Why can't the draw #389 cut-off be compared with the Express Entry pool?

Because a provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points. The 711 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate whose score without the nomination was roughly 111. IRCC publishes the pool at base scores, so placing 711 on that distribution would suggest nobody qualified, on a day it invited 574 people. Only candidates already holding a nomination were eligible for this round, and the published pool does not identify them.

Provincial Nominee Program · 5 January 2026

Express Entry draw #389

Q: What was the CRS cut-off for Express Entry draw #389?

The cut-off for round #389, held on 5 January 2026, was 711. It was a Provincial Nominee Program round and it issued 574 invitations to apply, 20 points below the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 3 weeks earlier. Candidates who tied at 711 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at October 06, 2025 at 01:54:31 UTC.

On 5 January 2026, IRCC issued 574 invitations to apply in the Provincial Nominee Program category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 711 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 20 points below the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 3 weeks earlier. That was the 4th lowest of the 25 Provincial Nominee Program rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 11,472 invitations at cut-offs between 667 and 855. A Provincial Nominee Program cut-off includes the 600 points a provincial nomination is worth, so 711 here is roughly 111 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 #389 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

711

Provincial Nominee Program

Previous Provincial Nominee Program round: #386 on 15 Dec 2025 at 731 (-20)

574
Invitations issued: #389
Round: 05 Jan 2026
Date: October 06, 2025
Tie-break

Programs eligible

Provincial Nominee Program

Candidates tied on 711 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at October 06, 2025 at 01:54:31 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: 236,554 candidates on January 4, 2026. 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 January 4, 2026, against the 711 cut-off of round #389
CRS range	Candidates	Share of pool
601–1200	559	0.2%
501–600	21,013	8.9%
451–500	70,523	29.8%
401–450	65,120	27.5%
351–400	52,469	22.2%
301–350	18,745	7.9%
0–300	8,125	3.4%

Why there is no line on this table. A provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points, so the 711 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate scoring about 111 without it. The pool above counts everyone at their base score — draw a line at 711 and it would report that not one of 236,554 candidates qualified, on a day IRCC invited 574 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 05 Jan 2026

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the 4th lowest of 25.

711

667
Lowest cut-off: 855
Highest cut-off: 25
Rounds: 11,472
Invitations

Reading this today

This is a record, not the current bar

Round #389 was held on 5 January 2026. IRCC has run 49 rounds since, and the current cut-off for this category is not 711.

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 #389, 5 January 2026; pool as published on January 4, 2026.

Three fields · about 30 seconds