Canada has held another round of Express Entry invitations, inviting candidates who had provincial nominations.

Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) issued 118 invitations to Express Entry candidates on April 15. Invited candidates required a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 808.

These candidates had previously received provincial nominations and were awarded an additional 600 points toward their overall score. This means without the provincial nomination the candidate would have had a CRS of 208.

If you were an Express Entry candidate in the pool who obtained at least a 208 on the human capital characteristics of your CRS score, plus a provincial nomination, you would have received an Invitation to Apply (ITA) for permanent residence in this draw.

Candidates are ranked in the pool based on the CRS that considers 4 main factors: –

1. Age
2. Education
3. Skilled work experience
4. Proficiency in English or French

The highest-scoring candidates are then invited through regular Express Entry draws. Since the government announced special coronavirus measures restricting travel on March 18, Canada has held Express Entry draws targeting provincial nominees and Canadian Experience Class candidates. The last two Express Entry draws both occurred on April 9, just six days ago. One was also a provincial nominee program-specific draw.

Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) allow Canadian provinces to nominate individuals who support their regional labour market and population objectives. Most Canadian provinces and territories have PNPs aligned with Express Entry, except for Quebec and Nunavut.

Since the previous all-program draw held on March 4, several of Canada’s Express Entry-aligned provincial nomination streams have issued invitations, including streams in Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

Canada’s various PNP streams have already held more than 30 draws since the start of 2020.

Express Entry is not a program itself, rather an application management system for three federal immigration programs: the Canadian Experience Class, the Federal Skilled Worker Program and the Federal Skilled Trades Program.

The April 15 Express Entry draw brings the total number of ITAs issued this year to 26,618, which is more than there were on the same date last year and the year before.

Under its 2020-2023 Immigration Levels Plan, the Government of Canada is targeting the admission of 341,000 immigrants in 2020, 351,000 in 2021, and another 361,000 in 2023. PNP admissions are set to increase by 20 per cent by 2023.

Before coronavirus changed the Canadian immigration landscape, Express Entry draws in 2020 happened fairly regularly every two weeks. Since March 18, however, we’re starting to see a more irregular pattern of draws. Whereas before draws typically included candidates from all streams, the past four draws, including this one, have either targeted provincial nominees or Canadian Experience Class candidates.

IRCC used its tie-break rule in this draw. This means that all candidates with a CRS score of 808 and above who submitted their profile before March 18, 2020 at 10:30:55 UTC received an ITA in this invitation round.