Four lessons from Express Entry’s largest draw ever, so you can catch the next one

In periods of huge invitation issuances, prepared candidates thrive, while others miss out on their opportunity to immigrate—regardless of their CRS score.

In the last 30 days, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has issued more than 30,000 invitations to apply (ITAs)—a huge number of invitations for the Express Entry system, but one that was once almost equaled in a single draw.

On February 13, 2021, the immigration department conducted the largest-ever draw under the Express Entry system—inviting 27,332 Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates with a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) cut-off score of just 75 points.

See how competitive your Express Entry profile is

While candidates in the Express Entry pool cannot predict when the next big draw is, they can be prepared for the next big opportunity.

We cover four important lessons from the 2021 draw:

Getting into the Express Entry pool sooner grants you more opportunities.
You may be invited before your CRS goes up;
You must be aware of the tie-breaking rule; and
Keeping your profile aligned with current trends helps your chances of an ITA.

Lesson 1: You should get into the Express Entry pool as soon as you can

The first and biggest lesson is simple: You cannot benefit from unexpected opportunities if you are not in the pool.

Usually, Express Entry candidates with CRS scores in the 200s or 300s would never expect an ITA from a federal draw.

However, with the advent of category-based selection rounds (which target candidates eligible for IRCC's targeted categories), as well as program draws, some 2025 Express Entry draws have featured CRS cut-offs in the high 300 points range.

Further to this point, four of the ten biggest draws in Express Entry’s history have occurred within the last two years—a factor which directly correlates to lower CRS cut-offs.

If you delay creating your Express Entry profile because your CRS score feels “too low,” you risk missing:

An unusually large draw;
A category-based draw where your occupation or language skills are suddenly in demand; or
A provincial nomination opportunity that requires an active Express Entry profile.

Candidates are always able to increase their eligibility after they enter the pool, but waiting to do so is often a recipe for missed opportunities.

Lesson 2: You may be invited sooner than you expect

The second lesson to take away is that there is real value in keeping your profile in the candidate pool—in fact, you may be issued an ITA even before your CRS score goes up.

The example of how work experience is counted for ITA eligibility is a clear example of this.

Contrary to popular belief, when IRCC considers work experience for the purpose of issuing an ITA, they do not calculate by exact date, but rather by month.

This means if you started your work experience on January 27, 2025, you would gain an additional year of work experience on January 1, 2026, not January 27, 2026.

Thus, your ITA eligibility may come before the actual increase in your CRS score.

It is not uncommon for candidates to receive ITAs up to two months prior to their work experience increase, with IRCC making the assumption that they will hit the next level of work experience by the time they submit a complete application for PR.

Assuming that you need to reach the next big “upgrade” to your profile before receiving an ITA can be yet another way to miss out on opportunities.

Further to this point, candidates should update and renew their profiles as soon as possible.

See how competitive your Express Entry profile is

Lesson 3: The tie-breaking rule can make or break your chances of getting an ITA.

In every round of invitations, IRCC applies a tie-breaking rule.

If more than one candidate has a CRS score equivalent to the cut-off CRS score for that draw, the system gives priority to candidates who submitted their Express Entry profile earlier, based on the date and time of submission.

This underscores the importance of submitting your Express Entry profile as soon as possible, and then continuing to update and renew it as needed—candidates can miss out on a big opportunity simply by submitting their profile late, even if they meet all other selection criteria.

Letting your Express Entry profile or your language test results expire also comes with tie-breaking rule implications.

How to avoid missing your chance because your profile expired

There are two key factors to every Express Entry profile that candidates need to be aware of when applying:

The one-year validity period for each Express Entry profile; and
The two-year validity period for language tests.

Express Entry profiles expire after one year. If yours expires, you must submit a new profile, and your new submission date replaces the old one—which can change how you are impacted by the tie-breaking rule.

Due to this reason, it is generally advisable for candidates in the pool to resubmit their Express Entry profile as soon as it expires.

Not only can a delay mean missed opportunities while you are out of the pool, but the sooner that you resubmit, the sooner you will land in the tie-breaking rule “safe-zone”, where enough time has elapsed that you will likely be included in future draws if there is a CRS cut-off that matches your score.

Language test results needed to maintain a valid profile expire every two years. Like the expiry of a profile, letting your language scores expire means that you need to resubmit another profile, and you will see your time of submission reset.

Unlike the expiry of your Express Entry profile, renewing your language scores does not necessitate resubmitting your entire profile. Pre-empting the expiry of your language test scores by uploading new results can save significant time and ensure you remain eligible for future draws.

Lesson 4: Keep your profile aligned with current selection trends where possible

Immigration draws are driven by immigration priorities.

The 2021 CEC mega-draw was driven by pandemic-related immigration priorities.

Today, IRCC is using other policy tools—most notably category-based selection—to target candidates who match specific economic and immigration priorities.

To recap, IRCC currently runs category-based draws for:

French-language proficiency;
Healthcare and social services occupations;
Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) occupations;
Trade occupations;
Agriculture and agri-food occupations;
Education occupations; and
A newly-added Physicians with Canadian work experience category.

To be eligible for these rounds, candidates must:

Meet the minimum criteria for Express Entry; and
Meet additional category requirements, such as
- Having at least NCLC 7 in French for French-language proficiency draws, or
- Having at least 6 months of continuous work experience in a listed occupation in the last 3 years for occupation-based categories (in the case of the newly-added category, 1 year of Canadian work experience in the last 3 years).

Understanding these trends can help your chances of being selected within the Express Entry system.

For example, if you are building work experience in a category-eligible occupation, you may find benefit in listing this work experience in your profile as soon as possible, as this will allow IRCC to recognize that you are building relevant work experience that is attractive under the federal immigration system.

Similarly, if you are working towards NCLC 7 in French, you may wish to add your incremental score increases in French ability while you work towards that level.

While a level 7 is required to qualify for category selection, you can start earning points for your French ability starting at an NCLC level 5. This allows you to increase your CRS incrementally while you make your way to category eligibility.

See how competitive your Express Entry profile is