Following a now familiar pattern, IRCC held two back to back draws on August 4 and 5. The first one for candidates who received a provincial nomination and the second for eligible CEC only. A total of 3,512 immigration candidates received invitations and now can apply for permanent residency.
IRCC holds new PNP specific draw
Candidates with provincial nominations receive invitations to IRCC’s latest Express Entry draw
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held a new Express Entry draw on August 4, 2021 for PNP candidates only.
This means, the candidates who were selected had to have received a provincial nomination after being selected in a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) draw.
A total of 512 candidates received an Invitation to Apply (ITAs). The minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score required for the draw was 760 or more. This is higher than the scoring requirement for IRCC’s previous PNP-specific draw when candidates needed a score of 734.
However, since provincial nominee candidates are automatically awarded an additional 600 points on their existing CRS score, each candidate’s actual score is 160.
A cutoff time was published by IRCC for the tie-break rule. This is always published regardless of whether there is an actual tie or not. In order to be eligible for this draw, candidates had to have submitted their Express Entry profile no later than March 5, 2021, at 22:38:31 UTC.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, the borders in Canada have been closed to most travelers.
Restrictions have slowly been lifting and as of June 21, 2021, Canadian borders have been opened up again to approved permanent residents.
Given the easing of restrictions, it remains to be seen whether IRCC will start holding draws for candidates outside of Canada in the coming weeks and months.
3,000 Express Entry candidates invited in new CEC specific draw
CEC candidates with scores as low as 404 receive invitations
Following the PNP-specific draw, on August 5, 2021, IRCC held a new draw and issued invitations to 3,000 Entry candidates.
The candidates were selected from the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and met a minimum scoring requirement of 404. They can now apply for their permanent residency.
While the required score of 404 is quite low, the previous CEC specific draw had an even lower score, at 357. The lowest score ever required, continues to be at 75 from IRCC’s historic February 13 draw.
For administrative purposes, a cut-off time always needs to be established as per the tie-break rule. During this draw, only the profiles that were submitted by August 3, 2021, at 05:39:25 UTC were considered for selection.
IRCC is continuing its pattern of holding CEC and PNP only draws since the start of this year. The reason being, most of the selected candidates are already living and working in Canada, which significantly simplifies the landing and permanent resident process.
By holding frequent draws, IRCC is inching closer to meeting its immigration targets for 2021.
To date, a total of 143,000 newcomers have been welcomed into the country. For the rest of the year, Canada will need to complete the landings of approximately 43,000 newcomers on a monthly basis to reach its goal of 401,000 new permanent residents.