Canada often invites residents to apply for citizenship through their express entry program. On July the eighth, 4,500 residents were invited to take the leap of faith and apply for permanent residency. For this particular invitation round, the cut-off score rose to 369 from the possible 357. This rise might very well be because the invitation round was only for candidates deemed worthy of the Canadian Experience Class (CEC).
The only other noticeable difference between this round is that the number of accepted applications was lower at 4,500 than the previous 6000. This draw is the smallest CEC draw ever since May of last year. For this invitation draw, the tie break policy was implemented. Applying the policy meant that any resident who made their application after June the tenth, 2021, a few moments before midnight, would not be included if their points were the minimum score. So timekeeping was a virtue in this draw.
This year Canada has so far made twice the number of invites to apply compared to 2020. Express entry candidates number over the 93,842 for this year alone. The IRCC has picked up speed this year, giving more candidates the full opportunity for citizenship. The federal government has a yearly target number of candidates for this program. This year’s express entry target number is 108,500, and they intend to hit this number well before Christmas.
Compared to last year, the pace of running PNP has slowed down but the pace is expected to pick up gradually. The number of candidates who get the invites to apply is not the same number accepted, so the numbers do not directly translate. Some people don’t apply for citizenship, while others get rejected during the vetting system. Because the numbers don’t translate directly, the number of invites sent out is usually slightly higher than the set goal.
