The federal government declares that the deadline is 6 months, but in practice, it is 3-4 months.
Express Entry is an electronic process in which both the federal and provincial governments are interested and involved, as well as a large number of employers. Express Entry is a system in which each applicant is awarded points, depending on education, work experience, knowledge of a foreign language, and other factors. The maximum number of points is 1200.
Express Entry is a system that allows an applicant who has not received a significant number of points, on completely legal grounds, to receive an additional 600 points. So, for example, an invitation to work in Canada gives an additional 50 points. An invitation from a province is worth 600 points.
Invitation to Apply (ITA) – “Invitation to Apply in the Express Entry Selection System”
If you plan to immigrate to Canada using the Express Entry system and meet the criteria for one of the immigration programs, then you will be included in the candidate pool.
There you are assessed by the CRS system. If you get a passing score, you will soon receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA), which is also an invitation to submit documents to become a resident of Canada.
The issuance of ITA means that the candidate is suitable for Canada, and they are ready to be accepted if he successfully confirms the entered information and does not have health or legal problems.
An invitation to apply is awarded to applicants who have scored the highest points in the round of invitations based on their CRS score among similar applicants for the immigration program.
ITA is an automatically sent email that is sent to selected applicants in the system. Therefore, ITA should not be confused with the actual registration of the applicant in the Express Entry system or receiving an official invitation from a Canadian employer.
ITA Response: Timing and Options
After receiving an invitation to become a Canadian resident, the applicant has 90 days. During this time, you must choose one of two actions:
- Accept the invitation and apply for permanent residence (APR).
In this case, you need to upload all the necessary documents for immigration, fill out new forms, and pay fees.
- Decline the invitation.
This may be relevant in the following cases:
- desire to immigrate under another program;
- inability to collect the entire package of documents in 90 days;
- the information entered does not correspond to reality.
Upon rejection of the ITA, the candidate is returned to the Express Entry pool. His profile will be valid until the end of the year from the moment of the first submission. If he fits in terms of points, he may receive a new invitation in the next round of selection.
Another option is to do nothing: do not accept or reject. In this case, after 90 days, the candidate’s profile will be deleted. To get into the pool again, you will have to create a new one.
We recommend that you constantly check your account in Express Entry. If you do not answer the ITA because you rarely visit the Internet, then this will only be your problem. ITA has arrived, but the information about the candidate does not match the one entered earlier.
To begin with, after receiving the invitation, the profile is blocked. It will not be possible to edit previously entered information that was evaluated by the CRS system. However, if you accept the invitation, it will be possible to change the information on the Application for Permanent Residence (APR) as new corresponding forms will be added.
If the information entered for any reason (examples of such situations will be considered in a separate paragraph below) is no longer true, then the instruction is given to recalculate your CRS score. After that, there are 2 options:
- Reject ITA.
This option should be used if the changed information about the candidate negatively affects his eligibility for ITA, that is:
- no longer meets the criteria for one of the programs;
- After recalculation, his CRS was found to be below the qualifying threshold.
If this is ignored, then the Canadian immigration service will be caught distorting the facts. The application will be denied and the processing fees will not be refunded. Plus, you can grab the ban on immigrating for 2-5 years.
- Accept ITA and apply for residency.
In this case, the candidate is obliged to make the necessary changes and, to be able to prove everything. Of course, after such changes, the applicant must not fall below the acceptable threshold for selection in terms of points.
Candidates are not penalized for a drop in the overall score if it is a birthday that occurs after receiving the ITA.
Examples of circumstances that may affect scores
On the positive side:
- work experience increased to 3 years;
- the language test is about to expire. The candidate retook and received higher scores.
In the negative direction:
- job offer in Canada was withdrawn;
- language test scores dropped.