More people have been drawn for Express Entry in April as immigration is ongoing all year long.

Regarding draw sizes and types, last month’s results were similar to those of March, suggesting possible trends for 2024. Continue reading to find out about the present status of the Express Entry applicant pool, the April drawings, and how these things may affect your prospects of being granted immigration.

The Express Entry pool’s current status 

Which draws took place in April? 

Four Express Entry draws were held in April, same as in March: two general draws and two category-based selections.

The CRS cut-offs for the general draws were 549 and 524 on April 10th and 23rd, respectively. On April 11 and 24, individuals with experience in STEM-related fields and fluency in French were invited to apply for category-based selections, which focus on candidates with particular job experience or language skills.

In general draws, overall Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) scores are still higher than in prior years. There have been three to five draws every month so far this year, with a roughly equal distribution of general and category-based draws overall.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will issue 110,770 invitations to apply (ITAs) for permanent residency (PR) through the Express Entry system this year, in accordance with the immigration levels plan. 35,970 of these ITAs had been issued as of April.

The Express Entry pool

There are 214,697 candidate profiles in the Express Entry pool as of April 23rd, 2024—a rise of 2753 profiles from March. All score brackets saw increases at a relatively equal rate, keeping distributions about at the same volume as the prior month.

Below is a full table with score distributions and the total number of participants in the pool.

To help comprehend the distribution, these scores have also been displayed as a bar graph. As we can see, the 351-400 CRS limit remains the most populated score range (with the greatest number of applicants)

What percentile is your score in the pool?

We may get the percentile of a score to the entire pool by taking the upper bound of each score range. We may have a better understanding of how scores relate to one another and what proportion of the pool has a score below that by using the percentile. A higher percentile score can nevertheless give some indication of one’s potential immigration possibilities during the year, even though it may not ensure an ITA.

Find the complete breakdown of score percentiles below:

What effects does the makeup of the Express Entry applicant pool have on draw sizes and score cut-offs?

With the numerous factors that the IRCC takes into account before conducting each draw (such as category-based selections, which respond to demographic and labor market needs in Canada and place less emphasis on CRS scores), predicting future CRS score cut-offs and draw sizes can be extremely challenging, if not impossible.

Nevertheless, we can better grasp the patterns that could affect draw sizes and cut-off scores if we comprehend the distribution of these scores as well as the size of the pool as a whole (particularly when considering annual immigration levels). This is due to the fact that, in addition to perhaps taking the distribution of CRS scores into account when deciding on the next cut-off score, all draw sizes eventually need to work toward fulfilling the department’s goals as stated in the immigration levels plan.