Why can't the draw #386 cut-off be compared with the Express Entry pool?

Because a provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points. The 731 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate whose score without the nomination was roughly 131. IRCC publishes the pool at base scores, so placing 731 on that distribution would suggest nobody qualified, on a day it invited 399 people. Only candidates already holding a nomination were eligible for this round, and the published pool does not identify them.

Provincial Nominee Program · 15 December 2025

Express Entry draw #386

Q: What was the CRS cut-off for Express Entry draw #386?

The cut-off for round #386, held on 15 December 2025, was 731. It was a Provincial Nominee Program round and it issued 399 invitations to apply, 2 points above the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 7 days earlier. Candidates who tied at 731 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at October 18, 2025 at 7:18:52 UTC.

On 15 December 2025, IRCC issued 399 invitations to apply in the Provincial Nominee Program category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 731 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 2 points above the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 7 days earlier. That was the 8th lowest of the 25 Provincial Nominee Program rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 11,983 invitations at cut-offs between 667 and 855. A Provincial Nominee Program cut-off includes the 600 points a provincial nomination is worth, so 731 here is roughly 131 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 #386 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

731

Provincial Nominee Program

Previous Provincial Nominee Program round: #383 on 08 Dec 2025 at 729 (+2)

399
Invitations issued: #386
Round: 15 Dec 2025
Date: October 18, 2025
Tie-break

Programs eligible

Provincial Nominee Program

Candidates tied on 731 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at October 18, 2025 at 7:18:52 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: 237,302 candidates on December 15, 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 December 15, 2025, against the 731 cut-off of round #386
CRS range	Candidates	Share of pool
601–1200	390	0.2%
501–600	21,792	9.2%
451–500	68,700	29.0%
401–450	66,948	28.2%
351–400	52,574	22.2%
301–350	18,829	7.9%
0–300	8,069	3.4%

Why there is no line on this table. A provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points, so the 731 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate scoring about 131 without it. The pool above counts everyone at their base score — draw a line at 731 and it would report that not one of 237,302 candidates qualified, on a day IRCC invited 399 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 15 Dec 2025

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the 8th lowest of 25.

731

667
Lowest cut-off: 855
Highest cut-off: 25
Rounds: 11,983
Invitations

Reading this today

This is a record, not the current bar

Round #386 was held on 15 December 2025. IRCC has run 52 rounds since, and the current cut-off for this category is not 731.

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 #386, 15 December 2025; pool as published on December 15, 2025.

Three fields · about 30 seconds