Why can't the draw #331 cut-off be compared with the Express Entry pool?

Because a provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points. The 793 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate whose score without the nomination was roughly 193. IRCC publishes the pool at base scores, so placing 793 on that distribution would suggest nobody qualified, on a day it invited 471 people. Only candidates already holding a nomination were eligible for this round, and the published pool does not identify them.

Provincial Nominee Program · 7 January 2025

Express Entry draw #331

Q: What was the CRS cut-off for Express Entry draw #331?

The cut-off for round #331, held on 7 January 2025, was 793. It was a Provincial Nominee Program round and it issued 471 invitations to apply, 66 points above the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 3 weeks earlier. Candidates who tied at 793 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at November 25, 2024 at 16:57:27 UTC.

On 7 January 2025, IRCC issued 471 invitations to apply in the Provincial Nominee Program category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 793 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 66 points above the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 3 weeks earlier. That was the 13th lowest of the 15 Provincial Nominee Program rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 15,954 invitations at cut-offs between 663 and 816. A Provincial Nominee Program cut-off includes the 600 points a provincial nomination is worth, so 793 here is roughly 193 before the nomination — and it cannot be compared with cut-offs in any other category.

Read and checked by Jay Sharma, Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant R710507, licensed by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. Round #331 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

793

Provincial Nominee Program

Previous Provincial Nominee Program round: #330 on 16 Dec 2024 at 727 (+66)

471
Invitations issued: #331
Round: 07 Jan 2025
Date: November 25, 2024
Tie-break

Programs eligible

Provincial Nominee Program

Candidates tied on 793 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at November 25, 2024 at 16:57:27 UTC — a profile submitted before that moment was invited, one submitted after it was not.

The pool that week

The pool behind this round

IRCC published the pool’s shape alongside this round: 227,305 candidates on January 7, 2025. No cut-off line is drawn across it, and that is deliberate — a Provincial Nominee Program score is not on the same scale as the rest of the pool. The reason is below the table.

Express Entry candidates by CRS range on January 7, 2025, against the 793 cut-off of round #331
CRS range	Candidates	Share of pool
601–1200	633	0.3%
501–600	23,021	10.1%
451–500	65,492	28.8%
401–450	60,416	26.6%
351–400	50,452	22.2%
301–350	21,746	9.6%
0–300	5,545	2.4%

Why there is no line on this table. A provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points, so the 793 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate scoring about 193 without it. The pool above counts everyone at their base score — draw a line at 793 and it would report that not one of 227,305 candidates qualified, on a day IRCC invited 471 of them.

Only candidates already holding a nomination could be invited in this round, and the published pool does not identify them. The distribution is still worth seeing — it is the field this round was drawn from — but its scale and this cut-off are not the same scale.

In context

Provincial Nominee Program rounds in the year to 07 Jan 2025

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the 13th lowest of 15.

793

663
Lowest cut-off: 816
Highest cut-off: 15
Rounds: 15,954
Invitations

Reading this today

This is a record, not the current bar

Round #331 was held on 7 January 2025. IRCC has run 107 rounds since, and the current cut-off for this category is not 793.

The latest draw and the current pool All 438 rounds

Free CRS assessment

Would this round have taken you?

The table above is the pool this round was drawn from. Whether your own score reaches a category, and what would move it — a language retake, a provincial nomination, a spouse’s credentials — is a different question, and it is the one worth answering.

Data: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, under the Open Government Licence – Canada. Round #331, 7 January 2025; pool as published on January 7, 2025.

Three fields · about 30 seconds