Express Entry Draws : Jan 20 and Jan 21, 2021

 

About Express Entry Draws

Express Entry is the Government of Canada program to help migration of skilled workers to Canada to meet Canadian labour market needs. About roughly every two weeks, on a wednesday or a thursday, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) draws from the pool of express entry candidates, and invites them to apply for permanent residence.

This week IRCC did two consecutive draws on January 20 and January 21 respectively. 

Express Entry Draw #173 : January 20, 2021

On January 20, IRCC performed an express entry draw specifically for Provincial Nominee Class. This means that the candidates who were invited to apply for permanent residence were the ones who had successfully secured nomination from one of the Canadian provinces. 

Canadian provinces have the jurisdiction to nominate individuals in high demand which provides them with 600 additional points towards their CRS score. This ensures that candidates with a provincial nomination easily cross the express entry cut-offs in general cases. 

In this draw the lowest CRS score of the invited candidates was 741 and a total of 374 individuals were invited to apply. This means that without the provincial nomination, the lowest CRS score would effectively be 141. This instills hope in candidates with CRS scores below the usual express entry cut-offs, that they have a fair chance at Canadian permanent residence if they are nominated by a Canadian province.

Express Entry Draw #174 : January 21, 2021

IRCC did another EE draw on January 21. In this draw IRCC invited candidates applying within the Canadian Experience Class (CEC). These are individuals who at least have 1 year of work experience in Canada (check detailed eligibility here).

The lowest CRS score for the candidates invited in this draw was 454 and a total of 4,626 individuals were invited to apply for PR. This CRS cut-off is 7 points below the previous cut-off of 461 which was done on Jan 6, 2021.

Future CRS Prediction

Given the trend from last few draws as well as higher immigration targets for this year, it is expected that if IRCC continues doing CEC draws, the CRS cut-off would continue to go down. IRCC prefers to do CEC draws since those candidates are mostly already within Canada, have Canadian work experience and can hence assimilate in the economy much easily, and are not impacted by the travel restrictions in place due to the COVID19 pandemic.

This is great news for applicants within the Canadian Experience Class who had been sitting and waiting at a lower CRS as now they might get invited if CRS cut-off drops below their CRS scores.

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