IRCC issues 1,000 invitations to apply in latest Express Entry draw for French speakers

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

The department issued 1,000 ITAs  in a category-based draw for candidates with French language proficiency.

Candidates required a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 446 to be considered.

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Today’s draw is the second of the month and follows a busy summer. Throughout July and August, IRCC invited candidates in 14 separate Express Entry draws. More specifically, July broke the record for the highest number of draws in month since the system was launched in 2015. There were nine draws between July 2 and 31.

The most recent Express Entry draw before this one took place on September 9th and issued invitations to 911 candidates in a draw that only considered Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) candidates only.

IRCC has recently adopted a pattern of multiple draws every other week. They generally include at least one draw for PNP candidates. This is line with IRCC's previously announced intention to hold more "domestic" draws to ensure that temporary residents in Canada have increased opportunity to become permanent residents and to reduce the volume of temporary residents entering Canada.

Summary of Express Entry draw results in 2024

Date	Draw Type	Number of ITAs	Minimum CRS
September 13	French language proficiency	1,000	446
September 9	Provincial Nominee Program	911	732
August 27	Canadian Experience Class	3,300	507
August 26	Provincial Nominee Program	1,121	694
August 15	French language proficiency	2,000	394
August 14	Canadian Experience Class	3,200	509
August 13	Provincial Nominee Program	763	690
July 31	Canadian Experience Class	5,000	510
July 30	Provincial Nominee Program	964	686
July 18	French language proficiency	1,800	400
July 17	Canadian Experience Class	6,300	515
July 16	Provincial Nominee Program	1,391	670
July 8	French proficiency	3,200	420
July 5	Healthcare occupations	3,750	445
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?

Express Entry is an application management system that was introduced by IRCC in 2015 to help the department select economic immigration candidates with in-demand human capital attributes. It oversees three economic immigration programs: the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Canadian Experience Class, and the Federal Skilled Trades Program.

The Comprehensive Ranking System is the cornerstone of the system. It assigns a point score to applicants for several attributes such as their language ability, work experience, education, occupation and age.

Taken together, these points make up a candidate's overall score. Those with the highest scores are the most likely to recieve an ITA.

Candidates in these programs can also apply for streams of the Provincial Nominee Program that are aligned with Express Entry, a process known as enhanced nomination. Express Entry candidates who are nominated through a PNP automatically recieve an additioanl 600 CRS points, making it extremely likely they will recieve an ITA in an upcoming Express Entry draw, depending on the type of draw.

IRCC also introduced category-based selection draws in 2023 to allow the department to target the candidates with more specific in-demand attributes, mostly based around work experience. Candidates who recieve ITAs in one of these draws are not required to be in any specific Express Entry  program (although they must still be in the Express Entry application pool) and the minimum CRS required is generally lower than it would be for a program-specific or general draw.

The six categories are:

• Healthcare occupations
• Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professions
• Trades occupations, such as carpenters, plumbers, and contractors
• Transport occupations
• Agriculture and agri-food occupations
• French-language proficiency

IRCC reviews these categories every year and says that as labour market priorities and demographic demands shift, the categories may change in coming years.

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