Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has held its first Express Entry round of invitations in over a month.
It issued 3,200 invitations to candidates in an all-program draw.
The minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score required to receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) was 531.
There were more Express Entry draws this summer than in previous years due to the introduction of category-based selection rounds of invitations. However, until today a draw has not taken place since the most recent all-program draw on August 15 in which 4,300 candidates received ITAs.
IRCC has not provided an explanation for the pause in draws. On September 18, it confirmed it would be resuming Express Entry draws this week.
Category-based selection
On May 31, IRCC introduced six new categories that may be eligible for category-based selection Express Entry draws. One is for Express Entry candidates who have strong French-speaking ability and the other five are for candidates who have work experience in one of the following sectors:
- Healthcare
- STEM professions
- Trades
- Transport
- Agriculture and agri-food
On June 28, IRCC issued the first category-based selection invitations to candidates who had experience in a healthcare profession. Since then, there have been draws for those in STEM professions, trades and candidates with proficiency in French.
Eligible candidates for an ITA through category–based selection must still be in an Express Entry program, and it is advantageous to get as high a CRS score as possible as IRCC will still be ranking candidates against each other.
IRCC has said that the new categories will help Canada fill urgent job vacancies in in-demand sectors of Canada’s workforce and help strengthen the economy. The categories were chosen following discussions with provincial governments, business associations and other IRCC partners and stakeholders.
