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The Visa Tales

Healthcare and social services · 20 February 2026

Express Entry draw #398

On 20 February 2026, IRCC issued 4,000 invitations to apply in the Healthcare and social services category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 467 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 9 points below the previous Healthcare and social services round 10 weeks earlier. That was the second lowest of the 8 Healthcare and social services rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 18,500 invitations at cut-offs between 462 and 510.

Read and checked by Jay Sharma, Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant R710507, licensed by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. Round #398 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

467

Healthcare and social services

Previous Healthcare and social services round: #385 on 11 Dec 2025 at 476 (-9)

Invitations
4,000
Round
#398
Date
20 Feb 2026
Tie-break
9 Dec 2025

Programs eligible

Federal Skilled Worker Program, Canadian Experience Class and Federal Skilled Trades Program

Candidates tied on 467 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at December 09, 2025 at 18:22:06 UTC. A profile submitted before that moment was invited, one submitted after it was not.

The pool that week

Where 467 fell through the pool

IRCC published the Express Entry pool’s shape alongside this round. On February 15, 2026 it held 235,695 candidates across 15 score bands, and the cut-off ran through them here.
Express Entry candidates by CRS range on February 15, 2026, against the 467 cut-off of round #398
CRS rangeCandidatesShare of poolAgainst the cut-off
601–12002800.1%All invited
501–60016,5597.0%All invited
491–50013,5045.7%All invited
481–49013,2485.6%All invited
471–48016,5317.0%All invited
Cut-off: CRS 467
461–47015,4266.5%Split by the cut-off
451–46014,9006.3%Below the cut-off
441–45014,1426.0%Below the cut-off
431–44014,2396.0%Below the cut-off
421–43012,4255.3%Below the cut-off
411–42012,1835.2%Below the cut-off
401–41011,3164.8%Below the cut-off
351–40053,65022.8%Below the cut-off
301–35019,0098.1%Below the cut-off
0–3008,2833.5%Below the cut-off

60,122 candidates sat in bands entirely at or above 467, or 25.5% of the pool.

A further 15,426 sat in the 461–470 band, which 467 falls inside. IRCC does not publish scores more finely than this, so how many of them cleared 467 is not knowable from the data.

In context

Healthcare and social services rounds in the year to 20 Feb 2026

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the second lowest of 8.
467
Lowest cut-off
462
Highest cut-off
510
Rounds
8
Invitations
18,500

Common questions

Round #398, 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 #398?

The cut-off for round #398, held on 20 February 2026, was 467. It was a Healthcare and social services round and it issued 4,000 invitations to apply, 9 points below the previous Healthcare and social services round 10 weeks earlier. Candidates who tied at 467 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at December 09, 2025 at 18:22:06 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 #398?

On February 15, 2026, the Express Entry pool held 235,695 candidates. 60,122 of them sat in score bands entirely at or above the 467 cut-off. A further 15,426 sat in the 461-470 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 467 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 467 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 #398, 20 February 2026; pool as published on February 15, 2026.

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