Accepting or Declining an ITA? Confused – Whether to Accept or Decline an ITA under Express Entry?

Receiving an Invitation to Apply (ITA) under Express Entry is an exciting milestone, but it is not always the right moment to move forward. In some situations, accepting an ITA when you no longer genuinely qualify can put your entire immigration future at risk. This guide walks through the most common scenarios where you may need to pause, recalculate, and decide whether to accept or decline your ITA, along with the recommended action for each.

Inflated CRS Score

This happens when mistakes in your Express Entry profile submission give you more points than you actually deserved. Common errors include:

• Counting part-time work as full-time.
• Claiming foreign work experience as Canadian.
• Entering language test scores incorrectly.
• Claiming a higher education level than you actually have, plus supported by an ECA.

These errors artificially boost your CRS score. After correcting the mistake, your true CRS might fall below the cut-off for the draw.

Recommended action

• Recalculate your CRS score based on correct information.
• If the corrected score is now below the draw's cut-off, you must decline the ITA.
• Proceeding with an inflated score could be seen as MISREPRESENTATION, risking a refusal and a 5-YEAR BAN from Canada.

Not Enough Work Experience Yet

In this scenario, you received an ITA but haven't actually met the work experience threshold. Express Entry may count work experience in whole months or years, so you might appear to have, say, one year of experience when you're actually short by a few days or weeks.

Example: Ravi's situation

Ravi started working in Canada on March 15. He received an ITA on February 1 of the following year under the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), which requires at least one year of Canadian work experience.

The system counted "March to February" as 12 months. Although the system issued an ITA, Ravi is legally ineligible at the moment of invitation because he has not yet met the CEC requirement of one full year (1,560 hours) of work.

In reality, Ravi only had about 10.5 months of experience. His 60-day deadline to apply is April 1, but he wouldn't complete a full year of Canadian work until March 15.

Strategy: Ravi can wait until March 16 (once he has officially completed the full year) to submit his application. This ensures he is eligible when the officer reviews the file.

Recommended action

If you cannot meet the required work experience by the application deadline, it's better to decline the ITA and stay in the pool for a later draw.

Language Test About to Expire

Here, your language exam results will no longer be valid by the time you submit. Language test results (IELTS – General Training, CELPIP-General, etc.) must be less than 2 years old both when you create your profile and when you submit the PR application. If your language scores will expire before you can submit, you risk not meeting the requirements of the ITA's round.

Recommended action

You have a few options:

1. Submit your PR application before the results expire (if possible).
2. Retake the language test and get new results (note: the new scores must still meet the minimum requirements of the draw).
3. Decline the ITA and remain in the pool for another draw.

If you cannot submit in time or retake successfully, it's safer to decline the invitation.

Change in Family Composition

Your family situation may change in ways that affect your points. Changes like marriage, divorce, having a new child, or a spouse no longer accompanying you can alter your CRS score, and it may go up or down depending on the situation.

Another common factor: if you claimed 15 points for a sibling in Canada, but now that sibling has moved away or you find you can't prove the relationship, those points are lost. Such changes after receiving an ITA mean your score might drop.

Recommended action

Recalculate your CRS score after the family change. If you lose points (for example, spouse factors change, or sibling points are gone) and your new score falls below the draw's cut-off, you should decline the ITA.

It's better to wait for another draw than to apply with a score that no longer qualifies. Be prepared to provide documentation for any family points you claim in the future.

Provincial Nomination Withdrawn

A Provincial Nomination (through an Express Entry PNP stream) gives you +600 CRS points. If that nomination is withdrawn or canceled by the province, those points vanish and your CRS score drops dramatically.

Why would this happen?

• Perhaps you failed to show intent to live in that province.
• Your supporting job offer changed or was lost.
• There was a misrepresentation or omission in your PNP application.
• Even changes like not informing the province about a new baby or a marriage could cause a withdrawal in some cases.

Recommended action

Without the 600 points from the nomination, you no longer meet the criteria for the ITA, so you will need to decline it. In fact, if the ITA came from a PNP-specific draw, you absolutely must decline because a valid nomination is required for that invite.

After declining, you can fix the issues or obtain a new nomination and re-enter the pool.

Age Increased – Point Lost

Age is a key factor in CRS, with maximum points in your 20s and fewer points as you get older. In this scenario, you lost some CRS points because you turned a year older after getting your ITA.

Recommended action

You don't have to decline for this reason alone, as it won't cause your application to be refused.

Note: IRCC has a policy to exempt applicants from being penalized if a birthday occurs between the ITA and the application submission.