Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) invited 3,371 candidates in the Express Entry pool on May 15, to apply for permanent residence in a program-specific draw.

The minimum Comprehensive Ranking Score (CRS) score was 447, which is a decrease of five points from the previous draw. The last EE draw on May 1 invited candidates who had a CRS score of 452.

This is now the lowest cut off score in a draw since January 2019.

This a second consecutive draw in a week, as the draw on May 13, invited 529 candidates in Express Entry.

Since the introduction of travel restrictions program-specific invitation rounds have become more frequent for Express Entry draws. To date IRCC has held eight program-specific draws concentrating exclusively on PNP and Canadian Experience Class candidates.

Both groups of applicants tend to be in Canada than candidates coming through the Federal Skills workers Class and Skilled Trades Class, which implies that the current travel restrictions will not hinder them.