It’s been 7 draws and 15 weeks:
| Draw # | Date | # Invitations to Apply (ITA) | Min. CRS Points |
| 1 | Jan 31/15 | 779 | 886 |
| 2 | Feb 7/15 | 779 | 818 |
| 3 | Feb 20/15 | 849 (CEC only) | 808 |
| 4 | Feb 27/15 | 1187 | 735 |
| 5 | Mar 20/15 | 1620 | 481 |
| 6 | Mar 27/15 | 1637 | 453 |
| 7 | Apr 10/15 | 925 | 469 |
And already, at least 3 people have become permanent residents through the express entry program. Consider that a temporary work permit takes on average around 5 months to be processed, it’s pretty amazing that people are becoming permanent residents through express entry in mere weeks.
Yes, the program requires a few months of preparation before you can qualify and get into the pool. And yes, it’s blatant cream-skimming that Canada has been criticized for, favouring under-40s with post-graduate educations, stellar language skills and work experience. And yes, international students in Canada are being disadvantaged by the program, since Express Entry puts the kibosh on the assurance of a means to become permanent after finishing Canadian studies and working for a year. It used to be a guarantee. Now, not so much.
But it is pretty amazing to be able to tell a client that they can become a permanent resident in under a year (hell, under 6 months) and it is so great to have some certainty and transparency to the process.
Although a lot of clients (mostly international grads) have been profoundly disappointed, many others have been pleasantly surprised to hear that express entry actually works.
And given the number of inquiries we are getting, I think the word is spreading.