Why can't the draw #343 cut-off be compared with the Express Entry pool?

Because a provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points. The 727 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate whose score without the nomination was roughly 127. IRCC publishes the pool at base scores, so placing 727 on that distribution would suggest nobody qualified, on a day it invited 421 people. Only candidates already holding a nomination were eligible for this round, and the published pool does not identify them.

Provincial Nominee Program · 28 April 2025

Express Entry draw #343

Q: What was the CRS cut-off for Express Entry draw #343?

The cut-off for round #343, held on 28 April 2025, was 727. It was a Provincial Nominee Program round and it issued 421 invitations to apply, 37 points below the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 2 weeks earlier. Candidates who tied at 727 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at September 09, 2024 at 17:11:19 UTC.

On 28 April 2025, IRCC issued 421 invitations to apply in the Provincial Nominee Program category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 727 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 37 points below the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 2 weeks earlier. That was the 9th lowest of the 21 Provincial Nominee Program rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 19,562 invitations at cut-offs between 663 and 816. A Provincial Nominee Program cut-off includes the 600 points a provincial nomination is worth, so 727 here is roughly 127 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 #343 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

727

Provincial Nominee Program

Previous Provincial Nominee Program round: #342 on 14 Apr 2025 at 764 (-37)

421
Invitations issued: #343
Round: 28 Apr 2025
Date: September 09, 2024
Tie-break

Programs eligible

Provincial Nominee Program

Candidates tied on 727 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at September 09, 2024 at 17:11:19 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: 246,673 candidates on April 27, 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 27, 2025, against the 727 cut-off of round #343
CRS range	Candidates	Share of pool
601–1200	416	0.2%
501–600	20,708	8.4%
451–500	72,523	29.4%
401–450	68,267	27.7%
351–400	53,640	21.7%
301–350	22,553	9.1%
0–300	8,566	3.5%

Why there is no line on this table. A provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points, so the 727 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate scoring about 127 without it. The pool above counts everyone at their base score — draw a line at 727 and it would report that not one of 246,673 candidates qualified, on a day IRCC invited 421 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 28 Apr 2025

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the 9th lowest of 21.

727

663
Lowest cut-off: 816
Highest cut-off: 21
Rounds: 19,562
Invitations

Reading this today

This is a record, not the current bar

Round #343 was held on 28 April 2025. IRCC has run 95 rounds since, and the current cut-off for this category is not 727.

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 #343, 28 April 2025; pool as published on April 27, 2025.

Three fields · about 30 seconds