On April 29,2020, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) issued Invitations to Apply (ITAs) to 589 candidates. This draw was restricted exclusively to candidates with provincial nominations from Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs). The Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score for this draw was 692 points, which means that the basic human capital points requirement was only 92.

This is the lowest CRS requirement for a PNP specific Express Entry draw so far this year and continues IRCC’s trend of issuing invitations only to PNP and CEC candidates. Our legal sources confirm that Express Entry draws currently are being limited to PNP and CEC candidates for the time being in response to COVID-19. Although it is unclear how long these restrictions will last, it seems likely that the Provincial Nominee Programs would remain a popular option, as they offer a predictable pathway to permanent residency in Canada.

Candidates who obtain a provincial nomination through one of the Express Entry-PNP streams receive 600 additional CRS points and an ITA at a subsequent draw from the pool. The recent draws also reaffirm Government of Canada’s 2020-2022 Immigration Levels Plan.

In March 2020, the federal government had announced that it plans to target the admission of 341,000 immigrants in 2020, 351,000 in 2021, and another 361,000 in 2022. PNP admissions as per the projections were set to increase by 20 per cent by 2022.

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/notices/supplementary-immigration-levels-2020.html

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/notices/supplementary-immigration-levels-2020.html

Donoso & Partners, a leading immigration law firm based in Washington, D.C., will continue to report on developments regarding the immigration law and policy through our news section of donosolaw.com.