Eligibility depends on several things. They include; English Proficiency, work experience, level of Education, Skills, CRS Score, Age, Marital Status, health, among others. It takes an average of six months to receive an invite once your profile has been added to the express entry Canada pool. No cost is incurred in completing an Express Entry Profile but once you get an Invitation to Apply or granted permanent residence be ready to pay the stipulated application fees and a right of permanent residence fee respectively.
Canada’s high skilled immigration admission target for permanent residence was 85.800 up from 81,400 in 2019. In the year 2020 alone, Canada has offered 61,321 Invitations to Apply (ITAs). The ITAs were offered after 21 draws were conducted, 18 of which were held as from March 2020 after the pandemic hit and travel restriction were imposed globally. All 18 draws including the most recent Skilled Trades draw were awarded to Provincial Nominee Program and Canadian Express Class (CEC) candidates. Out of the 18 draws, nine were offered to Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) candidates while the other nine were offered to Canadian Express Class (CEC) candidates.
The explanation behind it was that most candidates from both programs were already in Canada and would not be affected by the global travel restrictions imposed early this year compared to other candidates who were arriving through other Express Entry linked programs. COVID 19 crisis has hurt Canada permanent resident admissions. To mitigate this issue, the majority of draws demand a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of around 470 to give the Canadian Immigration authorities to meet their targeted immigration levels for the year. Stakeholders still expect to see near 30 draws conducted and more than 80,000 invitations issued to candidates from all Express Entry Programs.
