Published on : September 2, 2021
Key Highlights:
In the latest Express Entry draw, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) sent Invitation to Apply (ITA) to immigration candidates under the Provincial Nominee Program.
The Express Entry draw was held on 1st September and invited all PNP candidates with a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 764 points.
This CRS requirement may seem to be very high, but as PNP candidates get an additional 600 points along with the nomination, they had to have a CRS score of just 164 points.
If two or more candidates tied for the minimum score, the IRCC provided the cut-off time as of April 12, 2021, at 12:21:45 UTC. Providing the cut-off time is mandatory whether there were any ties or not.
More than half a year has passed in 2021, and the IRCC currently invites only PNP and Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates.
While the IRCC has been finalizing applications of candidates under CEC, the candidates who have applied under the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) and Federal Skilled Trades (FST) programs are experiencing significant delays.
On 23rd March, the IRCC removed the progress bar from the online accounts of all candidates. However, they can still check the application status under the ‘Details about application status’ section.
The IRCC has held 17 PNP draws and 16 CEC draws in 2021, sending 106,414 ITAs invitation candidates. The high number of invitations aligns with the country’s target of inviting 108,500 candidates this year through the federal Express Entry System.
This is almost double the number of candidates invited till this time last year. Here is a chart depicting ITAs submitted till this time compared to the previous year:
