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The Visa Tales

Canadian Experience Class · 21 January 2026

Express Entry draw #392

On 21 January 2026, IRCC issued 6,000 invitations to apply in the Canadian Experience Class. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 509 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 2 points below the previous Canadian Experience Class round 2 weeks earlier. That was the lowest of the 16 Canadian Experience Class rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 48,500 invitations at cut-offs between 509 and 547.

Read and checked by Jay Sharma, Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant R710507, licensed by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. Round #392 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

509

Canadian Experience Class

Previous Canadian Experience Class round: #390 on 07 Jan 2026 at 511 (-2)

Invitations
6,000
Round
#392
Date
21 Jan 2026
Tie-break
29 Oct 2025

Programs eligible

Canadian Experience Class

Candidates tied on 509 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at October 29, 2025 at 04:35:24 UTC. A profile submitted before that moment was invited, one submitted after it was not.

The pool that week

Where 509 fell through the pool

IRCC published the Express Entry pool’s shape alongside this round. On January 19, 2026 it held 237,120 candidates across 15 score bands, and the cut-off ran through them here.
Express Entry candidates by CRS range on January 19, 2026, against the 509 cut-off of round #392
CRS rangeCandidatesShare of poolAgainst the cut-off
601–12006770.3%All invited
Cut-off: CRS 509
501–60016,3416.9%Split by the cut-off
491–50013,2785.6%Below the cut-off
481–49012,9425.5%Below the cut-off
471–48015,9656.7%Below the cut-off
461–47015,3206.5%Below the cut-off
451–46015,2096.4%Below the cut-off
441–45014,4526.1%Below the cut-off
431–44014,5716.1%Below the cut-off
421–43013,0925.5%Below the cut-off
411–42012,8635.4%Below the cut-off
401–41011,8585.0%Below the cut-off
351–40053,22122.4%Below the cut-off
301–35019,0628.0%Below the cut-off
0–3008,2693.5%Below the cut-off

677 candidates sat in bands entirely at or above 509, or 0.3% of the pool.

A further 16,341 sat in the 501–600 band, which 509 falls inside. IRCC does not publish scores more finely than this, so how many of them cleared 509 is not knowable from the data.

In context

Canadian Experience Class rounds in the year to 21 Jan 2026

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the lowest of 16.
509
Lowest cut-off
509
Highest cut-off
547
Rounds
16
Invitations
48,500

Common questions

Round #392, 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 #392?

The cut-off for round #392, held on 21 January 2026, was 509. It was a Canadian Experience Class round and it issued 6,000 invitations to apply, 2 points below the previous Canadian Experience Class round 2 weeks earlier. Candidates who tied at 509 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at October 29, 2025 at 04:35:24 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 #392?

On January 19, 2026, the Express Entry pool held 237,120 candidates. 677 of them sat in score bands entirely at or above the 509 cut-off. A further 16,341 sat in the 501-600 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 509 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 509 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 #392, 21 January 2026; pool as published on January 19, 2026.

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