Why can't the draw #435 cut-off be compared with the Express Entry pool?

Because a provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points. The 760 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate whose score without the nomination was roughly 160. IRCC publishes the pool at base scores, so placing 760 on that distribution would suggest nobody qualified, on a day it invited 442 people. Only candidates already holding a nomination were eligible for this round, and the published pool does not identify them.

Provincial Nominee Program · 17 August 2026

Express Entry draw #435

Q: What was the CRS cut-off for Express Entry draw #435?

The cut-off for round #435, held on 17 August 2026, was 760. It was a Provincial Nominee Program round and it issued 442 invitations to apply, 8 points below the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 13 days earlier. Candidates who tied at 760 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at August 07, 2026 at 18:01:56 UTC.

On 17 August 2026, IRCC issued 442 invitations to apply in the Provincial Nominee Program category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 760 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 8 points below the previous Provincial Nominee Program round 13 days earlier. That was the 14th lowest of the 26 Provincial Nominee Program rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 12,019 invitations at cut-offs between 699 and 855. A Provincial Nominee Program cut-off includes the 600 points a provincial nomination is worth, so 760 here is roughly 160 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 #435 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

760

Provincial Nominee Program

Previous Provincial Nominee Program round: #431 on 04 Aug 2026 at 768 (-8)

442
Invitations issued: #435
Round: 17 Aug 2026
Date: August 07, 2026
Tie-break

Programs eligible

Provincial Nominee Program

Candidates tied on 760 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at August 07, 2026 at 18:01:56 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: 226,859 candidates on August 16, 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 August 16, 2026, against the 760 cut-off of round #435
CRS range	Candidates	Share of pool
601–1200	439	0.2%
501–600	18,657	8.2%
451–500	73,554	32.4%
401–450	60,631	26.7%
351–400	48,600	21.4%
301–350	17,269	7.6%
0–300	7,709	3.4%

Why there is no line on this table. A provincial nomination is worth 600 CRS points, so the 760 cut-off in this round belongs to a candidate scoring about 160 without it. The pool above counts everyone at their base score — draw a line at 760 and it would report that not one of 226,859 candidates qualified, on a day IRCC invited 442 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 17 Aug 2026

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the 14th lowest of 26.

760

699
Lowest cut-off: 855
Highest cut-off: 26
Rounds: 12,019
Invitations

Reading this today

This is a record, not the current bar

Round #435 was held on 17 August 2026. IRCC has run 3 rounds since, and the current cut-off for this category is not 760.

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 #435, 17 August 2026; pool as published on August 16, 2026.

Three fields · about 30 seconds