Canada has restored all-program Express Entry draws, and is now issuing invites to apply to applicants in the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP).
Canada’s first all-program Express Entry draw after the draw held on March 4 has issued 3,900 ITAs for Canadian permanent residency. Candidates needed a minimum score of 478 in the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) to be nominated to the invitation round on July 8.
Since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic and travel restrictions were imposed by Canada to avoid its spread, Express Entry draws were restricted to applicants for the Provincial Nomination Program (PNP) and the Canadian Experience Class (CEC). That left candidates in limbo for FSWP and the Federal Professional Worker Program (FSTP).
Most CEC applicants are already in Canada and are thus not impacted by current restrictions on travel in Canada. PNP applicants still continue to be invited to encourage provinces to meet their labour market needs. However, it is necessary to remember that even though Canada excluded FSWP and FSTP applicants, some of the CEC and PNP applicants invited to previous draws were also outside of Canada.
Today’s draw was the same scale as the previous round of all-program invitation held on March 4, which gave out 3,900 ITAs. It is 2020’s 22nd draw which takes this year’s total number of ITAs to 53,800, a record level for this year.
Today’s minimum score of 478 was seven points better than the previous March 4 round of all-program invitation, which had a cut-off score of 471.
The higher CRS cut-off is a result of FSWP candidates securing ITAs once again. Given the amount of time after the last draw for FSWP applicants, today’s draw featured ITAs for applicants with higher CRS score who might otherwise have been accepted in earlier months if IRCC’s Express Entry policies had not been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
In today’s draw, IRCC used its tie-break rule. The time stamp used was, at 13:08:31 UTC, February 11. Which implies that in this invitation process, all candidates with a CRS score above 478, as well as those candidates with scores of 478 who entered their profile in the Express Entry pool before the specified date and period, earned an ITA.
Currently, the Express Entry program is the primary source of skilled foreign workers in Canada. In 2015, it was launched to manage the pool of applicants for three of Canada’s three high-skilled federal immigration programs — the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP), and the Canadian Experience Class (CEC).
A score is given for qualifying applicants for each program under the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) of Express Entry, which awards points for factors such as age, education, skilled work experience and English or French language proficiency.
Although a job offer is not necessary to apply under the Express Entry program, additional points are awarded by the CRS to applicants who have one.
An invitation to apply for Canadian permanent residence (ITA) is given to a fixed number of the highest-scoring applicants through frequent draws from the pool, typically held every two weeks.
The Government of Canada has a six-month period for handling applications for permanent residency submitted through the Express Entry Program.
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