Between February 3 and 6, 2026, IRCC ran two Express Entry rounds. Round 393, a Provincial Nominee Program draw, issued 423 invitations at a CRS cut-off of 749. Round 394, a French-Language proficiency round, issued 8,500 invitations at a cut-off of 400.
The French-Language round is the figure worth pausing on. 8,500 invitations in a single round is a large volume by the standard of any category round in the recent record, and it shows how far a category draw can reach into the pool when IRCC chooses to issue at that scale. The cut-off of 400 stayed comparatively low even at that volume, which reflects the size of the eligible French-language sub-pool rather than any broader softening of the pool's standards.
This was a shorter batch than most, with only two rounds rather than the three or four seen in surrounding weeks, but the combined 8,923 invitations issued is on the higher end for a two-round batch.
| Round | Date | Category | Invitations | CRS cut-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #393 | February 3, 2026 | Provincial Nominee Program | 423 | 749 |
| #394 | February 6, 2026 | French-Language proficiency | 8,500 | 400 |
Each bar is the lowest CRS score invited in that round. Invitation counts differ by orders of magnitude between rounds, so they are given as text rather than as a second axis.
PNP
#393 · 423 ITAs
749
French
#394 · 8,500 ITAs
400
600 points is what a provincial nomination adds on its own.
- Provincial nomination
- Category-based selection
What an 8,500-invitation round at CRS 400 signals
Round 394 is one of the largest single rounds by invitation count referenced in this blog's coverage. A round this size, drawn from the French-Language proficiency category, still cleared at a cut-off of 400, meaningfully below general Canadian Experience Class thresholds seen in other batches this year. Category rounds can sustain a low cut-off even at high volume when there are enough eligible candidates in the category to fill the round without reaching far up the score distribution.
For a candidate with strong French test results, this round is a useful illustration of the category's reach: it is not a one-off small draw but a large-scale invitation event. The first step to knowing whether a profile qualifies is converting a language test result to its Canadian Language Benchmark equivalent using the CLB conversion tool, since the category is defined by CLB level rather than by CRS score.
The PNP round at CRS 749
Round 393 issued 423 invitations at a cut-off of 749, consistent with other PNP rounds in that the figure reflects candidates who already held a provincial or territorial nomination worth 600 CRS points before the round opened. Their remaining human-capital score, from age, education, language and work experience, needed only to clear roughly 149 points on top of that.
This cut-off is not a benchmark for a candidate without a nomination, and it should not be compared to round 394's French-Language figure as if the two rounds measured the same competition. Anyone deciding between pursuing a provincial nomination and waiting for a category round can use the CRS calculator to compare both paths against their current score.
A quieter batch by round count, not by invitation volume
The batch before this one, closing January 21, 2026, ran a PNP round at 746 and a Canadian Experience Class round at 509. This batch replaced the CEC round with the French-Language round instead, which meant no general round ran in this particular window, similar in kind to the single-round batch seen around May 11, 2026, though this batch still carried two rounds rather than one.
The batch that followed, closing February 20, 2026, expanded back out to four rounds: PNP at 789, CEC at 508, Physicians at 169, and Healthcare and Social Services at 467. Readers who want to track the general CEC threshold specifically should note that this batch did not produce one, and the next comparable CEC figure appears in the following batch at 508.
What to take from this round
- Round 394 issued 8,500 French-Language proficiency invitations at CRS 400, the largest single round by invitation count in the batches covered here.
- Round 393's PNP cut-off of 749 reflects a 600-point nomination and is not comparable to the French-Language round's figure.
- This batch ran no general Canadian Experience Class round; candidates without a nomination or French-language eligibility should look to the surrounding batches for a comparable benchmark.
- Convert a French test result to its CLB equivalent with the CLB conversion tool, and use the CRS calculator to compare a nomination path against a category path.
Round numbers, dates, invitation counts and CRS cut-offs are IRCC's own, from their published rounds of invitations. The analysis is general information, not immigration advice, and reading it creates no consultant-client relationship.