The Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held yet another record-breaking 168th Express Entry draws on November 25, only a week after the previous draw. Back-to-back Express Entry draws came at the backdrop of the newly announced Immigration Levels Plan for 2021-2023. 

Any willing foreign skilled workers with/without a job offer or without any work experience in Canada before is eligible to apply for permanent residence through the Express Entry pathway. 

Quick Highlights on 168th Express Entry Draw

#1 Draw Size Remained The Same: Continuing the draw size from its previous Express Entry draws, IRCC issued 5,000 invitations to apply (ITAs) for permanent residence in Canada. 

This is the fifth instance in 2020 where IRCC issued over 4,500 ITAs in a single draw. 

We are anticipating the draw sizes to remain more or less the same in near future since:

• The exuberant target of welcoming over 200,000 new immigrants each year through economic-class programs.
• The reduced refugees intake temporarily is replaced with more number of immigrants intakes under the economic class immigration
• With Provincial Nominee Programs falling short of its demand, Express Entry nominations may remain high. 

#2 Minimum CRS decreases: Express Entry is merely an application management system for federal immigration programs and specific provincial nominee programs. 

Every registered profile in the Express Entry pool is evaluated using a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). This ranking system factors in the core human capital like age, work experience, education, and skills in English or French. 

The profiles are scored upon a maximum of 1200 points. 

November 25 draw saw a 3-point decline in qualifying CRS to 469 from the previous high at 472 for selection. 

Following an update in the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) evaluation: French-speaking candidates are now eligible for additional CRS points over their English-only speaking counterparts. 

#3 Tie-break rule: Often there arises a situation where candidates end up having the same CRS score. Here is where IRCC uses its tie-break rule to rank a particular candidate higher. 

The timestamp used in the latest draw was October 15, 2020, at 08:50:10 UTC. 

This meant that all candidates with a CRS score above 469 before the selected date and time were eligible to receive an ITA in this invitation round. The previous draw had a timestamp before October 27 at 06:18:11 UTC. It meant candidates who failed to get invitations earlier had a good chance of getting invited in the November 25 draw. 

Fill-in this free online assessment to know more about your eligibility for various other immigration programs.  

Express Entry Draws in 2020

Canada has now issued a total of 97, 350 ITAs for permanent residence so far in 2020. It is en route to surpassing the 100,000 ITAs milestone as against the 2020 annual allocation target of 91,800 ITAs. 

Despite the negative consequence of pandemic on immigration levels, WES Canada noted a rise in interest for Canadian immigration. Economic-class programs like Express Entry have served it well with record-breaking nominations for a permanent residence this year. 

Table1: ITAs for Canada PR issued between March 2020 – November 2020. 

CEC- Canadian Experience Class; PNP- Provincial Nominee Program; FSTP- Federal Skills Trades Program

After initial lockdowns in March, IRCC innovated with the regular fortnightly Express Entry to prioritize foreign skilled workers already present in the country. Thereby, program-specific draws were conducted to invite candidates under the Canadian Experience Class or Provincial Nominee Program, or Federal Skilled Trades Program to apply for permanent residence in Canada. 

However, since June 2020, when Federal Skilled Worker Program assumed its significance, any foreign skilled worker who did not work in Canada before was eligible for Canada PR. 

CanApprove senses a big pull for skilled immigrants- professionals, entrepreneurs/investors, students as well as their families to migrate to Canada in the coming years. We are not just any immigration consultant but a registered agent with the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC). 

Book an appointment with us to discuss the prospects of your Canadian immigration in 2021.    

Case Study: Who Gets Nominated? 

Consider these hypothetical case study examples for a better understanding of how an Express Entry invitation rounds function. 

You may contact our consultants for further details. 

Factoring in the above human capital:

• Case1: PA got CRS of 476 and hence eligible for November 25 draw. The spouse may accompany.
• Case2: With a CRS of 478, the subject was readily eligible to qualify for Canada PR in the November 25 draw.