Express Entry draw figures for the October 14 draw are below.
This is an all-program draw, meaning that candidates in the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW), Canadian Experience Class (CEC), Federal Skilled Trades (FST) programs, including Provincial Nominees, were considered. In the October 14 Express Entry draw for immigration to Canada, 4,500 candidates will be issued an Invitation to Apply (ITA), making this draw tied as the largest in Express Entry history. The Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score cut-off threshold for this draw held steady at 471 points. The tie-breaking rule for this draw was applied to profiles at 471 points submitted after September 1, 2020.
This all-program draw represents the fourth consecutive all-program draw, in a pattern resembling pre-COVID times. While we cannot say how long this trend will last, it appears that for now Express Entry has returned to its pre-pandemic roots.
Hot Take: There is no “normal” under Express Entry
In the October 14 draw, Express Entry continued a recent trend of all-program draws, considering candidates from all programs for invitations for the fourth consecutive draw. It has many people asking, “Are things back to normal for Express Entry?”
Here’s our hot take: There is no such thing as “normal” under Express Entry.
Express Entry is an immigration system designed to help Canada meet its immigration targets, whatever those may be. While immigration remains a priority for the country, necessary to address the impacts of an aging population, immigration policy is highly susceptible to the impacts of regional and global events.
Immigration policies and programs open, close, and transform year-to-year (and in 2020, sometimes day-to-day) as the economic and demographic needs of different locations shift. Express Entry is a system built with this in mind, built to transform and change — to respond to external events in Canada and around the world. While COVID-19 may be one of the most extreme examples of such an event, it is not an outlier pushing Express Entry into chaos, but rather an example of how Express Entry is built to adapt.
To this end, maybe there is no “normal” under Express Entry. The system will simply continue to transform in response to the world around it. Just as we don’t know if FSW will be considered in the next draw, we also don’t know what selection criteria may look like in two, five, or ten years from now. All we can do grapple with the wild events of the world around us, and watch as Express Entry does the same.
