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At a Glance
On February 13, 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada invited the largest number of candidates ever, at 27,322, to apply for permanent residence. All invites were sent to those candidates in the Canadian Experience Class pool, who had a minimum score of 75. Normally, the required score was over 450, and the number of Invitations to Apply (ITAs) was between 3,000 to 4,500 per draw.
Many more foreign nationals will be able to apply for permanent residence than would normally be able to after this Express Entry draw, although they may have lesser qualifications than under previous draws. This could cause a backlog in the immediate term as applicants have 90 days to submit their application from the date of invitation.
Since far fewer foreign nationals have immigrated to Canada since the COVID-19 pandemic began almost a year ago, Canada did not reach its immigration target last year. As a result, the government has significantly increased its immigration targets this year and for the next two years. This draw helps to put the federal government on track to meet this year’s goal – if similar-sized draws occur in this and the other permanent residence categories.
Fragomen expects that there will be further draws of this size throughout the year as the federal government seeks to meet its annual target of 400,000+ new permanent residents.
This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].