The 21st of July, 2021 witnessed the Maple country extending its efforts towards sending novel invites out to potentially eligible candidates in the group number of 462 targeting them towards Express Entry on account of a probable PR (permanent residency) status.

Everyone part of this invitation process was a past recipient of a PNP nomination (Provincial Nomination Program). Due to this reason, the minimum required score was comparatively higher than normal at a whopping 734. Those belonging to the Canadian pool of Express Entry applicants are immediately liable to procure a bonus of 600 points. However, keeping aside this nomination, the candidates scoring the lowest in this category would have obtained a bare 134 points.

There was the implementation of a tie-breaking rule hosted by the Canadian IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) which was further governed by the existence of a newly added cut-off time. This, however, could be viewed as a mandatory happening from the administrative authorities and doesn’t actually signify the physical necessity of a tie. Those applicants who had bagged the lowest scores were only deemed eligible provided they had securely and legitimately completed their Express Entry profile submission before the 11th of April, 2021 by the time of 10:56:32 UTC.

The last draw hosted as a part of the PNP witnessed the invitations sent out to a large crowd of 627 eligible people. At that time, the minimum required score was 760. Compared to this, the novel launched draw had a reduced CRS cut-off as well as fewer number of ITAs sent out.

CEC draws and the Canadian PNP

Ever since the strike of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRCC has only ever held the successful launch of PNP as well as CEC-specific draws (Canadian Experience Class). The prime reason is that candidates applying through these pathways will already most probably be residing within the nation. This population group also holds a lower chance of facing any disruptions owing to the ongoing restrictions on travel persistent throughout the nation and with regards to its border situation.

Everyone is dutifully witnessing an eventual settling down of COVID-19 associated measures. The month of August shall see the reopening of the Maple country’s borders to cater towards travel of the non-essential category targeted towards those U.S. travelers who have successfully received both shots of the vaccine. Gradually, the month of September shall witness the total reopening of the border towards those individuals wishing to travel to the nation from overseas. On the other hand, all those flights moving directly to and from India still stand canceled until the 21st of August, 2021.

The country had a novel objective of sending out invites to a total of about 401,000 potentially eligible and interested applicants for immigration as per its latest immigration levels plan. They also expect that almost 25% of this figure shall be streamlined into the nation via the Express Entry pathway.

This year witnessed double the number of Express Entry applicants receiving invitations compared to the data and statistics displayed last year. Judging by the latest numbers, the country has extended its arms towards sending out almost 94,304 Express Entry invites. This was calculated during the legendary draw of the 13th of February wherein the IRCC sent out ITAs to all of the candidates waiting within the CEC pool, that is, a total of approximately 27,332 individuals. From these figures, about 85% of them successfully continued with their PR applications before the termination of the deadline of a minimum of 90 days to apply.

The guidelines and mandatory requirements for both, the CEC and PNP draws, are extremely vague and totally distinguishable. The main reason for this is the automatic allocation of a total score of 600 bonus points to all those PNP candidates being a part of the Express Entry pool. Those belonging to the CEC program are super focused and not paying attention to the others in line for invites. This is why IRCC receives better scores and hence the cutoff is dipping lower than was otherwise expected.

Canadian Express Entry

Three of the primarily existent Federal Highly Skilled programs and their immigration system gets managed thanks to this steadfast and feasible points-based conjecture. These are inclusive of the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Canadian Experience Class, and the Federal Skilled Trades Program. In certain cases, the PNPs will also make use of the Express Entry program to send out invites to those eligible and interested individuals to help them proceed with their provincial nominations.

All those eligible for the Express Entry usually receive a detailed scoring as a part of the  Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) on the basis of a variety of factors ranging from one’s age group to their overall working experience in the past to their educational background as well as proficiency in languages (French and/or English).

Hypothetical Scenario of Getting an Invite

Let’s imagine that Myra and Rocky are a married couple and are of the ages 32 and 36 respectively. Both of them have successfully secured their Bachelor’s degrees in Engineering and in Commerce and attempted the IELTS to procure the same scores of an 8 in reading and a 7 in listening, writing, and speaking. Both of them also have a backing up of approximately 3 and 4 years of working experience in their individual streams. They haven’t studied or gotten any relevant working experience in the Maple country. Both of them entered as Express Entry pool applicants whereby Myra secured the position of being a Principal Applicant with a CRS score of 421. She then received a notification of interest from the Canadian province of Ontario and proceeded with her PNP application. She further received her ITA signaling potential PR application thanks to an increase in her original score to 1021. All of this took place while she was a part of the Canadian Express Entry draw process.