Under the Express Entry System, eligible candidates are issued a score under the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) and are entered into the draw. The CRS is based on several variables like age, education level, skilled work experience and English/French proficiency.
Participants in the other 2 Express Entry immigration programs with experience in an acceptable industry would have been given due consideration in the May 15th pool if they had disclosed their skilled trade experience and had the necessary qualification certificate or a job offer.
Different from other all-program rounds of invitation, which tend to draw from the whole Express Entry System pool and have higher cut-off marks, program-specific draws can result in lower cut-off marks provided they target a smaller candidate pool.
The cut-off mark of 332 on May 15th was lower than the least cut-off mark (438) seen in an all-program Express Entry pool this year by 106 points.
In the May 15 pool, the tie-break implemented by the IRCC (Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada) was 29th August 2018 at 8:32:03 Universal Time Coordinated. This means that all the candidates in the Federal Skilled Trades Class with a CRS score of more than 332 and those with a score of 332 who submitted their profile in the pool before that date and time, got an ITA (Invitation to Apply) for permanent residency in Canada.
With bigger Express Entry System admission targets in 2019 & 2020, the fairly small draw held on May 15 of 500 participants might be followed by other future all-program draws that include a bigger candidate pool.
Program-specific draws are a common occurrence among provincial nominee programs in Canada for the purpose of addressing labour market requirements. A number of these draws have led to invitations being given to Express Entry participants with lower Comprehensive Ranking System scores.
For instance, the province of Alberta has given out invitations to choose candidates in the Express Entry System with CRS marks as low as 300 three times this year.
Another example is the Atlantic Province of Nova Scotia, which has also handed out target invitations via the Labour Market Priorities Stream to candidates in the Express Entry pool who have work experience in the accountancy and financial auditing sectors. The lowest cut-off score for this Nova Scotia draw was 400.
