Canada just held the ninth Express Entry draw, which was an all-program draw. Three Express Entry draws were held back to back for three weeks.

A total of 7,000 invitations to apply are issued (ITAs) by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for permanent residence. 481 was the minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) cut-off score. Candidates from all programs were considered by IRCC.

For an all-program draw, this recent draw had the lowest CRS cut-off score since December 23, 2020, when the score was 468. Over the past two weeks, IRCC has invited a total of 21,000 candidates in order for the CRS to fall 481 points.

Economic class immigration candidates are managed by the Canadian Government via Express Entry as it is one of the main pathways. Candidates eligible for at least one of the Express Entry programs are able to upload their profile to the website of IRCC. Based on a variety of human capital criteria such as age, language skills, education, and work experience, a CRS score is received by the candidates.

Express Entry draws were held by IRCC every two weeks and then ITAs are issued to the highest-scoring candidates. However, IRCC has not stuck to a predictable draw schedule in recent months. For example, on March 15 and March 23, two draws were held in two weeks consecutively by IRCC which were tied for the largest all-programs draws ever.

Under each of these draws, a total of 7,000 Express Entry candidates were invited (14,000 candidates in total). When IRCC considers issuing ITAs to candidates from all three express entry programs, it is considered an all-program draw.  All program draws are very much distinct from program-specific draws in which candidates from only one program are considered.

Candidates have up to 60 days to submit a completed permanent residence application to IRCC once they receive an ITA. These applications are processed within 6 months via IRCC. Candidates can land in Canada as permanent residents once their application is approved.

IRCC is aiming to welcome 83,000 immigrants via Express Entry this year, under the Immigration Levels Plan 2023-2025, which guides the operations of Canada’s immigration system. This target will increase to 109,000 in the year 2024 and 114,000 in year 2025. Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) became the leading economic class immigration pathway since last year. A number of provinces have announced their PNP new allocations in recent weeks.

For example, Ontario, Canada’s largest province, will now be able to nominate up to 18,000 immigrants in the year 2025. A portion of the Provincial Nominee Program is operated through Express Entry. This means a candidate can enter the Express Entry pool and then receive an invitation from a province or territory to apply through their PNP if he/she is eligible for one of the Express Entry programs.

Those who are approved under a PNP stream then gain an additional 600 CRS points as the benefit of this approach, also known as enhanced provincial nominations. Candidates are guaranteed to receive an ITA for permanent residence with these extra points. In recent years, Canada has been experiencing a boom in the arrival of newcomers as the country is looking forward to welcome more temporary and permanent residents to support its economy following the coronavirus pandemic.

For the first time in the country’s history, Canada’s population grew by more than one million last year. Temporary and Permanent residents accounted for over 95 percent of this growth.