Canada held a new Express Entry draw on January 19, inviting 1,036 immigration candidates to apply for permanent residence.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) only invited Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) candidates. For this reason, the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score cutoff was 745. PNP candidates get an automatic 600 points added to their score when they receive their nomination, which is why the score seems high.

All Express Entry draws since September have been for PNP candidates only. The last time Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates were invited was September 14.

So far in 2022, IRCC has invited 1,428 PNP candidates in total under Express Entry. Generally speaking, the CRS cut-off has been in the 700-800 range during the last 10 PNP-specific EE draws. Today’s cut-off of 745 was lower than the 808 CRS requirement for the first draw of this year on January 5.