CIC spokesperson says CRS points requirement likely to go down over time

At the 23^rd Annual Immigration Law Summit held earlier this month in Toronto, Ontario, a spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) made some notable comments about the past, present, and future of draws made from the Express Entry pool. The main takeaway, however, is that the CRS point requirement for Express Entry draws is likely to go down.

Foremost among the forecasts made by CIC is that the total intake of economic immigrants to Canada through Express Entry is set to increase once the backlog of applications from 2014 has been cleared. This was first disclosed in a mid-year CIC report that was released in August, and was reiterated this month at the Immigration Law Summit.

In addition, the spokesperson said that the first few Express Entry draws had a relatively high CRS point requirement because of pent-up demand from candidates who already had job offers support by (LMIA). These candidates benefited from a 600-point bonus under the CRS and receive an (ITA) in one of the earlier draws. This information is backed by the mid-year CIC report, which disclosed that most early recipients of an ITA were already working in Canada on LMIA-supported work permits.

Once the bulk of those candidates had received ITAs, the minimum CRS point requirement in order to receive an ITA dipped sharply to 453 by the end of March, and 450 by the 17^th and 18^th draws, which were held on September 18and October 2, respectively. With the exception of one draw in May, each draw since February has seen a portion of candidates without a job offer or provincial nomination certificate receive ITAs.

More recently, however, the CRS points requirement has increased. The CIC spokesperson stated that this is largely due to the fact that many provinces did not open their Express Entry (PNP) streams, through which successful candidates may obtain an additional 600 CRS points, until months after the system was launched. As a result, there has been a rush of PNP certificates being issued to proactive candidates in the Express Entry pool. This has had the effect of increasing the number of candidates who have received an additional 600 CRS points.

With both an LMIA rush and a PNP rush out of the way — together with the 2014 backlog being cleared and CIC having previously stated that «Express Entry will become the main source of applications to meet annual immigration levels targets» — CIC has said that it expects the CRS requirement for Express Entry draws to drop over time.