A member received an Invitation to Apply (ITA) only to realize their IELTS results had since expired, and asked what to do.
What the thread advised:- Decline the ITA, retake the test, and wait for a new invitation. If your language test has expired by the time you receive an ITA, you generally cannot submit a complete application with expired results — the recommended path is to decline this particular ITA, sit the test again, and re-enter the pool to receive another ITA in a future round.
- This applies even if the test was valid earlier in the process (e.g., at EOI/profile creation). A member flagged the specific edge case of the test having expired after the Expression of Interest (EOI) stage but before the ITA — the expectation is still that the test needs to be valid at the time of application submission, not just when you first entered the pool.
- When a provincial nomination is involved, check with that specific province/IRCC. If your ITA came through a Provincial Nominee Program stream, the thread noted you should consult IRCC or the specific province that issued your nomination, since province-specific implications can differ — help is available through federal and provincial websites via email or chat.
The core takeaway: track your test's expiry date relative to your expected ITA timeline, and don't assume an expired test can still be used just because it was valid earlier in your Express Entry journey.