Canadian Immigration IRCC starts the New Year in a big way with around 7,800 invitations to apply in the first two draws. On January 23, IRCC issued 3,900 invitations to apply for Canadian Permanent Residency to candidates with a minimum score of 443. The 7,800 ITA’s issued has been the maximum number ever reached by Canadian Immigration since 2015.

Candidates under the three categories of Express Entry; Federal Skilled Worker Class, Federal Skilled Trades Class, and Canadian Experience Class are ranked based on the scores awarded for factors such as age, qualification, work experience and proficiency in English or French. The New Year’s record start was not unexpected because of Canada’s higher admission targets for the coming years for high skilled economic immigration candidates who will further process their applications for permanent resident status. This has further led to higher targets for the IRCC and they will issue more ITA’s over the course of 2019.

The CRS (Comprehensive Ranking System) score also dropped six points in the start of the New Year. The latest draw took place on January 10, 2019. This decrease was due to the fact that only two weeks elapsed between these two invitation rounds and a gap of three weeks was witnessed from January 10 draw and December 19. This means that if there is less time between draws, then there will be fewer candidates to enter the Express Entry pool, which resulted in the lowering of the minimum CRS score.

The tie break rule was also introduced in the January 23 draw. Candidates with low scores have a golden opportunity now to apply under the PNP. This allows Provinces and Territories to nominate an allotted number of economic immigration candidates for permanent residence every year. A Provincial Nomination through Express Entry-PNP stream will help candidates with an additional 600 points which will help in ensuring Canadian Permanent Residency.