canada express entry

Express Entry: largest all-program draw in 2023

Today, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) invited 7,000 candidates with a CRS of 490 and above. The tie-breaking rule date was February 16th, 2023, 10:33:06 UTC. This was an all-program draw in which candidates from the Federal Skilled Worker, Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Trades and Provincial Nominee Program were eligible for this round of invitations. 

Previously this year, all program draws were conducted twice, on January 11th, 2023, and January 18th, 2023, by providing invitations for 5,500 candidates each, and the cut-off score was 507 and 490, respectively. The other four draws for express Entry conducted this year are as follows.

March 1st, 2023 – The draw was for Provincial Nominee Program Only. The CRS for the lowest-ranked candidate invited was 748, and 667 invitations were issued in the 242nd round of invitations. 

February 15th, 2023 – The draw was for the provincial Nominee program. The total number of invitations issued was 699, and the CRS score of the lowest-ranked candidate invited was 791. 

February 2nd, 2023– The 240th draw of invitations were for the Federal Skilled Worker program, where 3,300 candidates from the express entry pool were invited, and the lowest cut-off score was 489. 

February 1st, 2023- This draw was specifically for Provincial Nominee Program candidates in Express Entry who have already received a provincial nomination. The total number of invitations issued was 893, and the cut-off score was 733. 

The Express Entry itself is not an immigration program. It is an application management system where the applicants in the pool are ranked based on a point system known as a comprehensive ranking system. This EE system manages the applicants under Federal skilled worker, Federal Skilled trade, express entry aligned Provincial Nominee programs and Canadian Experience Class candidates. Once an Invitation to apply (ITA) is received in an invitation round, the candidate will have 60 days to apply to IRCC, including the police clearance and upfront medicals. Once the application is submitted, the candidate will receive an acknowledgment of receipt (AOR). If the candidate works in Canada, they can apply for a bridging open work permit in Canada once they receive the AOR. 

Once the application is submitted to IRCC, the application processing time for express entry applications is usually six months. The candidate would receive a confirmation of Permanent