Canada has now held 19 Express Entry draws just for PNP candidates this year.

Canada invited 761 Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residence on September 29.

Invited candidates had previously received nominations under a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), which amounts to an automatic 600 points added to their base Express Entry score. As a result of the award, candidates needed a score of at least 742 in order to be invited.

In the previous PNP draw, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) invited 521 PNP candidates with scores of at least 732. The new draw is larger but also has a higher score cutoff, suggesting there are more high-scoring candidates in the pool under the Provincial Nominee Class.

Record number of ITAs issued

IRCC invited more Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residence this year than ever before. In 2020, IRCC issued 107,350 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) through the Express Entry system. So far this year, it has issued more than 108,000 invitations, with three months left to go in the year.

The number of ITAs were driven through the roof on February 13, when IRCC invited every single Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidate in the pool.

So far this year, IRCC has only held CEC and PNP draws. For this reason, the minimum score cutoffs have been up and down. Whenever there is a PNP draw the minimum score is considerably higher, since PNP candidates have all received a 600 point award. CEC draws tend to be lower, because the invited candidates are not competing with candidates that are eligible for other programs. However, if the CEC draw is considerably smaller, it could raise the score cutoff since IRCC is taking less off the top.