Canada invited 500 Federal Skilled Trades candidates with Scores as low as 332

The Government of Canada invited in a new Express Entry draw (#117) on May 15, five hundred Federal Skilled Trades candidates with Comprehensive Ranking Scores as low as 332 to apply for Canadian permanent residence. 

Today’s cut-off score of 332 was 106 points lower than the lowest cut-off score this year in an all-program Express Entry draw, which was 438.

The tie-break used by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in the May 15 draw was August 29, 2018, at 8:32:03 UTC. This means that all Federal Skilled Trades Class candidates with a CRS score above 332, as well as those with scores of 332 who entered their profile in the Express Entry pool before this date and time, received an Invitation to Apply (ITA) for Canadian permanent residence.

With higher admission targets for Express Entry in 2019 and 2020, today’s relatively small draw of 500 candidates may be followed by bigger all program draws in the future.

Niche draws are common among Canada’s provincial nominee programs in order to address labour market needs. A number of these have resulted in invitations being issued to Express Entry candidates with lower CRS scores.

- The province of Alberta, for example, has issued invitations to select Express Entry candidates with CRS scores as low as 300 on three occasions this year.

- The Atlantic Province of Nova Scotia has also issued targeted invitations through its Labour Market Priorities Stream to Express Entry candidates with work experience as accountants and financial auditors. The minimum CRS score required in this draw was 400.

Ontario has also used its Human Capital Priorities Stream to target Express Entry candidates with specific credentials and on two occasions last year dropped its CRS requirement to 350.

There are also many Express Entry aligned PNP streams that do not consider a candidate’s federal CRS score as part of their eligibility requirements. For example, Saskatchewan and Manitoba each have their own occupation lists and pools of candidates and use their own unique ranking systems.

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