Canada invited 462 Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residence on July 21. All invited candidates had previously received a nomination from a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). Provincial nominees in the Express Entry pool automatically get 600 points added to their score. Without the nomination, the lowest-scoring candidate would have had 134 points.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) also published a cutoff time for the tie-break rule. Candidates who had the minimum score were only invited if they submitted their Express Entry profile before April 11, 2021 at 10:56:32 UTC.
PNP and CEC draws
Throughout the pandemic, IRCC has been holding only PNP- and Canadian Experience Class (CEC)-specific draws. This is because these candidates are more likely to already be living in Canada, and less likely to be disrupted by public health measures like travel restrictions.
Corona virus-related measures in Canada are starting to roll back. Canada’s border is reopening to non-essential travel to fully vaccinated U.S. travelers in August. Then in September, the border will open to fully vaccinated people from all other countries. Canada set a target to welcome 401,000 new immigrants to Canada this year, according to its immigration levels plan. About a quarter of these are allotted to come through the Express Entry system.
PNP-only and CEC-only draws have very different score requirements. This is because PNP candidates automatically get 600 points added to their score. CEC candidates are not competing for invitations from other programs. As a result, IRCC takes more off the top allowing for cutoff scores to dip into the lower levels.