Canada has held a first-all program Express Entry draw on July 8 inviting 3,900 Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) candidates to apply for Permanent Residence in Canada since March 4.
As the coronavirus was considered a pandemic and travel restrictions were imposed by Canada to avoid its spread, Express Entry draws were limited to candidates for the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) and the Canadian Experience Class (CEC). This left other program candidates (FSWP and FSTP) in limbo.
Most CEC members are already in Canada and are thus not affected by existing limitations on travel in Canada. PNP candidates also continue to be invited to encourage provinces to meet their labor market needs. Nevertheless, it is important to remember that even though Canada was excluding FSWP and FSTP candidates, some of the CEC and PNP candidates invited in previous draws were also outside of Canada.
Summary of the recent Express Entry draw
Draw date: July 8, 2020.
Program: All Program – FSWP, FSTP, CEC and PNP
Draw Number: 155
The Number of candidates invited in this draw: 3,900
Minimum CRS score required: 478
The total number of Applicants received ITA’s so far this year: 53,800
Tie-break rule applied for this draw: February, 11, at 13:08:31 UTC. I.e. The candidates with 431 score and have submitted their profile before this date and time have received the ITA.
Today's draw was the same size as the previous March 4 round of all-program invitation which issued a total of 3900 ITAs.
It is the 22nd draw of 2020 and takes this year's cumulative number of ITAs to 53,800, a new high for this date. 51, 285 ITAs issued in 2017, whereas 43,500 ITAs in 2018 and 41,800 ITAs in 2019 were issued respectively.
Today's minimum score of 478 was seven points higher than the previous March 4 round of all-program invitation, which had a cut-off score of 471.
The program of Express Entry is the main source of qualified foreign workers in Canada. In 2015, it was implemented to control the pool of applicants for three of Canada’s three high-skilled federal immigration programs — the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Federal Skilled Trades Program, and the Canadian Experience class.
