Historic Express Entry Draw
February 13 was a historic date for Express Entry — Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) invited around 27 thousand (27,332 to be precise) candidates to apply for permanent residence through the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) program.
To give you an idea of just HOW impressive this draw is, the previous record high draw was 5,000 Invitations to Apply (ITAs). In this draw, the minimum cutoff Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score to be selected was only 75 points…. 75!! The minimum cutoff score in the draw prior to this one (general draw, including CECs) was 454. This is the first time in the history of Express Entry that the minimum cutoff CRS score was below 100. For all programs aside for Federal Skilled Trades, the minimum cutoff was usually over 400 since the Express Entry system was established.
To better understand the Express Entry draws and the recent statistics, please check out IMMIgroup’s Express Entry page (scroll to the bottom). They have a list of all the draws to date, grouped by number of invitations, CRS scores, and programs the draws were conducted for (general vs. program specific).
Graph depicting the minimum CRS scores for the 2021 CEC draws. As you can see, they went from 461 points to a staggering, 75.
Image courtesy: immigration.ca
So what does this move mean? Attorneys are saying that this move by the IRCC demonstrates the government’s commitment to the immigration targets set out for the years 2021–2023. Canada set a target to invite over 400,000 immigrants per year during this period, with a strong focus on the skilled worker programs (managed through Express Entry).
During the pandemic, the IRCC is making an effort to transition more temporary residents within Canada to permanent residents. This is especially evident in their focus on inviting as many as possible during the start of the year. The IRCC also stresses their commitment to bringing in skilled talent from outside Canada to support the recovery of the country post-pandemic. This will most likely be a focus after pandemic related restrictions start easing.
To learn more about this historic draw (and to see some really relevant graphs showing Express Entry statistics), you can check out the following posts:
- Express Entry: Canada invites 27,332 immigration candidates in historic Saturday draw
- Canada Express Entry Draw Obliterates Records With 27,332 Invites and Minimum CRS of 75
- Express Entry Draw — Latest Figures
Original story posted at VisaWire: https://www.visawireapp.com/blog/historic-express-entry-draw
