Express Entry: 385 PNP candidates receive ITAs

Canada has just held a new Express Entry draw, inviting candidates who had previously received a provincial nomination.

A total of 385 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) were issued to Express Entry candidates in the May 27 invitation round.

Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) candidates in the Express Entry pool are awarded an additional 600 points on top of their original human capital score. This is why the minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score requirement was 757 for this draw. Without the additional points from the provincial nomination, invited candidates would have had a human capital score of 157.

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This is the sixth PNP only draw from the federal Express Entry system since special coronavirus measures went into place on March 18. Canada has been alternating between holding Express Entry draws targeting PNP and Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates.

Draws targeting CEC candidates typically have a much lower CRS cutoff. The last CEC-only draw invited candidates with CRS scores of at least 447, the lowest requirement for these candidates since January 2019.

A tie-break rule was applied in this draw. All candidates with a CRS score of at least 757 who submitted their profile before April 27, 2020 at 10:19:01 UTC, received an ITA in this round.

Draws dates have also become more unpredictable. Earlier in the year, all-program draws that covered Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP), and CEC candidates, happened every two weeks. Now that Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is holding targeted draws, they may happen days or hours apart.

So far immigration targets are on course to exceed last year’s levels. Even with travel restrictions in place, there have still been more ITAs issued this year than at the same time in 2019. As of today, May 27, a total of 38,585 Express Entry candidates have been invited to apply for permanent residence in 2020.

Canadian immigration is managed by the federal government. Express Entry is the government’s system for managing immigration applications for three economic-class programs: Federal Skilled Worker, Federal Skilled Trades, and Canadian Experience Class.

The people who are eligible for one of these programs submit their profile into the Express Entry pool, where they are given a CRS score based on their human capital factors such as age, work experience, education, and language ability in English or French.

The highest-ranked candidates are then invited to apply for permanent residence through regular Express Entry draws.

Here is a hypothetical scenario of someone who may have been invited in the latest draw:

Ahmed is 34 years old, holds a bachelor’s degree and has been working as a social services worker for six years. He wrote the IELTS and scored a 7.5 in listening and a 6.5 in every other ability. Ahmed has never worked or studied in Canada. He entered the Express Entry pool in late 2019 with a CRS score of 333. In December 2019, the Canadian province of Nova Scotia used its Labour Market Priorities Stream to invite Ahmed to apply for provincial nomination. With the provincial nomination, Ahmed’s CRS score increased to 933, which was high enough to obtain an ITA during the May 27 Express Entry draw.

Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs