Canada invited 787 PNP candidates to apply for permanent residence through the Express Entry program on 13 April.
All candidates who have been invited previously received a nomination form which is a PNP (Provincial Nominee Program) and they had a CRS (Comprehensive Ranking System) of at least 782. At the time of provincial nomination Express Entry applicants get an automatic 600 point added to their score that’s why the minimum score was relatively high. Without enrollment, the candidates would have had 182 base points as the lowest scoring.
919 PNP candidates with a score of at least 785 were invited by IRCC (Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada) in the previous invitation round.
Start Slow to the year
Canada invited only 6,470 Express Entry applicants to apply for the migration in the first quarter of 2022. It was the slowest first quarter ever since the Express Entry was introduced in 2015.
The overall result of the drop in invitation of IRCC only inviting PNP candidates since 2021, when the draw for CEC (Canadian Express Class) was over.
IRCC released a record 114,431,1 ITAs for all Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates in 2021. This broke the previous record of 107,350 set in 2020.
IRCC has switched the draws for PNP and CEC candidates during the pandemic, to focus on candidates already on work or study permits in Canada.
However, due to travel restrictions-related pandemic, Canada has decided to focus on achieving the goal of the highest migration targets by changing the high number of temporary residents to permanent residents. This strategy caused several Express Entry Candidates to pile up, particularly FSWP candidates that often came from overseas applicants. The backlog because the processing time exceeds the standard of six months.
It is revealed by an internal memo that IRCC decided to halt Express Entry draws for non-PNP programs until the backlog was halved.
Express Entry Program
Express Entry program is an application management system that was implemented on January 1, 2015, by the Canadian migration authorities (IRCC). It includes the migration management program that manages the Federal Skilled worker program, Canadian Experience Class, and Federal Skilled Program.
It uses the CRS (Comprehensive Ranking System), a points-based system to rank the profile of candidates. Top scoring applicants receive an invitation to apply to ITA and then apply for a Permanent Residence Visa.
After approval of the application, confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) is approved by IRCC, then approved applicants can complete the process of landing, if the applicant is outside of Canada, then they can use pre-arrival services to help with the first step of settling of Canada
Stakeholders expect a large number of invitations to continue to flow as Canada moves toward its goal of 411,000 new permanent residents in 2022, it is difficult to estimate the CRS score with a program-specific draw during the COVID-19 crisis.
Invited Candidate
Here is a hypothetical example given below of someone who may have been invited to the new PNP draw.
Jacob is 30 years old; he has a bachelor’s degree and had been working as a software developer for six years. He has proficient in English and he has never studied or worked in Canada. He entered the Express Entry pool with a 486 CRS score. Jacob recently got a provincial nomination. His new CRS score would have been high enough to get an ITA in the new draw.
