Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) conducted the 172nd Express Entry draw on January 7, 2021. This was the second Express Entry draw of 2021 and the second Express Entry draw of this week.
IRCC handed out 4,750 invitations to apply to those who met the criteria of the Canadian Experience Class. This means that anyone in the Express Entry pool who was classified as a Federal Skilled worker would not have been considered in this Express Entry draw. This is similar to the 171st Express Entry draw that occurred on January 6, 2021. That Express Entry draw was limited to those with a Provincial Nomination only.
This most recent Express Entry draw is a return to a trend we saw emerge in 2020 once Canada had closed its borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Between March and July 2020 IRCC was only conducting Express Entry draws for those who met the criteria of the Canadian Experience Class or had a Provincial Nomination. Express Entry draws only started to include Federal Skilled Workers and Federal Skilled Tradespeople again in July of 2020.
We do not have any confirmation at this time if IRCC will be limiting draws to the Canadian Experience Class or Provincial Nominees again. We anticipate that the next Express Entry draw should be taking place on January 20th, 2021.
