Keeping Up With Express Entry Draws: Tips For Timely Updates (2024)

There is unfortunately no way to tell when the next draw will take place. However, based on the data gathered since the beginning of Express Entry in 2015, there is a clear pattern on when the draws take place: onWednesdays, every two weeks.

But as said before, it is only a pattern, and there have been deviations from it: some draws took place on Mondays or Tuesdays, and sometimes wait time between two draws is one or three weeks, instead of the usual two.

If you want to be alerted about when a draw takes place, don’t hesitate to follow us on social media and subscribe to our newsletter (links at the bottom of the page).

An Invitation to Apply (ITA) is sent to the immigration aspirants in theExpress Entry poolwho are selected by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). ITAs are issued on a priority basis when a draw is conducted from the Express Entry pool, meaning that only those with the highestCRS scorewill receive an ITA.

Each Express Entry draw has a cutoff minimum score: only those who are assigned a CRS score above or equal to the cutoff score will receive the Invitation to Apply. For those who have a CRS score equal to that of the cutoff score, candidates who have been the longest in the pool will receive the ITA.
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An ITA is not to be confused witheligibility to the three federal programsof Express Entry, or with ajob offerfrom an employer or with theProvincial Nomination Programs.

There are three types of invitations to apply that are issued by IRCC to Express Entry candidates in the pool :

1. General rounds of invitations
In this type of draw, IRCC will invite top-ranking candidates in the pool who are eligiblefor anyof the three Express Entry programs :

• Federal Skilled Workers (FSW)
• Federal Skilled Trades (FST)
• Canadian Experience Class (CEC)

2. Program-specific rounds of invitations
In this type of draw, IRCC will invite top-ranking candidates in the pool who are eligible fora specific Express Entry program.
An example would be a draw that only invites candidates eligible to one of the three Express Entry programs (FSW, FST or CEC)or theProvincial Nominee Program (PNP).

3. Category-based rounds of invitations
In this type of draw, introduced in 2023, IRCC willinvite top-ranking candidates in the pool who are eligible fora specific category.
The categories are based on yearly specificeconomic goals. Each year, IRCC will announce the selected categories that category-based draws can be based on.
For 2023, the selected categories and their eligibility criteria are the following:

TheComprehensive Ranking System (CRS)ranks immigration in the Express Entry pool following some profile criteria:

• Human capital factors such as age, level of education, language ability in French and English,
• Spouse or common-law partner human capital factors, if applicable,
• Skill transferability factors, such as foreign work experience and language ability,and
• Additional factors, such as aprovincial nomination,avalid job offer, studiesin Canada, French language abilities, having a sibling as a permanent resident in Canada or Canadian citizen.

The maximum score in theComprehensive Ranking System is of1,200 points, but it’s impossible and there’s no need to get a CRS score of 1,200 points. However, if your CRS score is below the cutoff score, we strongly advise you to check out our article onhow to improve your score.