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The Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held its 169th Express Entry draws on December 9, after a gap of two weeks. The draw is historic for the fact that Canada surpassed the “100,000 ITAs for Canada PR” milestone even before the end of 2020. The actual tally of ITAs issued so far now stands at 102,350.
Express Entry draws allows for the flexibility of inviting any foreign skilled workers with/without a job offer or without any Canadian work experience to apply for permanent residence.
Quick Highlights on 169th Express Entry Draw
1 Draw Size Remains At 5,000 ITAs: As in the previous Express Entry draws, IRCC issued 5,000 invitations to apply (ITAs) for permanent residence in Canada.
Candidates who qualified for three immigration programs – the Federal Skilled Workers Program (FSWP), the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) and the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) – were eligible to be nominated in the December 9th draw.
We are anticipating the draw sizes to remain more or less the same in 2021 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
2 Minimum CRS Remains The Same: Express Entry is not a Visa type but a profiles 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.
December 9 Express Entry draw maintained the same level of qualifying CRS as 469 from the previous draw.
A recent update in CRS evaluation allows Canada to favour more bi-lingual candidates (proficiency in English and French) to qualify for Canada PR through Express Entry.
3 Tie-break rule: More than one candidate may end up with 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 June 4, 2020, at 22:26:05 UTC in order to receive an invitation.
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.
We have noticed that IRCC is clearing the Express Entry pool by inviting candidates who failed to get invitations earlier and now had a good chance of getting invited.
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 102,350 ITAs for permanent residence so far in 2020 as against its allocated target of 91,800 ITAs.
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 the 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.
