January’s Express Entry draw Caps Record High as CRS hits a Comfortable Low

The Express Entry draw for January 30 saw a record total of 11,150 ITAs issued this year so far, marking a five-year record for the Express Entry system itself.

The CRS(Comprehensive Ranking System) score’s cutoff was at 438, a five-point dip since the last draw on January 23 and the lowest number since October 4, 2017, for an all-program draw through Canada’s Express Entry system.
The Federal Skilled Worker Class, Federal Skilled Trades Class, and the Canadian Experience Class are Federal High Skilled economic immigration categories managed by the Express Entry System.

Criteria such as age, education, work experience and proficiency in English and French factor into the CRS score and candidates who meet the eligibility requirements for these criteria get to enter into the Express Entry pool. This is followed by the issuing of invitations to apply for Canadian permanent residence for the highest scoring candidates through regular invitation rounds, every two weeks.

The one-week gap between the last draw and this week’s draw helps explain today’s low CRS cut-off. The short duration between draws means the pool of candidates has less time to fill up with higher-scoring candidates.

So, the total number of invitations issued in January this week comes up to 3,350 ITAs; the highest number of invitations for the any week in the month of January since the inception of the Express Entry system in 2015. The total number for the month of January is at a staggering 11,150 and this is a pretty good start. The admission targets for 2019 and 2020 are higher, and so, the IRCC will have to issue more ITAs over the course of this year than in 2018.