How many candidates ranked above the cut-off in draw #353?

On June 22, 2025, the Express Entry pool held 256,754 candidates. 471 of them sat in score bands entirely at or above the 521 cut-off. A further 22,947 sat in the 501-600 band, which the cut-off runs through — IRCC does not publish scores at a finer resolution than these bands, so how many of that group cleared 521 is not knowable from the data.

Canadian Experience Class · 26 June 2025

Express Entry draw #353

Q: What was the CRS cut-off for Express Entry draw #353?

The cut-off for round #353, held on 26 June 2025, was 521. It was a Canadian Experience Class round and it issued 3,000 invitations to apply, 8 points below the previous Canadian Experience Class round 2 weeks earlier. Candidates who tied at 521 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at November 21, 2024 at 15:56:13 UTC.

On 26 June 2025, IRCC issued 3,000 invitations to apply in the Canadian Experience Class category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 521 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 8 points below the previous Canadian Experience Class round 2 weeks earlier. That was the 6th lowest of the 15 Canadian Experience Class rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 39,350 invitations at cut-offs between 507 and 547.

Read and checked by Jay Sharma, Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant R710507, licensed by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. Round #353 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

521

Canadian Experience Class

Previous Canadian Experience Class round: #351 on 12 Jun 2025 at 529 (-8)

3,000
Invitations issued: #353
Round: 26 Jun 2025
Date: November 21, 2024
Tie-break

Programs eligible

Canadian Experience Class

Candidates tied on 521 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at November 21, 2024 at 15:56:13 UTC — a profile submitted before that moment was invited, one submitted after it was not.

The pool that week

Where 521 fell through the pool

IRCC published the Express Entry pool’s shape alongside this round. On June 22, 2025 it held 256,754 candidates, and the cut-off ran through them here.

Express Entry candidates by CRS range on June 22, 2025, against the 521 cut-off of round #353
CRS range	Candidates	Share of pool	Against the cut-off
601–1200	471	0.2%	All invited
Cut-off — CRS 521
501–600	22,947	8.9%	Split by the cut-off
451–500	76,748	29.9%	Below the cut-off
401–450	72,235	28.1%	Below the cut-off
351–400	54,237	21.1%	Below the cut-off
301–350	21,746	8.5%	Below the cut-off
0–300	8,370	3.3%	Below the cut-off

471 candidates sat in bands entirely at or above 521 — 0.2% of the pool.

A further 22,947 sat in the 501–600 band, which 521 falls inside. IRCC does not publish scores more finely than this, so how many of them cleared 521 is not knowable from the data.

In context

Canadian Experience Class rounds in the year to 26 Jun 2025

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the 6th lowest of 15.

521

507
Lowest cut-off: 547
Highest cut-off: 15
Rounds: 39,350
Invitations

Reading this today

This is a record, not the current bar

Round #353 was held on 26 June 2025. IRCC has run 85 rounds since, and the current cut-off for this category is not 521.

The latest draw and the current pool All 438 rounds

Free CRS assessment

Would this round have taken you?

The table above says where 521 fell through the pool. 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 #353, 26 June 2025; pool as published on June 22, 2025.

Three fields · about 30 seconds