On 16^th March, 2022, Canada sent out 924 Express Entry invitations to candidates seeking permanent residency.

In the latest round of invitation, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) considered only Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) candidate applications. The candidates who held a Comprehensive Ranking Score (CRS) of minimum 754 points were only eligible to get invitations. Since the PNP candidates have the advantage of 600 bonus points while receiving their nomination, the cut off score was comparatively higher. Otherwise, the lowest score of the candidates would have been just 154 base points without the nomination.

There is a time frame of 60 days for the invited candidates to apply for Canadian permanent residency.

As opposed to the previous invitation count for Express Entry which was 1047 PNP candidates, IRCC invited less candidates i.e. 924 in this round.

What time are the CEC and FSWP invitations expected to recommence?

From December 2020 till now, Canada has not carried out any Express Entry draw for Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) candidates and since September 2021 not a single draw for Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates.

However, Sean Fraser, the Immigration Minister of Canada earlier announced that the draws for these candidates would resume in near future, there hasn’t been any update on that till date.

Generally, when Express Entry candidates put an application for permanent residency, they are eligible for Bridging Open work Permit (BOWP) which enables them to continue working in Canada while their PR application is under process.

But, the Candidates who have applied for Express Entry and do not hold a provincial nomination, fear that they would be asked to either apply for a fresh work permit or leave their current jobs. They might even be asked to leave the country as well without having an opportunity to apply.

Express Entry candidates who have applied from outside of Canada could possibly have to reappear for another language test if their previous language test scores expire in order to remain eligible.

Data on the Number of ITAs issued in the time period from January 1 to march 16 for 2021 and 2022.

In 2021, approximately 39,000 ITAs were issued whereas

In 2022, approximately 5000 ITAs have been issued till date.

A brief about Express Entry

The three federal high-skilled immigration programs named

The Canadian Express Class
The Federal Skilled Workers Program and
The Federal Skilled Trades Program

are taken care of under the Canada’s application management system popularly known as The Express Entry.’

A specific Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) is designed to filter immigration applications and rank the candidates on the basis of their age, educational qualification, work experience, language test scores and few more. Candidates who manage to accumulate the maximum score fall eligible to receive invitations to apply for PR through regular Express Entry draws. It’s likely to get a PR invitation by applying directly through Express Entry. Nonetheless, a provincial nominee gets an edge of 600 CRS points which will eventually assure you an Invitation to Apply (ITA) I a consequent Express Entry draw.