Why can't the draw #354 cut-off be compared with the Express Entry pool?

Because a provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points. The 750 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate whose score without the nomination was roughly 150. IRCC publishes the pool at base scores, so placing 750 on that distribution would suggest nobody qualified, on a day it invited 356 people. Only candidates already holding a nomination were eligible for this round, and the published pool does not identify them.

Provincial Nominee Program · 7 July 2025

Express Entry draw #354

Q: What was the CRS cut-off for Express Entry draw #354?

The cut-off for round #354, held on 7 July 2025, was 750. It was a Provincial Nominee Program round and it issued 356 invitations to apply, 8 points above the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 2 weeks earlier. Candidates who tied at 750 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at March 19, 2025 at 04:09:09 UTC.

On 7 July 2025, IRCC issued 356 invitations to apply in the Provincial Nominee Program category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 750 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 8 points above the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 2 weeks earlier. That was the 15th lowest of the 23 Provincial Nominee Program rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 15,930 invitations at cut-offs between 667 and 816. A Provincial Nominee Program cut-off includes the 600 points a provincial nomination is worth, so 750 here is roughly 150 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 #354 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

750

Provincial Nominee Program

Previous Provincial Nominee Program round: #352 on 23 Jun 2025 at 742 (+8)

356
Invitations issued: #354
Round: 07 Jul 2025
Date: March 19, 2025
Tie-break

Programs eligible

Provincial Nominee Program

Candidates tied on 750 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at March 19, 2025 at 04:09:09 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: 256,224 candidates on July 6, 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 July 6, 2025, against the 750 cut-off of round #354
CRS range	Candidates	Share of pool
601–1200	358	0.1%
501–600	22,591	8.8%
451–500	77,550	30.3%
401–450	72,608	28.3%
351–400	53,697	21.0%
301–350	21,135	8.2%
0–300	8,285	3.2%

Why there is no line on this table. A provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points, so the 750 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate scoring about 150 without it. The pool above counts everyone at their base score — draw a line at 750 and it would report that not one of 256,224 candidates qualified, on a day IRCC invited 356 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 07 Jul 2025

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the 15th lowest of 23.

750

667
Lowest cut-off: 816
Highest cut-off: 23
Rounds: 15,930
Invitations

Reading this today

This is a record, not the current bar

Round #354 was held on 7 July 2025. IRCC has run 84 rounds since, and the current cut-off for this category is not 750.

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 #354, 7 July 2025; pool as published on July 6, 2025.

Three fields · about 30 seconds