Canada Invites Applicants In The First Express Entry Draws

Canada invites applicants in the first Express Entry draws in 2024. The department invited over 1,510 applicants in a general draw.  They required a minimum CRS score of 546. A general draw considers applicants from all Express Entry managed programs, like Federal Skilled Worker Program, CEC, & FSTP. No professions or other human capital attributes are targeted. The four most recent draws took place from December 18-21. The all-program draw on December 18 invited over 1,325 applicants with a minimum CRS score of 524. 

The remaining three draws were for applicants who fit the criteria for category-based selection in one of the six possible categories. The December 19 draw invited over 1,000 applicants in the category-based draw for trades professions with a minimum CRS score of 425 & the December 20 invited over 670 applicants in transport professions. Applicants required a minimum CRS score of at least 435. 

On December 21, over 400 applicants in agriculture & agri-food professions obtained ITAs. They needed a minimum CRS score of 386. In addition, IRCC also held three draws between December 6-8. The December 6 draw was all-program, and December 7 was for applicants eligible under the French-language proficiency category. Moreover, on December 8 invited applicants in STEM professions. In total, there were over seven Express Entry draws in December. This is the most Express Entry draws in a month for all of 2023. It followed a six-week pause that lasted from October 26 until December 6 draw. IRCC did not ascertain the reason for the pause. 

Summary Of The Latest Express Entry Draws Since June 2023

Canada invites applicants in the first Express Entry draws in 2024. However, here is the outline of the latest Express Entry draws result. Take a look!

What Will Express Entry Look Like In 2024? 

Canada invites applicants in the first Express Entry draws in 2024. In addition, the Immigration Levels Plan 2024-2026 demonstrates that Canada will admit over 110,000 new permanent residents via Express Entry in 2024. 

This is a jump from the 82,880 Express Entry applicants IRCC targeted in 2023. Still, the high target doesn’t necessarily imply that all the applicants invited in 2024 will be admitted before the year ends. However, those invited later in the year will arrive in 2025. This is because IRCC has a service standard of six months to issue a final decision on Express Entry applications for PR. IRCC issued more than 100,000 ITAs to Express Entry applicants in 2023. 

What Is Express Entry? 

Express Entry oversees three economic immigration programs, i.e., FSTP, FSWP, & CEC. These three economic immigration programs use CRS to assign a score to applicants based on their human capital attributes. This includes factors like language ability, education, work experience, profession, age, etc. Every attribute is assigned a score & applicants are ranked against one another. 

Express Entry applicants in any of the three programs might also obtain ITAs in a category-based selection draw, which targets a specific attribute. This type of draw was introduced in May 2023 & features six categories, i.e., 

• Healthcare
• STEM Professions
• Trades
• Transport
• Agriculture/ Agri-Food
• French-Language Proficiency 

Irrespective of the program or the type of draw, those with the highest CRS are most likely to obtain an ITA in an upcoming Express Entry draw.