Performance of Canada's Express Entry system in 2019

There were several twists and turns in the Express Entry system of Canada for the candidates and the observers in 2019.  Canada issued 85,300 invitations to apply for permanent residence issued.

This was the record top second, for the Express Entry system, introduced in 2015, for managing the candidates’ pool, in three Federal Skilled immigration programs that include:

Canadian Experience Class

Federal Skilled Worker Class,

Federal Skilled Trades Class

And a portion of its Provincial Nominee Program

The immigration officials held 26 draws from the pool of Express Entry in 2019 and among them 24 involved all programs with a range of 3,200 to 3,900 Invitations.

Canada also had a high admissions target for 2019 and 2020 in the three Federal top Skill programs and also in the PNP, and there was a hope that the numbers for Express Entry candidates receiving the ITAs in 2019 will surpass 89,800 ITAs issued in 2018.

Furthermore, many of these invitations were issued later in 2018, and the target for 2019 fell short because IRCC had to keep the ITAs numbers down to keep up the processing standard of 6 months for all PR applications through its Express Entry system.

An important development in 2019 featured the IRCC incrementally increasing the draw size every two months in 2018 issuing 2,750 -3,900 ITAs.   The Draws had a conventional pattern in 2019.  Also in 2019, the draw sizes increased to 3,900 ITAs during October and were 3,600 in November finishing 2019 with invitation rounds having 3,200 ITAs.

There is a question at present, whether IRCC will hold large draws or frequent draws this Year to meet its admissions targets for 2020 and 2021 for the programs managed by Express Entry.

The target for Permanent Resident admissions in three Federal programs will be 85,800 in 2020 and for 2021, it is 88,800. The Provincial Nominee Programs will attract 67,800 in 2020 and for 2021, it is 71,300.

Furthermore, the re-election of Liberal Party in the federal elections in October shows a likely rise in admissions in 2022 and also in 2023.  The total admissions of fresh permanent residents will reach 350,000 during 2021.

The process to issue ITAs in Express Entry is based on the score obtained in the Comprehensive Ranking System determined by education, age, skilled work experience, and English or French proficiency factors.

In the 24 draws held in 2019, for all-programs the cut-off score was 438 on Jan 30 to 475 on Oct 30. The high minimum requirement, in score in the Express Entry, draws, in the last year, was owing to the combination of small draws in the year and more than two weeks gap between draws by IRCC in four occurrences.

Another important factor in 2019 is that many Express Entry candidates receive the provincial nomination and thereby add 600 CRS points.

In the last 12 months there were a few important developments in PNP streams that had a link with the Express Entry in Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Nova Scotia.

Ontario issued 8,996 invitations through the Express Entry in 2019, and for 2018 the figures were 6,978. We bring all the facts before our patrons and they can contact us for support or details.