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Soon before March 2021 ended, the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held its 10th program-specific Express Entry draws this year.
March 31 Express Entry draws resulted in 284 Invitations To Apply (ITA) for permanent residence (PR) in Canada to candidates with prior provincial nominations.
Issuing permanent residency certificates in Canada come under the exclusive authority of the federal government. However, provincial governments may open an alternate pathway for Canada PR through provincial nominations.
Candidates receive provincial nominations based on their factors including their age, education, in-demand occupations work experience, language ability in English or French. Other important criteria for selection include provincial ties like familial ties, graduation history in that province, proof of financial stability, job offer by a local employer.
Express Entry Draw#180 – at a glance
- Draw Size: A total of 284 ITAs were issued compared to previous CEC-specific Express Entry draws where 5,000 ITAs were sent out. However, as total annual allocations for provincial nominations from 11 Canadian provinces is restricted to 80,800 this year, lower ITAs per PNP-specific draw is to be considered normal.
Going by the stats, the number of ITAs that IRCC issued so far in 2021 far exceeds last year’s levels. Canada has issued 44,124 invitations to Express Entry candidates in 2021 compared to 22,600 ITAs on this date last year.
- Increased Qualifying Score: Each Express Entry profile is evaluated and ranked based on a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). It considers core human capital factors such as age, language proficiency, work experience, education. Candidates with prior provincial nominations get 600 additional points. The total score is given out of 1200 points.
March 31 draws considered candidates who had a minimum CRS score of 778 points.
The new score may seem high, especially compared to the previous CEC-specific draw where the cutoff score was 449. However, PNP candidates automatically get an additional 600 points added to their score once they receive a provincial nomination. In other words, the lowest-scoring candidate would have had 178 CRS points without the PNP!
- Tie-Break Rule: IRCC employs its tie-break rule when two or more candidates end up with the same CRS scores. March 31 draws included candidates who had the minimum score of 778 and those who had submitted their Express Entry profile before March 16, 2021, at 16:09:32 UTC.
Candidates Within Canada Targeted For Immigration
Even though Canada has still kept its borders closed for non-essential travel, it is allowing immigration for economic reasons. Besides, Canada also has an ambitious target of welcoming 401,000 new immigrants in 2021. It aims to invite up to 108,000 candidates to apply for permanent residency through the Express Entry system alone.
IRCC has been holding alternate PNP-specific & CEC-specific Express Entry draws since the start of the new year 2021. It also includes a historic Express Entry draws which resulted in 27,332 ITAs for Canada PR.
However, it is not to suggest candidates qualifying for Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) to lose their hopes. In fact, before the pandemic, FSWP was prolific in welcoming foreign skilled workers to apply for permanent residence.
“We cannot predict when IRCC will once again hold draws that allow Federal Skilled Worker Program candidates, for example, to apply for permanent residence,” said Attorney David Cohen, Senior Partner of Campbell Cohen, “But based on precedent, we can be optimistic about seeing more all-program draws later on in 2021.”
Read our previous blog to know more about the Express Entry system.
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