7,000 candidates were invited again in the ninth Express Entry draw as three Express Entry draws were held back to back for three weeks.
For permanent residence, a total of 7,000 invitations to apply are issued (ITAs) by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). Candidates from all programs were considered by IRCC and 481 was the minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) cut-off score.
This recent draw has the lowest cut-off score for an all-program draw, since 23 December 2020, when the score was 468. A total of 21,000 candidates are invited by IRCC over the past two weeks, in order for the CRS score to fall up to 481 points.
Express Entry manages economic class immigration candidates and candidates eligible for at least one of the Express Entry programs are able to upload their profile to the website of IRCC. Candidates receive CRS scores on the basis of a variety of human capital criteria such as age, language skills, education, and work experience.
Every two weeks, Express Entry draws were held by IRCC and then ITAs are issued to the highest-scoring candidates. However, in recent months, IRCC has not been following a predictable draw schedule. For example, two draws were held consecutively in two weeks by IRCC which were tied for the largest all-programs draws ever, on March 15 and March 23.
Under these draws, 14,000 candidates were invited (a total of 7,000 Express Entry candidates in each draw). If ITAs are issued by IRCC to candidates from all three express entry programs, it is considered an all-program draw. Candidates from only one program are considered in program-specific draws, which is why they are very much distinct from all program draws.
A completed permanent residence application is submitted by candidates, they have up to 60 days to submit the application after receiving ITA. Within 6 months, these applications are processed via IRCC. Once the application is approved, candidates can land in Canada as permanent residents.
Under the Immigration Levels Plan 2023-2025, the target of 83,000 immigrants is being set by IRCC via Express Entry this year, which guides the operation of the immigration system of Canada. In the year 2024, the target will increase to 109,000 and it will increase to 114,000 in 2025. Since last year, the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) became the leading economic class immigration pathway. New allocations of PNP have been announced by a number of provinces in recent weeks.
For example, Ontario, the largest province of Canada will now be able to nominate up to 18,000 immigrants in the year 2025. Express Entry also operates a portion of PNP which means that candidate can enter the Express Entry pool, and then receive an invitation from a territory or province to apply through their PNP if he/she is eligible for one of the Express Entry programs.
As the benefit of this approach, also known as enhanced provincial nominations, additional 600 CRS points are gained by the candidates who are approved under a PNP stream. With these extra points, candidates are guaranteed to receive an ITA for permanent residence.
As Canada is looking forward to welcoming more temporary and permanent residents to support its economy following the coronavirus pandemic, the country has been experiencing a boom in the arrival of newcomers in recent years. Last year, for the first time in the country’s history, Canada’s population grew by more than one million. Over 95 percent of this growth was because of temporary and permanent residents.
