Why can't the draw #361 cut-off be compared with the Express Entry pool?

Because a provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points. The 800 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate whose score without the nomination was roughly 200. IRCC publishes the pool at base scores, so placing 800 on that distribution would suggest nobody qualified, on a day it invited 192 people. Only candidates already holding a nomination were eligible for this round, and the published pool does not identify them.

Provincial Nominee Program · 18 August 2025

Express Entry draw #361

Q: What was the CRS cut-off for Express Entry draw #361?

The cut-off for round #361, held on 18 August 2025, was 800. It was a Provincial Nominee Program round and it issued 192 invitations to apply, 61 points above the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 12 days earlier. Candidates who tied at 800 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at February 11, 2025 at 19:17:09 UTC.

On 18 August 2025, IRCC issued 192 invitations to apply in the Provincial Nominee Program category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 800 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 61 points above the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 12 days earlier. That was the 20th lowest of the 23 Provincial Nominee Program rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 13,431 invitations at cut-offs between 667 and 816. A Provincial Nominee Program cut-off includes the 600 points a provincial nomination is worth, so 800 here is roughly 200 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 #361 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

800

Provincial Nominee Program

Previous Provincial Nominee Program round: #358 on 06 Aug 2025 at 739 (+61)

192
Invitations issued: #361
Round: 18 Aug 2025
Date: February 11, 2025
Tie-break

Programs eligible

Provincial Nominee Program

Candidates tied on 800 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at February 11, 2025 at 19:17:09 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: 254,113 candidates on August 17, 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 August 17, 2025, against the 800 cut-off of round #361
CRS range	Candidates	Share of pool
601–1200	188	0.1%
501–600	22,930	9.0%
451–500	75,011	29.5%
401–450	73,920	29.1%
351–400	53,461	21.0%
301–350	20,424	8.0%
0–300	8,179	3.2%

Why there is no line on this table. A provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points, so the 800 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate scoring about 200 without it. The pool above counts everyone at their base score — draw a line at 800 and it would report that not one of 254,113 candidates qualified, on a day IRCC invited 192 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 18 Aug 2025

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the 20th lowest of 23.

800

667
Lowest cut-off: 816
Highest cut-off: 23
Rounds: 13,431
Invitations

Reading this today

This is a record, not the current bar

Round #361 was held on 18 August 2025. IRCC has run 77 rounds since, and the current cut-off for this category is not 800.

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 #361, 18 August 2025; pool as published on August 17, 2025.

Three fields · about 30 seconds