Canada Latest Express Entry Draw Create a New PNP Record

On January 19, Canada held an Express Entry draw and had issued invitations to 1036 immigration candidates to apply for permanent residence. IRCC only invited PNP (Provincial Nominee Program) candidates, because of which the CRS cutoff score was 745. All the PNP immigration candidates get an additional 600 points to receive their nomination.

All the Express Entry draws since September 2020 have been for the PNP immigration candidates only. The last CEC (Canadian Experience Class) candidates were invited to was September 14, 2020.

By far in the new year 2022, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has invited 1428 PNP immigration candidates under Canada Express Entry Draw. Lately, the comprehensive ranking system score has been in the 700-800 range during the last 10 PNP-centric express entry draws. This time the cut-off was 745 lower than the 808 CRS requirement for the first EE draw of the year on January 5.

Express Entry Pool is Dominated by FSWP and CEC Candidates

Till January 4, there are about 194000 express entry candidates in the EE pool. Out of which, 80% of the immigration candidates are eligible for the Federal Skilled Worker Program, almost 20% qualify for CEC. These numbers might be assumptions, however, the difference makes up for the number of candidates who qualify for other programs like PNP and the Federal Skilled Trades Program.

The Canadian immigration body, IRCC has not issued invitations to FSWP candidates to apply for permanent residence since December 2020. Before the outburst of COVID-19, FSWP immigration candidates were by far the most commonly invited. Almost 45% of the express entry invitations went to FSWP candidates in the year 2019. However, since FSWP immigration candidates have not had the chance to apply for more than a year, the EE pool has filled up.

The number of CEC candidates in the express entry pool has exponentially increased. Currently, they make up nearly 20% of the total pool, whereas six months before they just contributed about 8% only.

An internal notice from the month of September suggested that IRCC put on hold on CEC draws in order to reduce the application backlogs and get the express entry processing back to six months. In 2020, the average processing time for the express entry candidate was up to nine months.

However, IRCC ramped up the processing by 45000 applications monthly, the backlog spiked by 21000 applications between the months of October and December. During that time, the Express Entry backlog descend to 119000 from 138000. Most of the progress that happened was due to the reduction in CEC application backlogs, which went down from 48000 to 25000 in December. The FSTP backlog also decreased to 805 from 931 in December.

The FSWP backlog increased by 4000 applications between October and December. Similarly, The PNP backlog also rose by 1000 during the same duration.

What is Express Entry?

Express Entry is Canada’s immigration application management system for three Canadian immigration programs: CEC (Canadian Experience Class), FSWP (Federal Skilled Worker Program), and FSTP (Federal Skilled Trades Program). The Provincial Nominee Program candidates in the Express Entry pool are eligible for one of these programs.

Express Entry uses a point-based system (CRS) to evaluate the candidates. The higher-scoring candidates receive an invitation to apply for the PR.

After this, an IRCC official assesses the application to make an informed decision about the applicant. After this step, IRCC further requests for biometrics to set up an interview or request more documents.

If the application is approved, IRCC sends COPR (Confirmation of Permanent Residence) and approved permanent residents can move ahead with the landing process.