Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held the latest express draw on March 5th to invite a total of 3,900 candidates to apply for Canada PR Visa. The minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score was set at 471 points, which is an increase of one point from a previous CRS score cut-off of 470 points.
Just two weeks ago, IRCC held its biggest ever Express entry draw with a total of 4,500 Express entry candidates invited.
Express entry program is an application management system, for the applicants, register under Canada’s three major skilled economic immigration programs: Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) and Canadian Experience Class (CEC).
Registered candidate’s express profiles are submitted together into the express entry pool. Here, with the help of a ranking system – CRS, all the profiles are ranked based on their CRS score. CRS scores are awarded to the profiles based on candidate’s credentials like age, language proficiency, work experience, etc. Highest ranked profiles are then issued Invitation to Apply (ITAs) through frequently held express entry draws. ITA allows the candidates to apply for Canada PR Visa to the IRCC by submitting their application for Canada PR along with the required set of documents. Candidate has 60 days to submit their application to IRCC from the day of getting an ITA.
For the government to reach their target for admission of skilled immigrants this year – 85,800, it seems that they have started to issue a larger number of invitations this year. With this latest draw, the total number of express entry draw held in this year has to 5, and the number of ITAs issued to 18,700.
IRCC used their tie-break rule for the draw with the time stamp used set on February 24, 2020, at 06:02:57 UTC. This means the express entry candidates who have submitted their profile in the express pool before Feb 24, 2020, and have the minimum CRS score of 472 points, were invited in the latest express draw.
Other than the express entry program, the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) is another immigration program that has been active in recent weeks. Every PNP also has “enhanced” steam that allows the express entry candidates to apply for provincial nomination.
For an express entry candidate to land a provincial nomination certificate, they are given a major boost of 600 CRS points, effectively making sure that the candidate gets an ITA.
There are several Express entry linked PNPs that do not consider a candidate CRS score or have CRS score requirements that are below the cut-off scores in federal draws.
Following are the PNPs that have been active in recent weeks:
- Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP)
- Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP)
- Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP)
- Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP)
- Prince Edward Island Provincial Nominee Program (PEI PNP)
- British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP)
Reference is taken from CIC News