How many candidates ranked above the cut-off in draw #436?

On August 16, 2026, the Express Entry pool held 226,859 candidates. 439 of them sat in score bands entirely at or above the 523 cut-off. A further 18,657 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 group cleared 523 is not knowable from the data.

Canadian Experience Class · 18 August 2026

Express Entry draw #436

Q: What was the CRS cut-off for Express Entry draw #436?

The cut-off for round #436, held on 18 August 2026, was 523. It was a Canadian Experience Class round and it issued 1,000 invitations to apply, 7 points above the previous Canadian Experience Class round 13 days earlier. Candidates who tied at 523 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at August 17, 2026 at 22:09:00 UTC.

On 18 August 2026, IRCC issued 1,000 invitations to apply in the Canadian Experience Class category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 523 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 7 points above the previous Canadian Experience Class round 13 days earlier. That was the 16th lowest of the 21 Canadian Experience Class rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 65,250 invitations at cut-offs between 507 and 534.

Read and checked by Jay Sharma, Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant R710507, licensed by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. Round #436 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

523

Canadian Experience Class

Previous Canadian Experience Class round: #432 on 05 Aug 2026 at 516 (+7)

1,000
Invitations issued: #436
Round: 18 Aug 2026
Date: August 17, 2026
Tie-break

Programs eligible

Canadian Experience Class

Candidates tied on 523 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at August 17, 2026 at 22:09:00 UTC — a profile submitted before that moment was invited, one submitted after it was not.

The pool that week

Where 523 fell through the pool

IRCC published the Express Entry pool’s shape alongside this round. On August 16, 2026 it held 226,859 candidates, and the cut-off ran through them here.

Express Entry candidates by CRS range on August 16, 2026, against the 523 cut-off of round #436
CRS range	Candidates	Share of pool	Against the cut-off
601–1200	439	0.2%	All invited
Cut-off — CRS 523
501–600	18,657	8.2%	Split by the cut-off
451–500	73,554	32.4%	Below the cut-off
401–450	60,631	26.7%	Below the cut-off
351–400	48,600	21.4%	Below the cut-off
301–350	17,269	7.6%	Below the cut-off
0–300	7,709	3.4%	Below the cut-off

439 candidates sat in bands entirely at or above 523 — 0.2% of the pool.

A further 18,657 sat in the 501–600 band, which 523 falls inside. IRCC does not publish scores more finely than this, so how many of them cleared 523 is not knowable from the data.

In context

Canadian Experience Class rounds in the year to 18 Aug 2026

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the 16th lowest of 21.

523

507
Lowest cut-off: 534
Highest cut-off: 21
Rounds: 65,250
Invitations

Reading this today

This is a record, not the current bar

Round #436 was held on 18 August 2026. IRCC has run 2 rounds since, and the current cut-off for this category is not 523.

The latest draw and the current pool All 438 rounds

Free CRS assessment

Would this round have taken you?

The table above says where 523 fell through the pool. 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 #436, 18 August 2026; pool as published on August 16, 2026.

Three fields · about 30 seconds