Second Express Entry draw in a week invites candidates with scores as low as 288

Canada held program specific draw for both Federal Skill Trade Class and Provincial Nominee Program.

As on date 30 May 500 Invitation to Apply got issued with a minimum CRS Score to be 288 and 200 Invitation to Apply for Provincial Nominee Program with a minimum CRS Score of 902.

Express Entry candidate with a provincial nomination get an extra 600 points towards their CRS Score, this explains the high cut-off score.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada employed its tie-break procedure in both instances. For FSTC and PNP candidates, the date and time of the tie-break was May 30, 2018 at 14:52:06 UTC. This means that all FSTC and PNP candidates with a CRS score above 288 and 902 respectively, as well as those candidates with scores of 288 and 902 who submitted their profile before this date and time, received an ITA in this invitation round.

This draw brings the total ITAs issued in 2018 to 32,200.

The graph below shows a comparison of ITAs issued and target admissions for the years 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Program-specific invitation rounds are usually exceptional to the fact they are not frequent and the majority of which include candidates from all programs managed under the Express Entry system.

The last time a program-specific draw was held was November 1, 2017. That draw, also focused on PNP and Federal Skilled Trades candidates, with the least CRS score drop to 241.

In May 2017, a program-specific draw that was held May 26 was followed five days later by a draw on May 31 that had the lowest minimum CRS score for the Express Entry system – 413.

It is exciting to see how the frequent draws and lower CRS in future help for prospective candidates to apply for Express Entry.