Canada invited 3,000 Express Entry candidates belonging to the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) to apply for permanent residency in the country in the latest invitation draw.
This round of the draw, held on August 5, 2021, had a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) cutoff score of 404 points for candidates to be invited to apply for Canadian permanent residency.
After this round of the periodic invitation draws, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has now invited 102,316 Express Entry candidates for Canadian immigration so far in 2021.
The CRS score requirement for this invitation round was higher than the 357 points required in the previous draw.
The lowest cutoff score to date was in the draw held on February 13, 2021, when every eligible CEC applicant was invited to apply for permanent residency in Canada with a cutoff score of 75 points.
Since January 2021, IRCC has held Express Entry invitation draws for only CEC and Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) applicants, as these applicants are already likely in Canada or at least have some ties to the country.
An estimated 90 per cent of all the CEC applicants are likely to be onshore, given that Canadian work experience is a key eligibility requirement for this immigration program.
As such, focusing on inviting onshore applicants to apply for Canadian permanent residency has allowed IRCC to work towards meeting its immigration targets for this year while avoiding any pandemic-related travel issues offshore applicants may face.
As part of the new Immigration Levels Plan, Canada has pledged to welcome 1.2 million new permanent residents by 2023, with 401,000 new arrivals expected by the end of this year.
IRCC has already admitted 143,000 new permanent residents to Canada in the first half of this year. To meet its immigration target of 401,000 new arrivals this year, IRCC is now looking to land around 43,000 new permanent residents every month.
So far in 2021, IRCC has issued almost twice the number of invitations to apply (ITAs) compared to this time last year, which suggests that IRCC is doubling down on its efforts to meet the immigration targets for this year; about 108,500 newcomers are expected through the Express Entry system in 2021.
Express Entry is Canada’s points-based immigration system that manages three Federal High Skilled immigration programs: the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP), and Canadian Experience Class (CEC).
Immigration candidates are required to submit their profiles to the Express Entry portal for review. The profiles are then awarded points based on a number of factors, including age, education, work experience, and language skills.
IRCC then selects the highest scoring profiles and invites those candidates to apply for permanent Canadian immigration.
