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Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held its second all-program Express Entry in the month of September for issuing permanent residence to foreign skilled workers with or without job offer and work experience in Canada.
Express Entry system is not a visa type but a federal application management system for immigration programs: Federal Skilled Workers Program (FSWP), Canadian Experience Class (CEC), Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP), in addition to the candidates with a provincial nomination.
After registering one’s profile in the Express Entry pool, the profiles are evaluated and scored on the basis of human capital factors like age, work experience, education & language proficiency in English or French. The profiles with prior provincial nominations may get additional CRS points upto 600.
The September 16 draw upheld the spirits of Canadian Immigration with higher draw size and decreasing qualifying Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score. It is now the fourth draw since March which considered foreign skilled workers who had not previously lived or worked in Canada, i.e. FSWP category, to apply for permanent residence.
Overall Draw Size remains the same
Continuing the trend set by the previous all-program Express Entry, the present draw also issued a total of 4200 invitations to apply (ITAs) to foreign skilled workers with or without job offer, work experience for permanent residence in Canada.
Before the lockdown was imposed in March, IRCC held the largest ever Express Entry draw in the month of February with a draw size of 4500 ITAs for Canada PR.
Decrease in minimum CRS score by three points
More often, it may occur that candidates end up having the same CRS score. Therefore, iIn order to uniquely rank every profile one above the other, IRCC uses its tie-break in every draw. September 16 Express Entry draw fixed the timestamp at March 9, 2020, at 13:03:40 UTC.
This means that all candidates with a CRS score equal or above 472 and entered their profile in the Express Entry pool before the selected date and time, received an ITA in this invitation round.
Express Entry Draws in 2020
September 16 all-program Express Entry draw is just the 30th draw in 2020 and the overall tally of ITAs for Canada PR has now crossed the 70k mark. The exact count stood at 74,150 ITAs issued thus far in 2020 which is in itself a new record since the start of Express Entry draws in 2015.
Here is a list of all Express Entry draws held in 2020.
| Draw Number | Date | Number of ITAs issues | Minimum CRS |
| 163 | September 16 | 4200 | 472 |
| 162 | September 2 | 4200 | 475 |
| 161 | August 20 | 3300 | 454 (CEC-specific) |
| 160 | August 19 | 600 | 771 (PNP-specific) |
| 159 | August 6 | 250 | 415 (FSTP- specific) |
| 158 | August 5 | 3900 | 476 |
| 157 | July 24 | 3343 | 445 (CEC-specific) |
| 156 | July 22 | 557 | 687 (PNP-specific) |
| 155 | July 8 | 3900 | 478 |
| 154 | June 25 | 3508 | 431 (CEC-specific) |
| 153 | June 24 | 392 | 696 (PNP-specific) |
| 152 | June 11 | 3551 | 437 (CEC-specific) |
| 151 | June 10 | 341 | 743 (PNP-specific) |
| 150 | May 28 | 3515 | 440 (CEC-specific) |
| 149 | May 27 | 385 | 757 (PNP-specific) |
| 148 | May 15 | 3371 | 447 (CEC-specific) |
| 147 | May 13 | 529 | 718 (PNP-specific) |
| 146 | May 1 | 3311 | 452 (CEC-specific) |
| 145 | April 29 | 589 | 692 (PNP-specific) |
| 144 | April 16 | 3782 | 455 (CEC-specific) |
| 143 | April 15 | 118 | 808 (PNP-specific) |
| 142 | April 9 | 3294 | 464 (CEC-specific) |
| 141 | April 9 | 606 | 698 (PNP-specific) |
| 140 | March 23 | 3232 | 467 (CEC-specific) |
| 139 | March 18 | 668 | 720 (PNP-specific) |
| 138 | March 4 | 3900 | 471 |
| 137 | February 19 | 4500 | 470 |
| 136 | February 5 | 3500 | 472 |
| 135 | January 22 | 3400 | 471 |
| 134 | January 8 | 3400 | 473 |
Canada remained committed to strengthen its immigration levels to overcome the effect of pandemic. It did so by the regular conduct of Express Entry draws and Provincial Nominee draws even during the travel restrictions. Special rules were also notified to ease the impact of travel restrictions on the admissions of International Students for the new academic session in the fall.
If you are waiting to apply for immigration to Canada, now is a good time to begin planning. There is a processing standard time of six months for permanent residence applications filed through the Express Entry system.
CanApprove can be your trusted immigration and overseas education consultant just like for other successful immigrants who have been benefiting from our services for over two decades.
To fix an appointment with one of our consultants and further discuss your prospects of Canadian immigration, click here.
