Why can't the draw #342 cut-off be compared with the Express Entry pool?

Because a provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points. The 764 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate whose score without the nomination was roughly 164. IRCC publishes the pool at base scores, so placing 764 on that distribution would suggest nobody qualified, on a day it invited 825 people. Only candidates already holding a nomination were eligible for this round, and the published pool does not identify them.

Provincial Nominee Program · 14 April 2025

Express Entry draw #342

Q: What was the CRS cut-off for Express Entry draw #342?

The cut-off for round #342, held on 14 April 2025, was 764. It was a Provincial Nominee Program round and it issued 825 invitations to apply, 28 points above the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 4 weeks earlier. Candidates who tied at 764 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at August 17, 2024 at 18:35:52 UTC.

On 14 April 2025, IRCC issued 825 invitations to apply in the Provincial Nominee Program category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 764 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 28 points above the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 4 weeks earlier. That was the 15th lowest of the 20 Provincial Nominee Program rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 19,141 invitations at cut-offs between 663 and 816. A Provincial Nominee Program cut-off includes the 600 points a provincial nomination is worth, so 764 here is roughly 164 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 #342 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

764

Provincial Nominee Program

Previous Provincial Nominee Program round: #340 on 17 Mar 2025 at 736 (+28)

825
Invitations issued: #342
Round: 14 Apr 2025
Date: August 17, 2024
Tie-break

Programs eligible

Provincial Nominee Program

Candidates tied on 764 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at August 17, 2024 at 18:35:52 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: 244,282 candidates on April 13, 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 April 13, 2025, against the 764 cut-off of round #342
CRS range	Candidates	Share of pool
601–1200	816	0.3%
501–600	19,782	8.1%
451–500	71,542	29.3%
401–450	67,301	27.6%
351–400	53,479	21.9%
301–350	22,799	9.3%
0–300	8,563	3.5%

Why there is no line on this table. A provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points, so the 764 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate scoring about 164 without it. The pool above counts everyone at their base score — draw a line at 764 and it would report that not one of 244,282 candidates qualified, on a day IRCC invited 825 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 14 Apr 2025

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the 15th lowest of 20.

764

663
Lowest cut-off: 816
Highest cut-off: 20
Rounds: 19,141
Invitations

Reading this today

This is a record, not the current bar

Round #342 was held on 14 April 2025. IRCC has run 96 rounds since, and the current cut-off for this category is not 764.

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 #342, 14 April 2025; pool as published on April 13, 2025.

Three fields · about 30 seconds