the CanadaVisa Team - 10 July, 2015
A total of 779 invitations to apply for permanent residence were issued over the weekend through the Express Entry selection system for Canadian immigration. All recipients of these invitations to apply had 818 or more points under the Comprehensive Ranking System.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced through Ministerial Instructions that:
Foreign nationals who, on February 7, 2015 at 11:59:59 UTC, have been assigned a total of 818 points or more under the Comprehensive Ranking System that is set out in the Ministerial Instructions Respecting the Express Entry System, as published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, on December 1, 2014 and as amended from time to time, occupy the rank required to be invited to make an application for permanent residence.
In a curious development, however, this information had been removed within 24 hours from CIC’s webpage covering Express Entry rounds of invitations. At the time of writing, the information had not been republished. Information regarding the first draw, which took place a week previously, remained published. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) stipulates that Ministerial Instructions must be published in the Canada Gazette, but this has not yet occurred.
The ensuing ambiguity over whether or not the invitations to apply had been issued and, if so, whether they were valid, led to much confusion. It soon transpired that candidates with at least 818 points under the Comprehensive Ranking System did indeed receive their invitations. On the assumption that these invitations are and will remain valid, successful candidates have 60 days to submit a complete and accurate application for permanent residence from the day they received an invitation to apply.
The uncertainty follows soon after bad publicity for CIC regarding the methods it uses to publish information and how it communicates online. It was recently discovered that many applicants under the Canadian Experience Class who had submitted their applications in the latter weeks of 2014 have had their applications returned. Despite reaching the cap for the program before the end of the application cycle for the year, CIC did not update its website to reflect that the program was effectively closed from that point. CIC had previously announced it would accept 8,000 applications between May 1 and December 31, 2014.
