IRCC issues 1,800 invitations to apply in Express Entry draw for trade occupations

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has issued invitations to apply (ITAs) in the second Express Entry draw of the week.

The department issued 1,800 ITAs in a category-base selection draw for trade occupations.

Candidates required a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 436 to be considered.

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Today's results were the first category-based selection draw to occur since April 24. It was also the first draw for trade occupations since December 2023. According to an IRCC memo released last April, trade occupation draws will account for 5% of all ITAs in category-based selection draws this year.

IRCC held a draw earlier this week on July 2 which considered only candidates in the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). The 920 invited candidates required a minimum CRS score of 739.

The recent trend of program specific draws began earlier this year. Since May 30, IRCC has held four program-specific draws, with three of them for PNP candidates.

Program-specific draws only consider candidates in the Express Entry pool who have applied through an Express Entry program such as the CEC, the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) or the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP). In the case of a PNP-only draw, candidates are only considered if they have been successfully nominated through an Express Entry aligned stream of a PNP, a process known as enhanced nomination.

Until recently, this type of draw had not occurred since the introduction of category-based selection draws in May 2023. However, since January this year, IRCC has been working to stabilize the high levels of temporary residents in Canada. One method of doing so is offering temporary residents, those in Canada on a work or study permit or a visitor visa, more options to become permanent residents (PR).

Many temporary residents who have applied for permanent residence, and are currently living in Canada or have experience living in Canada, apply for PR through the CEC. The same is also true of candidates in the PNP. This means IRCC can meet its yearly target for "Federal High Skilled Workers" (Express Entry) as outlined in the Immigration Levels Plan, while also reducing the number of temporary residents in Canada.

Summary of Express Entry draw results in 2024

Date	Draw Type	Number of ITAs	Minimum CRS
July 4	Trade occupations	1,800	436
July 2	Provincial Nominee Program	920	739
June 19	Provincial Nominee Program	1,499	663
May 31	Canadian Experience Class	3,000	522
May 30	Provincial Nominee Program	2,985	676
April 24	French proficiency	1,400	410
April 23	General	2,095	529
April 11	STEM occupations	4,500	491
April 10	General	1,280	549
March 26	French language proficiency	1,500	388
March 25	General	1,980	524
March 13	Transport occupations	975	430
March 12	General	2,850	525
February 29	French language proficiency	2,500	336
February 28	General	1,470	534
February 16	Agriculture and agri-food occupations	150	437
February 14	Healthcare occupations	3,500	422
February 13	General	1,490	535
February 1	French language proficiency	7,000	365
January 31	General	730	541
January 23	General	1,040	543
January 10	General	1,510	546

What is Express Entry?

The Express Entry application management system was introduced in 2015 as a way for IRCC to target candidates with in-demand human capital attributes and process their applications faster. It oversees applications from the FSWP, the FSTP and the CEC.

The CRS used by Express Entry considers human capital factors such as age, work experience, occupation, language ability and occupation to evaluate a candidate's eligibility. Each factor is assigned a score and, when added together, candidates receive their overall CRS score. The higher a candidate's CRS score, the more likely the are to receive an ITA in an upcoming draw.

There are several types of Express Entry draws including program-specific draws, category-based selection draws and general draws. General draws consider all Express Entry candidates regardless of their program or occupation.

What is category-based selection?

Category-based selection draws were introduced in 2023 as a method for IRCC to single-out Express Entry candidates with in-demand attributes for Canada's workforce, or to help strengthen the national French-speaking demographic.

IRCC introduced six possible categories for candidates to receive ITAs: