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The Visa Tales

French-language proficiency · 8 August 2025

Express Entry draw #360

On 8 August 2025, IRCC issued 2,500 invitations to apply in the French-language proficiency category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 481 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 102 points above the previous French-language proficiency round 20 weeks earlier. That was the highest of the 9 French-language proficiency rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 26,600 invitations at cut-offs between 379 and 481.

Read and checked by Jay Sharma, Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant R710507, licensed by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. Round #360 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

481

French-language proficiency

Previous French-language proficiency round: #341 on 21 Mar 2025 at 379 (+102)

Invitations
2,500
Round
#360
Date
08 Aug 2025
Tie-break
18 Jul 2025

Programs eligible

Federal Skilled Worker Program, Canadian Experience Class and Federal Skilled Trades Program

Candidates tied on 481 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at July 18, 2025 at 05:16:06 UTC. A profile submitted before that moment was invited, one submitted after it was not.

The pool that week

Where 481 fell through the pool

IRCC published the Express Entry pool’s shape alongside this round. On August 5, 2025 it held 256,585 candidates across 15 score bands, and the cut-off ran through them here.
Express Entry candidates by CRS range on August 5, 2025, against the 481 cut-off of round #360
CRS rangeCandidatesShare of poolAgainst the cut-off
601–12002280.1%All invited
501–60024,1659.4%All invited
491–50012,9755.1%All invited
481–49012,8905.0%All invited
471–48016,8366.6%Below the cut-off
461–47017,3836.8%Below the cut-off
451–46015,9206.2%Below the cut-off
441–45015,2015.9%Below the cut-off
431–44016,1426.3%Below the cut-off
421–43014,6525.7%Below the cut-off
411–42014,4565.6%Below the cut-off
401–41013,3885.2%Below the cut-off
351–40053,59020.9%Below the cut-off
301–35020,5348.0%Below the cut-off
0–3008,2253.2%Below the cut-off

50,258 candidates sat in bands entirely at or above 481, or 19.6% of the pool.

In context

French-language proficiency rounds in the year to 08 Aug 2025

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the highest of 9.
481
Lowest cut-off
379
Highest cut-off
481
Rounds
9
Invitations
26,600

Common questions

Round #360, answered

Two questions this round gets asked, answered from IRCC’s own figures for it.

What was the CRS cut-off for Express Entry draw #360?

The cut-off for round #360, held on 8 August 2025, was 481. It was a French-language proficiency round and it issued 2,500 invitations to apply, 102 points above the previous French-language proficiency round 20 weeks earlier. Candidates who tied at 481 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at July 18, 2025 at 05:16:06 UTC, which means somebody sitting on exactly that score who submitted their profile after that moment was not invited. That tie-break is the part of a round most people never see, and it is the reason two candidates with identical scores can get different answers on the same day. It is also the argument for submitting a profile as soon as it is genuinely ready, since the ordering it creates costs nothing to be early in. The full record of this round, including the pool as IRCC published it that week, is set out on the rest of this page.

How many candidates ranked above the cut-off in draw #360?

On August 5, 2025, the Express Entry pool held 256,585 candidates. 50,258 of them sat in score bands entirely at or above the 481 cut-off. A further 0 sat in the undefined band, which the cut-off runs through. IRCC does not publish scores at a finer resolution than these bands, so how many of that middle group actually cleared 481 is not knowable from the published data, by us or by anybody else quoting a precise figure. What the numbers do support is a sense of the shape: how much of the pool was in contention, and how far the round reached into it. Anyone offering an exact count of candidates above a cut-off has estimated it. The bands as IRCC published them for this round are set out below, so you can read your own score against the same distribution the department did rather than against a summary of it.

Free CRS assessment

Would this round have taken you?

The table above says where 481 fell through the pool. Whether your own score reaches a category, and what would move it, whether a language retake, a provincial nomination or 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 #360, 8 August 2025; pool as published on August 5, 2025.

Three fields · about 30 seconds

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