The CRS requirement in the new invitation round was 25 points lower than the previous PNP-only draw.

Canada invited 266 Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residence on April 14.

In order to be invited in this draw, candidates needed a score of 753. This minimum score requirement may seem high compared to the average all-program, or Canadian Experience Class-only draw, but that is because invited candidates needed to have previously received a nomination from a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).

PNP candidates automatically get 600 points just for receiving the provincial nomination. Without the nomination, the lowest-scoring candidate would have 153 points.

Candidates who had the minimum score of 753 were only invited if they submitted their Express Entry profile before March 01, 2021 at 15:22:18 UTC, as per the tie-break rule. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) publishes the cut-off time for the tie-break rule as an administrative requirement, regardless of whether there was an actual tie.

Express Entry draws in 2021

“It has been a record-breaking first quarter for the Express Entry system,” said  David Cohen, Senior Attorney of Campbell Cohen. “If all goes well for the rest of the year, Canada might just meet its ambitious immigration targets for 2021.”

IRCC has now invited 49,390 Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residence so far in 2021, nearly double what it was at the same time last year. This is because on February 13, IRCC sent 27,332 invitations, one for every eligible CEC candidate in the pool.

Canada is ramping up its Express Entry intake in order to meet its 2021 immigration targets. Last fall, the federal government committed to welcome 401,000 newcomers in 2021, about a quarter of these would come through the Express Entry system.

Since the start of 2021, Canada has held 12 draws. All of them have either targeted CEC candidates or PNP candidates.

PNP-specific draws require a higher score cut off because of the 600-point award that comes with a provincial nomination. CEC-only draws tend to have lower minimum score requirements because they are not competing with candidates of other classes, so more top-scoring candidates can be invited in a given invitation round.