On the evening of February 27, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) distributed 1,187 invites to apply for Canadian permanent residence to individuals in the Express Entry pool with 735 or more Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) points.

The general trend through the early draws of Express Entry immigration selection system continues to be positive for candidates who have yet to receive an invitation to apply for permanent residence. We have seen through these draws that number of invites have remained stable or have increased but minimum CRS points have constantly decreased. The biggest drop so far occurred between the third and fourth Express Entry draws, with the minimum CRS points required moving from 808 to 735 points – a decrease of 73 points!

An interesting fact to note that there were three draws in month of February, showing a clear trend of increased number of draws made from Express Entry Pool.

We can deduce a certain fact from the minimum number of CRS point through these four draws. Seeing how the minimum number has only reached 735, it shows that candidates either had a Job offer supported by Labor Market Impact Assessment from a Canadian Employer or a nomination from a Canadian Province.

(Orange dotted line shows the maximum CRS points that can be achieved in the absence of a qualifying job offer from a Canadian employer or a provincial nomination)

Government of Canada has laid out in their Immigration plan that they hope to bring in 169,000 to 185,200 new Immigrants in year 2015. Which means government need to pick up on the number of invitation that are being sent out in each draw and that will mean drop in CRS points too. We already are seeing that trend in motion.