Express Entry draw: 381 PNP candidates invited

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) invite 381 express entry candidates with a provincial nomination in the latest program-specific express entry draw held on April 28.

An express entry candidate with a provincial nomination gets 600 points. That's why the CRS cut-off was set at 717 points. This is the lowest scoring requirement of any PNP-only draw held so far this year. Without the nomination, the lowest-rated candidates would have obtained 117 points.

Following the tie-break rule, applicants with a minimum score of 717 were only invited if they had submitted their Express Entry profile by March 16, 2021, at 21:20:50 UTC.

As of early 2021, IRCC has only held Express Entry draws that target applicant who may be in Canada. This is in line with the government's efforts to admit 401,000 new permanent residents in 2021. Of those, 108,500 are expected to go through programs managed by Express Entry.

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To get a nomination from a province, candidates are required to meet requirements like work or study experience in the province, or strong connection to the province, etc. As such, these applicants also have a high proportion of applicants already in the country.

IRCC, on average, holds two express entry draws in two weeks. One inviting PNP-only applicants, and the other inviting CEC-only applicants. PNP draws tend to have higher score requirements due to the automatic allocation of 600 points. CEC draws tend to have lower scoring requirements, as there are fewer applicants from other programs managed by Express Entry competing for invitations to apply (ITA).

To meet its goal of welcoming 401,000 new immigrants in 2021, the government has created six new programs for essential workers and graduate international students. As of May 6, Canada will open the door to 90,000 new immigrants as well as an unlimited number of essential French-speaking workers and graduates.