Canada’s Express Entry: 787 Receive Invitations to Apply for Canada PR

Canada holds another Express Entry draw, the first round of invitations to be held this month so far.

 On April 13, 2022, another 787 Canadian immigration hopefuls with their profile in the federal Express Entry pool received invitations to apply. Those invited can now proceed to submitting their complete Canadian permanent residence application through the Express Entry.

 Express Entry invitations are issued by the federal department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

*Only PNP candidates have received ITAs so far this year. IRCC has held 14 PNP-only draws consecutively. The last time that CEC candidates received ITAs was on September 14, 2021. The last all-program IRCC draw was held on December 23, 2020.

 In this context, CRS stands for the Comprehensive Ranking System, a 1,200 points matrix used for ranking profiles in the IRCC Express Entry pool of candidates. It is the highest-ranked that are invited to apply by IRCC. The minimum CRS cut-off varies from draw to draw.

 While the CRS 782 minimum CRS cut-off might appear to be on the higher side, the fact is that a PNP nomination gets CRS 600 points for an Express Entry candidate. Hence, without the PNP nomination, a CRS 782 final score would have been only CRS 182 as per human capital factors (age, work experience, education etc.).

 IRCC applies the tie-breaking rule - applicable only to profiles that have the minimum CRS cut-off - to prioritize profiles created earlier over those that were entered into the IRCC pool at a later date.

 With the tie-breaking rule of April 07, 2022 at 16:31:21 UTC applied by IRCC to the latest Express Entry draw, profiles that received invitations were those with -

• A nomination by any Canadian province or territory under PNP,
• Minimum CRS 782 as their ranking score, and
• Entered in the pool before the tie-break applied.

Three of the main federal economic immigration programs of Canada are handled through the Express Entry system. To be eligible for creating an Express Entry profile with IRCC, a candidate must score 67 points (based on six selection factors) and be eligible for at least one of the programs -

• Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP),
• Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP), or
• Canadian Experience Class (CEC).

Canadian PNP also has many immigration pathways or streams linked with the federal Express Entry system. A nomination through any of the Express Entry-linked PNP streams is referred to as an enhanced nomination and has a fully online application process. Non-Express Entry PNP streams offer base nominations and have a paper-based application process.

 Express Entry Draw #220 is the first to be held this month, and the eighth IRCC draw to be held in 2022. The previous draw by IRCC was held on March 30, 2022.

7,257 ITAs have been issued by IRCC so far in 2022.

 Securing a PNP nomination can get you your Canada PR through Express Entry sooner. With a CRS 600 allotted as additional points for a PNP nomination, your profile gets towards the top of the IRCC pool, thereby guaranteeing an ITA by IRCC in a subsequent draw.

 As on April 11, 2022, there were a total of 200,924 Express Entry profiles in the IRCC pool of Canadian immigration hopefuls. Of these, only 810 were in the CRS 600-1,200 score range. Worth CRS 600 points on its own, a PNP nomination can get you a high CRS score in the 600+ range.