IMPACT – MEDIUM

What is the change? Canada conducted its 19th Express Entry draw of the year Wednesday, issuing 2,991 invitations to apply for permanent residency. The lowest qualifying score was 433.

What does the change mean? The number of invitations issued was lower than it has been in almost all other draws this year, down by more than 200 invitations from the last draw. This may be because Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada conducted Wednesday’s draw just a week after its previous one. The minimum qualifying score dropped slightly and was closer to the minimum scores seen in April and May than it has been in most other draws this summer.

Background: There have been 19 draws so far this year:

Date Invitations Score
Jan. 3 2,902 468
Jan. 11 3,334 459
Jan. 25 3,508 453
Feb. 8 3,664 447
Feb. 22 3,611 441
March 1 3,884 434
March 24 3,749 441
April 5 3,753 431
April 12 3,923 423
April 19 3,665 415
May 4 3,796 423
May 17 3,687 415
May 25* 143 775
May 25** 400 199
May 31 3,877 413
June 28 3,409 449
July 12 3,202 440
Aug. 2 3,264 441 
Aug. 9 2,991 433

*PNP nominees only

**Federal Skilled Trades Program applicants only.

BAL Analysis: While fewer than 3,000 invitations to apply were issued in Wednesday’s draw, Canada continues to issue a high number of invitations to apply for permanent residence overall. The IRCC has issued 60,762 Express Entry invitations so far in 2017, compared with 33,782 in all of 2016 and 31,063 in 2015.

This alert has been provided by the BAL Global Practice group and our network provider located in Canada. For additional information, please contact your BAL attorney.

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