CRS score requirement drops 39 points compared to previous PNP-specific draw.

Canada invited 500 Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residence on May 26.

To be invited, Express Entry candidates needed to have a nomination from a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). The minimum score requirement was 713, because they would have received 600 points automatically as a result of the PNP. Without the nomination, the lowest-scoring candidate would have had a score of 113.

Compared to the previous PNP-only draw, Canada invited 57 fewer candidates, and the score requirement dropped 39 points.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) publishes a cutoff time for the tie-break rule as an administrative requirement, regardless of whether there was an actual tie. In the new draw, candidates who had the minimum score were only invited if they submitted their Express Entry profile before April 06, 2021 at 09:50:14 UTC.

IRCC prioritizing candidates in Canada

Since the start of the year, Canada has only invited Express Entry candidates who have received a PNP, or who are eligible for the Canadian Experience Class (CEC). This is because the COVID-related travel restrictions do not allow approved permanent residents to come to Canada from abroad, and the government is aiming to admit record-breaking numbers of new immigrants over the next three years.

In 2021 alone, Canada is set to welcome 108,500 new immigrants through Express Entry-managed programs. So far, IRCC has invited 68,817 Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residence.

PNP-only and CEC-only draws have vastly different CRS requirements. This is because PNP candidates have a 600-point award attached to their score. CEC candidates are invited in high numbers, and they are not competing for invitations from other programs. The larger the draw size allows for more top-scoring candidates to receive invitations, therefore a lower CRS cutoff. In the previous CEC-only draw, the CRS requirement dropped to 397.