The IRCC can return to a period in which PNP-specific draws are followed by draws for Canadian Experience Class candidates the next day.
On January 7, Canada held another Express Entry draw, the second invitation round in two days.
A total of 4,750 Canadian Experience Class (CEC) applicants were granted invitations. A 461 Detailed Ranking System (CRS) score was adequate to guarantee an Invitation to Apply (ITA).
The results of the draw have been announced today, 8 January 2021.
Canada started the new year two days ago, issuing invitations to Express Entry applicants with regional nominations.
In the January 6 draw, a total of 250 candidates were invited by Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and a minimum score of 813 was expected.
Candidates who have received nominations from an Express Entry-aligned Provincial Candidate Program (PNPs) automatically receive a cumulative score of 600 points, which is why the score threshold is comparatively high compared to other rounds of invitation.
It might be too early to say whether the IRCC would revert to coordinating only program-specific sketches, as it did in the midst of the pandemic last year and when Canada first closed its borders.
Between March and August, IRCC was conducting CEC program-specific draws. They will take place immediately after PNP-specific draws, and a round number will usually be added to the number of ITAs from the two draws combined. IRCC returned to all-program drawings by the end of 2020, with some of the largest numbers of invitations ever given and CRS cut-off scores steadily decreasing.
Express Entry is a method used by the federal government to handle applications for the three major economic class systems in Canada: the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), The Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and the Federal Skilled Trades Class (FSTC).
There are also immigration streams in most provinces that are associated with the Express Entry scheme.
Candidates are rated on the basis of their CRS score in the Express Entry system, which takes into account several variables, including their age, job experience, education and French or English proficiency. The date and time at which the Express Entry profile was generated is also a ranking factor in some instances.
Unlike all-program invitation rounds, which draw from the entire Express Entry pool and appear to result in higher cut-off scores, program-specific drawings will generate lower cut-off scores as they include a smaller pool of candidates, like the one explicitly targeting CEC candidates today.
Today’s draw saw the rule of tie-break applied. Based on the date and time the profile was developed, the tie-break rule is used to rank candidates who have the same CRS score (at the cut-off).
On September 12, 2020, at 20:46:32 UTC, the tie-breaking rule for today’s draw was enforced. This implies that applicants with a CRS score of 461 were invited only if their profile had been submitted prior to that date and period.
This draw takes the total number of invitations to 5,000 so far given in 2021.
Under its 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Programme, Canada has planned the arrival of some 110,000 Express Entry immigrants each year.
