Canada Invites 557 PNP Candidates on 22 July, 2020 Express Entry Draw

Canada has conducted a new Express Entry draw aimed at Provincial Nominee Program candidates, issuing Invitations to Apply to 557 candidates.

Canada invited 557 Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residence on July 22, 2020. Canada has now invited 54,357 immigration candidates so far this year.

The July 22 draw required a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 687, nine points lower than the previous PNP draw.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s return to a program-specific draw follows a first all-program draw in four months on July 8, when 3,900 candidates were invited.

Since coronavirus restrictions were imposed in March, all but one Express Entry draw has focused on either PNP or Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates.

Candidates in the two categories are more likely to already be in Canada than those coming through other Express Entry-linked programs, meaning they will not be affected by travel restrictions.

Since March 18, Canada has conducted 17 program-specific draws, nine targeting PNP candidates and eight targeting CEC candidates. Those draws have seen 31,777 ITAs issued, including 4,205 to PNP candidates and 27,572 to CEC candidates.

Canada has now issued 54,377 ITAs so far in 2020, after issuing a total of 85,300 in 2019. IRCC broke the record for annual Express Entry ITAs in 2018 with 89,800.

Canada’s high-skilled immigration admission target for 2020 is 85,800, up from 81,400 in 2019. However, it is likely that permanent resident admissions will be affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

The latest draw saw the tie-breaking rule implemented on November 11, 2019 at 4.51am EST. If more than one candidate had the minimum CRS score, only those who submitted their Express Entry profiles before this date and time received invitations.

This was the 23^rd round of invitations under Express Entry in 2020 and 156^th overall.