Canada Express Entry PNP Draw Issues 462 Invitations

With the pandemic affecting the immigration rates in 2020, Canada is trying to welcome a larger number of immigrants this year to boost the recovery of the economy. On July 21, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held the latest Express Entry draw for candidates belonging to the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). The PNP allows Canadian provinces and territories to browse the Express Entry pool of candidates and select the candidates who will be able to satisfy the labor demands of the provincial market.

Details of the draw

The July 21 draw saw Canada issuing 462 invitations to eligible Express Entry candidates. The invited candidates will now have the chance to apply for permanent residence. They needed to have a required score of 734 minimum in order to qualify for this opportunity. There is a reason that the score cut-off was higher than usual.

The candidates who stood a chance of receiving an invitation in this draw had already received provincial nominations.  This means that 600 CRS points had been added to their score by the provinces nominating them. Effectively, the lowest-scoring candidate to receive an invitation had 134 points after excluding the nomination points.

IRCC always sets a cutoff time under the tie-break rule as part of their administrative duties. This cutoff time does not necessarily indicate that there was a tie. For the July 21 draw, only those candidates received invitations who met the minimum score requirement and had registered their Express Entry profile prior to April 11, 2021 at 10:56:32 UTC.