On February 13, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) invited 27,332 candidates in its latest Express Entry draw under the Canadian Experience Class (CEC). The Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) cut-off was 75. Seventy-five. That is not a typo.
It is the biggest Express Entry draw since the system launched in 2015. Before this one, CEC candidates usually needed a CRS of around 468 or higher to receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) for permanent residency. The draw was limited to CEC candidates, meaning people who already have qualifying Canadian work experience.
Marco Mendicino, then Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, said on Twitter that “Canada set a record by issuing invitations to 27,332 skilled temporary workers with Canadian experience in a single draw for PR earlier this February. Five times greater than ANY single previous draw from the CEC pool and will accelerate our economic recovery.”
The size of the draw surprised most immigration practitioners and applicants. The simpler reading is that Ottawa needs to hit its immigration targets even with the pandemic still on, and dropping the CRS floor on candidates who are already in the country is one of the faster ways to do that.