Why can't the draw #338 cut-off be compared with the Express Entry pool?

Because a provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points. The 667 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate whose score without the nomination was roughly 67. IRCC publishes the pool at base scores, so placing 667 on that distribution would suggest nobody qualified, on a day it invited 725 people. Only candidates already holding a nomination were eligible for this round, and the published pool does not identify them.

Provincial Nominee Program · 3 March 2025

Express Entry draw #338

Q: What was the CRS cut-off for Express Entry draw #338?

The cut-off for round #338, held on 3 March 2025, was 667. It was a Provincial Nominee Program round and it issued 725 invitations to apply, 83 points below the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 2 weeks earlier. Candidates who tied at 667 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at June 05, 2024 at 18:25:22 UTC.

On 3 March 2025, IRCC issued 725 invitations to apply in the Provincial Nominee Program category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 667 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 83 points below the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 2 weeks earlier. That was the second lowest of the 18 Provincial Nominee Program rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 17,780 invitations at cut-offs between 663 and 816. A Provincial Nominee Program cut-off includes the 600 points a provincial nomination is worth, so 667 here is roughly 67 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 #338 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

667

Provincial Nominee Program

Previous Provincial Nominee Program round: #336 on 17 Feb 2025 at 750 (-83)

725
Invitations issued: #338
Round: 03 Mar 2025
Date: June 05, 2024
Tie-break

Programs eligible

Provincial Nominee Program

Candidates tied on 667 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at June 05, 2024 at 18:25:22 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: 227,822 candidates on March 3, 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 March 3, 2025, against the 667 cut-off of round #338
CRS range	Candidates	Share of pool
601–1200	807	0.4%
501–600	23,075	10.1%
451–500	66,792	29.3%
401–450	61,383	26.9%
351–400	49,555	21.8%
301–350	20,573	9.0%
0–300	5,637	2.5%

Why there is no line on this table. A provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points, so the 667 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate scoring about 67 without it. The pool above counts everyone at their base score — draw a line at 667 and it would report that not one of 227,822 candidates qualified, on a day IRCC invited 725 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 03 Mar 2025

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the second lowest of 18.

667

663
Lowest cut-off: 816
Highest cut-off: 18
Rounds: 17,780
Invitations

Reading this today

This is a record, not the current bar

Round #338 was held on 3 March 2025. IRCC has run 100 rounds since, and the current cut-off for this category is not 667.

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 #338, 3 March 2025; pool as published on March 3, 2025.

Three fields · about 30 seconds