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The Visa Tales

French-language proficiency · 27 October 2026

Express Entry draw #452

On 27 October 2026, IRCC issued 5,000 invitations to apply in the French-language proficiency category. The lowest-ranked candidate invited scored 407 on the Comprehensive Ranking System, 28 points below the previous French-language proficiency round 11 days earlier. That was the 9th lowest of the 15 French-language proficiency rounds held in the year to that date, which together issued 78,500 invitations at cut-offs between 382 and 435.

Read and checked by Jay Sharma, Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant R710507, licensed by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. Round #452 is reproduced from IRCC's official rounds feed and has not been edited.

Minimum CRS score

407

French-language proficiency

Previous French-language proficiency round: #450 on 16 Oct 2026 at 435 (-28)

Invitations
5,000
Round
#452
Date
27 Oct 2026
Tie-break
13 Jul 2026

Programs eligible

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

Candidates tied on 407 were separated by how long they had been in the pool. The tie-break was set at July 13, 2026 at 19:22:00 UTC. A profile submitted before that moment was invited, one submitted after it was not.

The pool that week

Where 407 fell through the pool

IRCC published the Express Entry pool’s shape alongside this round. On October 25, 2026 it held 228,724 candidates across 15 score bands, and the cut-off ran through them here.
Express Entry candidates by CRS range on October 25, 2026, against the 407 cut-off of round #452
CRS rangeCandidatesShare of poolAgainst the cut-off
601–12007870.3%All invited
501–60020,5359.0%All invited
491–50012,1625.3%All invited
481–49012,3425.4%All invited
471–48016,3307.1%All invited
461–47015,8036.9%All invited
451–46014,4756.3%All invited
441–45013,1595.8%All invited
431–44013,1555.8%All invited
421–43012,7685.6%All invited
411–42012,5435.5%All invited
Cut-off: CRS 407
401–41011,8805.2%Split by the cut-off
351–40047,91120.9%Below the cut-off
301–35017,2477.5%Below the cut-off
0–3007,6273.3%Below the cut-off

144,059 candidates sat in bands entirely at or above 407, or 63.0% of the pool.

A further 11,880 sat in the 401–410 band, which 407 falls inside. IRCC does not publish scores more finely than this, so how many of them cleared 407 is not knowable from the data.

In context

French-language proficiency rounds in the year to 27 Oct 2026

A cut-off means little on its own. Against its own category’s previous twelve months, this one was the 9th lowest of 15.
407
Lowest cut-off
382
Highest cut-off
435
Rounds
15
Invitations
78,500

Reading this today

This is a record, not the current bar

Round #452 is the most recent round IRCC has held, but the pool moves every week and the next round sets its own cut-off. What 407 tells you is where this category was drawing, not what you need.

You can score your profile on the current CRS grid, check which of the last twelve months of rounds that score would have won, and see how the pool has moved since this round was drawn.

Common questions

Round #452, 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 #452?

The cut-off for round #452, held on 27 October 2026, was 407. It was a French-language proficiency round and it issued 5,000 invitations to apply, 28 points below the previous French-language proficiency round 11 days earlier. Candidates who tied at 407 were ranked by the date they entered the pool, with the cut-off timestamp set at July 13, 2026 at 19:22:00 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 #452?

On October 25, 2026, the Express Entry pool held 228,724 candidates. 144,059 of them sat in score bands entirely at or above the 407 cut-off. A further 11,880 sat in the 401-410 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 407 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 407 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 #452, 27 October 2026; pool as published on October 25, 2026.

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