The Government of Canada launched the new year of express entry with an impressive style and sent 3,900 invitations to apply for permanent residence in Canada for candidates who scored as low as 449.

This is the largest number of invitations issued in a first draw of the year for Express Entry’s five-year history, marking the beginning of a 12-month cycle that should be discontinued last year in Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Registration of 89,800 invitations to apply (ITA).

The last record of the maximum number of invitations issued during the first year of 2017, when the total number of invitations issued was 1,000 ITAs compared to this year’s invitations. Year of 2018 that broke the number of invitations issued in a single year for its first draw of 2750 invitations.

The Express Entry system manages all candidates for three of the federal high-income economic immigration programs: the Federal Skilled Worker Class, the Federal Skilled Trades Class and the Canadian Experience Class.

Candidate profiles are assigned a score based on the Full Classification System (CRS), which assigns points to factors such as age, education, work experience and proficiency in either English or French.

The highest ranked candidates are selected from the group through regular invitations and an invitation to apply for permanent residence in Canada.

One of the causes is the time between draws. The longer periods between draws mean that more candidates can enter the Express Entry group or take steps to increase their existing scores.

Provincial nominal programs are an example. An Entry Express candidate who receives a provincial nomination gets 600 additional points for his CRS score. In addition to increasing its Quick Entry targets for 2018, Canada has also significantly increased its PCP target.

The minimum score of 439 on December 19 reflects the fact that only one week elapsed between this draw and the one before December 12, with a limit score of 445.

IRCC used its tie-break rule in the January 10 draw. The time stamp used was January 2, 2019, at 11:40:53 UTC. This means that there are candidates with a CRS score above 449, as well as those candidates with scores of 449 who entered their profile in the Express Entry pool before the selected date and time, received an ITA in this invitation round.