In the past week, Canada held an Express Entry draw and two western provinces issued provincial nomination invitations.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held an Express Entry draw last week. 

The draw was held on November 10 and invited 775 Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) candidates to apply for permanent residence. These candidates needed to have a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 685.

This was the second-lowest cut-off score since IRCC started holding PNP-focused draws back in March 2020.  IRCC has only invited PNP and Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates throughout the year as it aims to prioritize those less impacted by coronavirus-related disruptions. At this time, it is unclear when IRCC will begin holding all program Express Entry draws.

The number of ITAs issued by IRCC this year now stands at 112,040, compared to 87,350 at this time last year.

Also last week, the province of British Columbia issued invitations through a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) draw.  The draw was held on November 9, inviting 340 immigration candidates to apply for a provincial nomination for permanent residence.

Candidates were invited through the Skilled Worker, International Graduate and Entry Level and Semi-Skilled subcategories under the Skills Immigration (SI) and Express Entry B.C. (EEBC) categories.

A total of 287 candidates needed to have a minimum provincial score between 69 and 94, depending on the subcategory. Another 53 candidates were invited through a separate draw that targeted retail and wholesale trade managers (NOC 0621) and food service managers (NOC 0631). Those candidates needed to have a minimum score of 104. 

B.C. operates one of the most active PNPs in Canada and has now issued well over 10,000 invitations through various BC PNP streams in 2021. 

Finally, during the past week, the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP) released the results of a draw held on October 26.  A total of 248 immigration candidates were invited to apply for a provincial nomination for permanent residence through the Alberta Express Entry stream.

The latest Alberta PNP draw is the sixth in a row where the cut-off score was 300, which is the minimum required to qualify for the Alberta Express Entry Stream.

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