The cutoff Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score in today’s draw was 452, a reduction of two points over the minimum score in the previous Express Entry draw held March 6.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) have now issued a total of 21,200 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) in 2019 through the Express Entry system.
This is an increase of 6,700 over the 14,500 ITAs that Canada had issued at this same point in 2018 — a year that saw IRCC issue a record 89,800 invitations to Express Entry candidates.

It is expected that IRCC will set a new ITA record this year given Canada’s higher 2019 and 2020 admissions targets for the three Federal High Skilled economic immigration categories managed by the Express Entry system — the Federal Skilled Worker Class, Federal Skilled Trades Class and Canadian Experience Class.
Candidates who meet the eligibility requirements for these categories are entered into the Express Entry pool and issued a ranking score based on factors such as their age, education, work experience and proficiency in English or French.
IRCC then invites a set number of the highest-scoring candidates to apply for Canadian permanent residence through regular draws from the pool.
The tie-break in the March 20 draw was set in February 7, 2019, at 9:59:25 UTC. This means that all candidates with a CRS score of 452 or above who entered their profile in the Express Entry pool before the selected date and time received an ITA in this invitation round.
The cutoff CRS score has now dropped twice over the last two invitation rounds, which may have resulted from the fact IRCC only allowed two weeks to elapse between draws in both instances.



Larger draw sizes can also have an impact on the cutoff CRS score. Given IRCC’s higher admissions targets for 2019 and 2020, it is possible that we will see big draws in the second quarter of the year.
The second quarters of both 2017 and 2018 saw a draw sizes increase and the CRS cutoff drop as a result.