CRS minimum score drops to 441 in new Express Entry draw
The Government of Canada issued 3,750 invitations to apply for Canadian permanent residence in a new Express Entry draw held on Wednesday, July 25. The Comprehensive Ranking System cut-off score for this invitation round was 441.
The minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score in today’s draw is one point lower than the last invitation round on July 11, when the CRS cut-off score was 442.
The score reduction could be attributed to the back-to-back draws of 3,750 ITAs in a 14-day period.
The tie-break date and time used in this draw was December 31, 2017, at 12:14:21 UTC. This means that all candidates with a CRS score above 441, as well as those candidates with scores of 441 who submitted their profile before this specified date and time, received an ITA in this invitation round.
This is the fourth consecutive draw to issue 3,750 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) and brings the total ITAs issued in July to 7,500. This makes July 2018 by far the best July in terms of ITAs issued since Express Entry was introduced in 2015 and follows a record-setting month of June, which also saw 7,500 ITAs issued.
As of today, however, IRCC is still behind last year’s ITA total at this time.
To find out if you are eligible to enter the Express Entry pool, fill out a free assessment form.
So far this year, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has issued a total 47,200 ITAs and its admission targets for 2018 and 2019 are 74,900 and 81,400 immigrants, respectively.
Whether draw sizes will increase above 3,750 remains to be seen. If IRCC does resort to larger draws, or more frequent draws, this could also result in a reduction of the cut-off CRS score.
Today’s draw size of 3,750 continues a now well-established trend in 2018 that has seen draw sizes gradually increased over the course of the year.
The year began with two draws of 2,750 ITAs each in January, followed by four draws of 3,000 ITAs each in February and March and four draws of 3,500 ITAs each in April and May. The draw size then rose to 3,750 in the first June draw, held on June 13.
Express Entry is the application system that manages the pool of candidates for Canada’s three main economic immigration classes — the Federal Skilled Worker Class, the Federal Skilled Trades Class and the Canadian Experience Class.
The highest-ranked candidates in the Express Entry pool are issued ITAs in regular invitation rounds.
The following hypothetical example illustrates a candidate who would have obtained an ITA in today’s draw:
Rose is 28 years old, has a Bachelor’s degree and an advanced English language proficiency. Rose has been working as a graphic designer for four years. While she’s never worked or studied in Canada, her CRS score of 441 would have been sufficient to obtain an ITA in today’s draw.
“This is the second month in a row to set a new monthly Express Entry record for ITAs drawn,” said Attorney David Cohen, senior partner with the Campbell Cohen immigration law firm in Montreal. “As IRCC works toward larger admissions targets, we may continue to see record setting ITA totals in the months to come.”
To find out if you are eligible to enter the Express Entry pool, fill out a free assessment form.
The CRS Calculator allows you to find out what your score would be under the CRS.
There are a number of ways Express Entry candidates may be able to improve their ranking. Visit this dedicated page to learn strategies for improving your CRS score.
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