This is by far the most important, exciting and stressful (well, you got the drift) step in the entire process of getting your PR. Only a fraction of the applicants who have high enough scores get to move to this stage, while others with low scores keep languishing. Applicants with good CRS scores usually get an ITA within a week or two while it may take months or even years for those who have borderline scores. If you receive an ITA, you have almost a sure shot of getting your PR in the next few months, so don’t mess up this opportunity.
Since, this is a very important step, check out how Express Entry draws work before moving ahead.
Receiving your ITA
If you are the lucky candidate with a good CRS score, you will receive the ITA in your Express Entry profile. You will have 60 days to respond to the ITA and you have 3 options:
- Accept the ITA – In this case, you will proceed to the next step and you will fill your application along with the supporting documents
- Decline the ITA – If you decline the invitation for any reason, your profile will go back to the Express Entry pool and you will continue to be considered for future draws.
- Do not respond – If you don’t submit your application and don’t decline your ITA, your profile will be considered abandoned and it will be removed from the Express Entry pool. However, you can create a new Express Entry profile and join the pool again.
Accepting the ITA
If you choose to accept the ITA, you will proceed to the next stage which we will discuss under the next step.
What happens to the applicants who don’t receive an ITA
Those with low scores continue to remain in the Express Entry pool and they are considered for future draws while at the same time new applicants keep joining the pool every minute.
If your CRS score is 10-20 points lower than the last cut off score, you can hope to get in ITA in the coming months. However if your score is, let’s say, 40 points below the cut off, then you will need to work towards improving your CRS score. You can keep checking the latest cut offs to get a better idea of where you stand so you can plan for the next steps.
What if your CRS score is the same as the cut off score
It’s pretty clear that applicants with a score higher than the cut off score will get an ITA and the ones with a lower score won’t. But what about those that have the exact same score? It’s a little tricky for them.
Let’s say IRCC wants to select 5000 applicants in this round and there are 4980 applicants with a score of 470 or above. After that there are 50 candidates with a score of 469 (it is common to have multiple people with the same score – both of us had the exact same score too). If IRCC decides to give an ITA to everyone with a 470 or higher score, it can give out only 4980 ITA. If it decides to go with a score of 469 instead, then it will have to give out 5030 ITAs. But IRCC wants to hand out exactly 5000 ITAs, so how does it break that tie?
In such a scenario, IRCC will have the cut off score at 469 but it will select only 20 people out of 50 with that score. These 20 will be selected based on how old their Express Entry profile is. The ones who created their profile earlier will be preferred. In other words, it will be a first come first serve.
What if you are eligible for more than one program
It is possible for some people to be eligible for multiple Express Entry programs. For example, if you have one year of work experience in Canada and one year out of Canada and you meet other eligibility requirements, then you could be eligible for both FSW and CEC programs. If that’s the case with you, IRCC will Invite you to Apply for one program based on this preference order:
- Canadian Experience Class (CEC)
- Federal Skilled Worker (FSW)
- Federal Skilled Trades (FST)
So, if you are eligible under both FSW and CEC, you will receive your invitation under the CEC category.
Improving your chances of getting an ITA
There are several steps that you can take to improve your CRS score. Many applicants don’t get an ITA straightaway and they work or one or more parameters until their score is high enough.
Related Topics
Understanding Express Entry draws
Express Entry pool of candidates
Previous Express Entry draws
Improving your CRS scores
How to score better in IELTS