IRCC Invites Close to Four Thousand Candidates for its Express Entry Draw – ASKMigration: Canadian Lifestyle Magazine

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, (IRCC), sent 3,750 Invitations To Apply (ITAs) for the third Express entry selection draw based on healthcare categories. For the Comprehensive Ranking System, an applicant must score at least 445. Applicants who score below the minimum requirements will not be eligible to participate in the healthcare selection category.

Around 1,800 candidates were eligible to participate in the July 4 category-based trade occupations draw. Earlier in the week, the IRCC also conducted a draw for Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP). All 920 candidates invited scored at least 739 points, the minimum required for the draw. The total score is affected by a number of factors, which we will discuss below. In total — including the healthcare category-based draw — the number of Invitations to Apply issued is close to 7,000 invitations. Approximately 6,470 to be precise. By far it’s the highest number of ITAs issued since April 2024.

The IRCC’s express selection draw began in early 2024 and since May 30, about four program-specific draws have been held, with three of them for the PNP candidates. The express draw will only consider candidates who have joined the Express Entry program, which includes the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), the CEC or the Federal Skilled Trades Programs (FSTP). For the PNP-specific draws, only those candidates nominated by enhanced nomination will be considered. This is a process which involves nominating applicants via an Express Entry stream in a Provincial Nominee Program. You may not be considered if you weren’t nominated through the Express Entry aligned stream of a PNP.

The category-based draw was first introduced in May 2023. However, it has only just been implemented. There were plans to stabilize temporary resident numbers in Canada. One way to do this was to offer temporary residents or work or student visas.

CEC was the place where several temporary residents who had applied for permanent residence and lived in Canada or were currently living there, applied for their permanent visa. The same goes for PNP applicants. The IRCC can thus meet its annual target for Federal High Skilled Workers entry outlined in Immigration Plan. They can also reduce the number temporary residents in Canada.