Express Entry Is Back | First FSWC Draw Since COVID-19

Canada has resumed all-program Express Entry draws and is now issuing Invitations To Apply (ITA) to candidates for the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP). Since COVID-19 became a problem in Canada as well, IRCC had limited the intake of the number of applications from either the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) or the Canadian Experience Class (CEC).

Most of the CEC applicants were already in Canada, and they are not affected by existing travel restrictions in Canada. Candidates for the PNPs continue to be invited to enable provinces to fulfil their labour shortages. It is important to note, however that, while Canada had restricted FSWP and FSTP candidates, some of the CEC and PNP candidates invited in the preceding draws were still outside Canada.

On this July 8, however, Express Entry returned for the first time in more than four months to all-program draws.

It is an all-program draw, which means that applicants in the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) and Federal Skilled Trades (FST) programs have been selected. 3,900 applicants have been given Invitations To Apply (ITA) in this July 8 Express Entry Draw for migrating to Canada. The cut-off CRS score for this draw was 478 points in the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS).

This is the first all-program draw since 4 March 2020 because the COVID-19  travel restrictions had forced IRCC to temporarily limit the draws to candidates that were more likely to be within Canada.

Owlspriority Immigration’s Panel of RCISs as well as other seasoned Canadian immigration consultants attorneys opine that the cut-off CRS in the upcoming Express Entry draws will have to come down drastically because of the following reasons. This inspires Express Entry (mainly, the Federal Skilled Worker Class) aspirants who are either in the Express Entry pool already, or, on the path to be in the pool for selections.