Having work experience in Canada is a must to qualify for the CEC program. This means around 90% of Express Entry CEC and PNP candidates are in Canada at any point in time or are linked to the country. IRCC prioritizes these candidates because they’re already domestic and are less at risk of facing challenges caused by the COVID-19-related restrictions.
Since June 21, immigrants outside of Canada with Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) have been unable to enter Canada to complete their landing requirements. This stops them from completing the final steps to becoming permanent residents.
Express Entry Invitations to Apply (ITAs) have been on a steady increase lately. The number of invitations for 2021 is almost double when compared with that of the previous year. The IRCC is well on its way to welcoming the required 108,500 Express Entry candidates before the end of 2021.
The increase or decrease of the minimum required Express Entry points depends on the conditions of the CEC or PNP draws. CEC draws are centred on one stream of applicants, and when candidates with high scores are chosen from the top of the list, the minimum points cutoff drops. CEC candidates also don’t have to compete in the Federal Skilled Worker Program and don’t enjoy the same benefit as the PNP candidates who automatically get 600 points added to their score because they were nominated by a province.
Express Entry, what’s it all about? The Express Entry’s point-based system is controlled by the CRS. It assesses factors like the education, skilled work experience, age, and official Canadian languages proficiency of an applicant. The CRS assigns points based on the applicant’s competency for all the factors and awards a score out of 1,200 points. Most immigration applicants score less than 500 points.
Some invitations to apply for provincial nominations also work through the Express Entry system. There are three Federal High Skilled programs that make up the Express Entry system: the CEC, Federal Skilled Worker Program, and Federal Skilled Trades program.
