1. Valid, and i agree. I'm sure it will reduce entrants from immigrants based in the U.S trying to get PR. But by how much is a key question, it remains difficult to transition from an immigrant visa to PR status in the U.S. While i'm sure many will prefer to remain, i still there will be a lot of people who will see the the straightforwardness of EE in Canada and still apply for PR. There are many people who apply for EE despite being based and wanting to remain in the US, and they use PR in Canada as a plan B. I expect that trend to continue.Very true and good points but you have to consider the trends and following points:
1. Biden got elected president and his first move will be to undo Trump's immigration reforms. His VP, Harris, as you may know; her mother is an Indian immigrant and she has expressed, numerous times, the importance of immigrants, particularly from countries like India, to the US. In short, expect the US to open up again.
2. The Canadian immigration targets are very high for 2021-2023. What we're seeing now isn't an outlier, rather its part of a regular trend. The people selected now in November, December will be able to land in 2021/2022. Maybe it won't be 5K ITA's being issued at every draw but at minimum, it will be around 4.2K-4.5K if you do the math. In addition, the number of people entering the pool with a CRS score of 470 and above has been about 2.5K - 3.5K.
IRCC didn't have to hold a b2b draw this week, they didn't have to increase the number of ITA's issued from 4.5K to 5K, they didn't even have to make any EE draws this year even as they already reached their quota, but they did.
When you consider all of this, I find it hard not to be optimistic, especially if you're in the 460's, upper 450's.
2. Yes, they are high, but expect entrants to the pool to increase as well. The numbers have spiraled for EE in the last couple of years, and i expect that to only increase, especially among the high scores. I expect that to offset the increased size of draws. IRCC also do not usually have big draws, it's a way they ensure that the pool replenishes with higher scoring candidates, and so they can keep the cut-off score high. Also, just as there are the occasional b2b draws, there are also times where they wait in excess of 2 weeks to conduct draws. They also can do program specific draws as well, so they have a wide array of methods to keep cut-off scores high. And to be honest, it's in their interest to do so because the higher scoring the candidate, the more valuable they will be as immigrants according to their criteria.
I would put it this way, if you were a candidate in January 2018, you had a chance if your score was just under 440. Do you think that is the case now? In 2019, if you score was in the low 450's, you had a good chance to qualify during the year. Do you have that chance now based this year's cut-off scores for an all program draw?
Scores are only shifting upwards not downwards, we no longer see big shifts downwards in cut-offs scores like we did before, unless it's something specifically designed like a b2b draw. Back in 2018, draws were routinely dropping significantly. That hasn't been the case in a while. So, i don't rule it out, but the trend is clear.
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