Almost 1,000 British citizens have been invited to apply for a visa through Canada’s new Express Entry system since it was launched at the start of this year, new figures show.
According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s mid-year report, which is based on data between 1st January and 6th July, a total of 951 UK citizens have been invited to apply for a skilled visa since the programme’s launch. This makes the UK the third biggest source country for invited applicants, behind only India (2,687 invited candidates) and Philippines (2,514).
A total of 112,701 foreign nationals have submitted an Express Entry profile in the opening half of this year. Of these, 48,723 were found not eligible because they did not meet the criteria of at least one of the three programs managed by the system; 4,302 were pending due to Job Bank registration or verification of their Provincial Nomination by a Province or Territory; 6,441 withdrew their profile; 41,218 are in the pool for being eligible to be invited to apply; and 12,017 had already been invited to apply for permanent resident status.
Through Express Entry, applicants are awarded up to 600 points based on a number of factors meant to assess their ability to succeed in Canada, including age, language skills, education and work experience. An additional 600 points are awarded for holding a job offer supported by a positive Labour Market Impact Assessment.
Candidates are then ranked according to their scores at the time of an invitation round.
According to the CIC data, of the 41,218 applications which are currently in the pool waiting to be invited to apply, the majority (27,114) have scores between 300 and 399 points. However, so far none of these applicants would have been invited to apply for a visa, as the lowest cut-off point in any round of invitations has been 453 (on 17th April and 27th March). The highest cut off point was 886 points, in the first ever round of invitations issued on 31st January 2015.
The most invitations issued in a single round was on 27th March which led to 1,637 candidates being invited to apply for a visa, whereas on 17th April only 715 people were invited – the fewest.