Express Entry: A Glimpse at Express Entry Draws Mechanism

There is no predefined rule to decide the frequency of Express Entry Draw so anybody who claims its Predictions are baseless.

The recent draws were held on January 11, This Express Entry draw was conducted after a gap of around 47 days. It is known to be conducted twice a month normally on a time gap of two weeks probably on alternate Wednesdays.

The recent Express draws conducted by IRCC were in a short span one after the other. There are no official reasons for this frequency shift but from some sources, an IRCC spokesperson revealed that this draw frequency was affected due to a system glitch caused by the implementation of NOC 2021, saying, “Technical issues with the implementation of the new classification system on November 16, 2022, had adverse implications for November 23, 2022, Express Entry invitation round. These technical issues, while a great inconvenience to IRCC clients have since been resolved. A round of invitations for Express Entry was successfully implemented on January 11, 2023.” Now, this has been indicated that IRCC will resume its scheduled ITA rounds of Express Entry.

Canada Immigration under the EE applications management system picks the candidates from the following three pools of highly skilled economic immigrants categorized as programs:

1. The Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP)
2. The Canadian Experience Class (CEC)
3. The Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP)

The aspirants update their profile with IRCC based on their Profile CRS score is evaluated and assigned to applicants. On the conduct of the draw, Maximum CRS holders are offered ITA (invitation to apply) for Canadian Permanent residency.

1. EE started in 2015 and used to conduct 25-30 draws annually each aimed to invite around 2000 potential applicants with skills in high demand for PR to surge the Canadian Economy.
2. From 2017 to 2019 no. of invitations in each draw increased to around 3,000. By 2017 IRCC had shifted from existing paper-based application processing to electronic system implementation through EE causing it to increase ITAs since then.
3. Draws targeting all mentioned programs continued till the year 2019 with few additional draws for FSTP.
4. At the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 restrictions decelerated the EE ITAs and since December 2020 no ITAs were issued for FSWP, and FSTP through an invitation for CEC continued till September 2021 and created a backlog of applications. In this tenure, IRCC uses to Issue ITAs through EE from PNPs.
5. In July 2022 EE resumed a pre-COVID-19 path for all programs this also increased the number of ITAs in each draw one after the other until November last week of the preceding year. Then it went to Sudden Halt may be due to the implementation of NOC 2021.

As per IRPA (Immigration and Refugees Protection Act) there are no guidelines about the frequency of EE draws to call ITAs and the number of applicants invited. This all goes unto Canadian authorities and IRCC ITAs through Minimum CRS is derived from the pool of pending applications. Canadian Authorities Invite applications based on economic preferences and the demand for labor force in the market allowing immigrants to induct into the Canadian Market.

To know more about Canada PR visa

As per the target for 2023, Canada is set to call around 85000 thousand invitations

Around 19000 more invitations to the proceeding years EE ITAs and likely to

Increase by 25000 by the year 2024 to invite around 110000 Federal High Skilled

Candidates as per the immigration goals of IRCC.

IRCC with the Canadian ministry examines targets and goals to invite the number of

Applicant, no. of invitations derives the minimum CRS from the pool of filed candidates.