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Why There Was No New Express Entry Draw Last Week

Why There Was No New Express Entry Draw Last Week

As Canada struggles to meet 2020 immigration targets, the lack of anticipated Express Entry draw on Oct. 28 left many wondering, why not?

Canada’s Express Entry draws 

The Express Entry system is the largest category of Canadian immigration. More newcomers immigrate through Express Entry than any other immigration category. It governs the intake of the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Canadian Experience Class, and the Federal Skilled Trades Program.  

Canada regularly invites candidates in the Express Entry pool to apply for Canadian immigration. These draws typically occur every two weeks. But the last Express Entry draw was on Oct. 14. and the expected Oct. 28 draw did not occur. 

Further compounding the confusion, Canada unveiled a historic new immigration plan that will see 1.2 million new Canadians welcomed in the next three years. So if Canada is struggling to meet 2020 immigration targets and has a bold new plan to welcome more newcomers than ever before, why was there no Express Entry draw last week?

Canada makes changes to Express Entry ranking system

IRCC has been seeking ways to increase Francophone immigration to Canada that is outside of Quebec. IRCC’s target for Francophone immigration is 4.4% of total admissions. The current rate of Francophone immigration to Canada that is outside of Quebec stands at 2.8%. 

As part of these efforts, IRCC recently announced that Francophones and bilingual speakers will receive additional Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) points

If you score NCLC 7 or higher on an approved French language test, you will receive an additional 25 extra CRS points. If you also score above CLB 5 or higher on your English test, the amount of extra CRS points you will receive doubles to 50. The CRS points awarded to French and bilingual speakers are in addition to the points given for language proficiency. 

Why there was no Oct. 28 Express Entry draw

IRCC recently clarified that the proposed changes for French and bilingual speakers will require updating the CRS points of existing Express Entry applications. This process, as stated in the IRCC update, could take as long as two weeks. 

The changes to the Express Entry system that increase the CRS points for French speakers were introduced on Oct. 20. If the two-week timeline is accurate, we could expect a new Express Entry draw any time now.

Adam Pinsky

Adam Pinsky has a keen interest in all things immigration and has been working in the industry for 11 years.

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