A competitive score built from age, education, language and work experience — not a fixed eligibility bar.
Express Entry ranks candidates by a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score. Canada issues Invitations to Apply to the highest scorers in periodic draws.
From profile creation to Invitation to Apply can take a few months to over a year, depending entirely on your CRS score relative to current draw cutoffs — this is the most volatile part of the process.
There’s no fixed number — Canada invites the top-ranked candidates each draw, so the cutoff moves. A provincial nomination often closes the gap for otherwise-strong profiles.
General Training, not Academic — a common mix-up if you only took Academic for a study visa.