Why can't the draw #369 cut-off be compared with the Express Entry pool?

Because a provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points. The 855 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate whose score without the nomination was roughly 255. IRCC publishes the pool at base scores, so placing 855 on that distribution would suggest nobody qualified, on a day it invited 291 people. Only candidates already holding a nomination were eligible for this round, and the published pool does not identify them.

Provincial Nominee Program · 29 September 2025

Express Entry draw #369

Q: What was the CRS cut-off for Express Entry draw #369?

The cut-off for round #369, held on 29 September 2025, was 855. It was a Provincial Nominee Program round and it issued 291 invitations to apply, 109 points above the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 2 weeks earlier. Candidates who tied at 855 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at April 08, 2025 at 01:25:29 UTC.

On 29 September 2025, IRCC issued 291 invitations to apply in the Provincial Nominee Program category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 855 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 109 points above the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 2 weeks earlier. That was the highest of the 24 Provincial Nominee Program rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 12,167 invitations at cut-offs between 667 and 855. A Provincial Nominee Program cut-off includes the 600 points a provincial nomination is worth, so 855 here is roughly 255 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 #369 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

855

Provincial Nominee Program

Previous Provincial Nominee Program round: #366 on 15 Sept 2025 at 746 (+109)

291
Invitations issued: #369
Round: 29 Sept 2025
Date: April 08, 2025
Tie-break

Programs eligible

Provincial Nominee Program

Candidates tied on 855 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at April 08, 2025 at 01:25:29 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: 250,993 candidates on September 28, 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 September 28, 2025, against the 855 cut-off of round #369
CRS range	Candidates	Share of pool
601–1200	288	0.1%
501–600	24,531	9.8%
451–500	70,583	28.1%
401–450	74,481	29.7%
351–400	53,066	21.1%
301–350	19,963	8.0%
0–300	8,081	3.2%

Why there is no line on this table. A provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points, so the 855 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate scoring about 255 without it. The pool above counts everyone at their base score — draw a line at 855 and it would report that not one of 250,993 candidates qualified, on a day IRCC invited 291 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 29 Sept 2025

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the highest of 24.

855

667
Lowest cut-off: 855
Highest cut-off: 24
Rounds: 12,167
Invitations

Reading this today

This is a record, not the current bar

Round #369 was held on 29 September 2025. IRCC has run 69 rounds since, and the current cut-off for this category is not 855.

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 #369, 29 September 2025; pool as published on September 28, 2025.

Three fields · about 30 seconds