Following the footsteps of the last draw, the latest Express Entry draw sees another drop in CRS score and an increased number of invitations.
In the all-program Express Entry draw, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) sent 2250 invitations to apply (ITA) on August 17 to candidates across three immigration programs maintained under the Express Entry system: Canadian Experience Class (CEC), Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), and Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP).
The minimum score required to get an ITA was 525, a drop of 8 points compared to last draw’s 533 points but still higher than the levels seen in the year 2020’s regular draws, which picked at 468 on December 23, 2020.
This year’s fourth draw covered candidates across all three programs under the Express Entry. There is an uptick of 250 ITAs in today’s draw, totaling 2250 ITAs, compared to 2000 issued on August 3.
The higher CRS score is because the Canadian government shifted its attention to candidates already present in Canada by conducting draws that only included CEC candidates and later PNP candidates exclusive under Express Entry during COVID waves across Canada.
The CRS score is likely to come down as IRCC has started to conduct all program Express Entry draws recently from June 2022 onwards. The other reason for the CRS score to come down soon is, according to Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan for 2022-2024, IRCC is targeting somewhere between 52,000 to 64,000 new immigrants from the programs managed by the Express Entry system, out of which only 13,640 have been invited so far, indicating that IRCC may conduct bigger Express Entry draws in the remaining months of 2022.
How Express Entry works
Express Entry is an online system to manage immigration applications from three programs (CEC, FSWP, and FSTP) created to attract skilled workers. It’s the most prominent across many other programs maintained by Canada to attract skilled and educated immigrants.
The Express Entry system gives points based on a candidate’s education, work experience, age, and language proficiency in English and/or French. Candidates with more points will like to get an ITA to apply for permanent residency in Canada for five years which can be renewed once every five years.
