Why can't the draw #346 cut-off be compared with the Express Entry pool?

Because a provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points. The 706 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate whose score without the nomination was roughly 106. IRCC publishes the pool at base scores, so placing 706 on that distribution would suggest nobody qualified, on a day it invited 511 people. Only candidates already holding a nomination were eligible for this round, and the published pool does not identify them.

Provincial Nominee Program · 12 May 2025

Express Entry draw #346

Q: What was the CRS cut-off for Express Entry draw #346?

The cut-off for round #346, held on 12 May 2025, was 706. It was a Provincial Nominee Program round and it issued 511 invitations to apply, 21 points below the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 2 weeks earlier. Candidates who tied at 706 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at March 04, 2025 at 22:35:42 UTC.

On 12 May 2025, IRCC issued 511 invitations to apply in the Provincial Nominee Program category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 706 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 21 points below the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 2 weeks earlier. That was the 9th lowest of the 22 Provincial Nominee Program rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 20,073 invitations at cut-offs between 663 and 816. A Provincial Nominee Program cut-off includes the 600 points a provincial nomination is worth, so 706 here is roughly 106 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 #346 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

706

Provincial Nominee Program

Previous Provincial Nominee Program round: #343 on 28 Apr 2025 at 727 (-21)

511
Invitations issued: #346
Round: 12 May 2025
Date: March 04, 2025
Tie-break

Programs eligible

Provincial Nominee Program

Candidates tied on 706 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at March 04, 2025 at 22:35:42 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: 249,969 candidates on May 12, 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 May 12, 2025, against the 706 cut-off of round #346
CRS range	Candidates	Share of pool
601–1200	513	0.2%
501–600	22,316	8.9%
451–500	73,582	29.4%
401–450	69,467	27.8%
351–400	53,598	21.4%
301–350	22,051	8.8%
0–300	8,442	3.4%

Why there is no line on this table. A provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points, so the 706 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate scoring about 106 without it. The pool above counts everyone at their base score — draw a line at 706 and it would report that not one of 249,969 candidates qualified, on a day IRCC invited 511 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 12 May 2025

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the 9th lowest of 22.

706

663
Lowest cut-off: 816
Highest cut-off: 22
Rounds: 20,073
Invitations

Reading this today

This is a record, not the current bar

Round #346 was held on 12 May 2025. IRCC has run 92 rounds since, and the current cut-off for this category is not 706.

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 #346, 12 May 2025; pool as published on May 12, 2025.

Three fields · about 30 seconds