The new Express Entry draw included Foreign Skilled Worker Program candidates, a large group of candidates seeking ITAs since Canada began targeting Canadian Experience Class and Provincial Nominee Program candidates
Canada has held another all-program draw, inviting Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residence.
Canada issued 3,900 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) for permanent residence in a draw held August 5. Candidates needed a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of at least 476 to be invited in this invitation round.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has been issuing 3,900 ITAs through Express Entry every two weeks for most of 2020. While IRCC deviated from all-program draws between March 18 and July 8 and was targeting candidates in only two specific programs during that period, that changed last month. On July 8, IRCC held an all-program draw before returning again to program-specific draws on July 22 and July 23, suggesting it may start to alternate between these two types of draws as things slowly return to normal.
The number of ITAs issued in 2020 was not affected by the temporary policy changes and remained constant throughout the year. The year began with two draws of 3,400 ITAs each in January, followed by one draw of 3,500 ITAs and a record-breaking 4, 500 in February. Since March, IRCC held 21 draws and issued close to 40,000 ITAs.
Express Entry is the application system that manages the pool of candidates for Canada’s three main economic immigration classes — the Federal Skilled Worker Program(FSWP), the Federal Skilled Trades Class (FSTC) and the Canadian Experience Class (CEC).
The highest-ranked candidates in the Express Entry pool are issued ITAs in regular invitation rounds.
Today’s draw was the 25th draw of 2020 and brings the total number of ITAs issued this year to 61,600, a new record for this date.
Today’s minimum score of 476 was two points lower than the previous all-program invitation round on July 8, which had a cut-off score of 478.
The higher CRS cut-off is a function of FSWP candidates once again securing ITAs. Today included ITAs sent out to candidates with higher CRS scores who would have otherwise been invited in earlier months had the coronavirus pandemic not affected IRCC’s Express Entry policies.
The time between draws is an important factor that can have an effect on the CRS cut-off score. Larger intervals between draws mean more candidates have time to enter a profile in the Express Entry pool.