Canada invited more than 1,000 Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) candidates to apply for permanent residence in Canada in the latest Express Entry draw.
This round of the draw, held on January 19, 2022, by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), saw 1,036 PNP applicants issued invitations to apply (ITAs) for Canadian PR.
In the two invitation rounds held so far this year, 1,428 Express Entry candidates have been invited to apply for permanent residency in Canada, with all applicants being selected from the PNP pool.
The Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) cutoff score for this invitation round was 745 points. However, with applicants being automatically granted 600 points for PNP selection, the CRS score requirement from other factors such as age, education and work experience was only 145.
The cutoff score of 745 points for this invitation round was lower than the previous draw, which was held on January 5 had a minimum requirement of 808 points.
After the latest invitation round, less than 193,000 Express Entry candidates remain in the pool. Around 80 per cent of these candidates are from the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), with the remaining approximately 20 per cent belonging to the Canadian Experience Class (CEC).
Before the pandemic, FSWP candidates were the most commonly invited group of applicants and accounted for about 45 per cent of all Express Entry invitations issued in 2019.
However, IRCC has focused on inviting PNP candidates this year, as evidenced in the 1,428 PNP applicants being issued ITAs for Canadian permanent residency in the two draws held this year. The last time FSWP candidates were invited to apply for permanent Canadian immigration was in December 2020.
According to an internal memo, IRCC paused CEC draws to reduce application backlogs that have piled up due to the pandemic and get Express Entry processing times back down to six months, which had risen to around nine months in 2020.
Express Entry is Canada’s application management system for three federal immigration programs: the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), and Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP).
Express Entry immigration candidates are awarded points based on several factors, including age, level of education and work experience. IRCC then invites the highest-scoring candidates to apply for Canadian immigration in each invitation round.
PNP applicants are also awarded an additional 600 points on their profiles, which is why invitation rounds for PNP applicants have higher CRS cutoff scores.
After reviewing the immigration applications lodged by invited candidates, IRCC then issues a Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) to successful applicants to confirm their status as permanent Canadian immigrants.
