Between March 16 and 18, 2026, IRCC ran three Express Entry rounds. Round 403, a Provincial Nominee Program draw, issued 362 invitations at a CRS cut-off of 742. Round 404, a Canadian Experience Class round, issued 4,000 invitations at a cut-off of 507. Round 405, a French-Language proficiency round, issued 4,000 invitations at a cut-off of 393.
The Canadian Experience Class round is the standout figure here on volume alone: 4,000 invitations at a cut-off of 507 is one of the larger CEC rounds in this batch sequence, and it gives a substantial and directly comparable data point for anyone in the general pool. The PNP round, as usual, sits far above it because those candidates already hold a 600-point nomination, and the French-Language round again shows how a category filter opens a lower-scoring path.
This batch issued 8,362 invitations across the three rounds, one of the higher combined totals in recent memory, driven mainly by the size of the CEC round.
| Round | Date | Category | Invitations | CRS cut-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #403 | March 16, 2026 | Provincial Nominee Program | 362 | 742 |
| #404 | March 17, 2026 | Canadian Experience Class | 4,000 | 507 |
| #405 | March 18, 2026 | French-Language proficiency | 4,000 | 393 |
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
#403 · 362 ITAs
742
CEC
#404 · 4,000 ITAs
507
French
#405 · 4,000 ITAs
393
600 points is what a provincial nomination adds on its own.
- Provincial nomination
- General programme round
- Category-based selection
A 4,000-invitation CEC round at CRS 507
Round 404 issued 4,000 invitations to Canadian Experience Class candidates at a cut-off of 507. The scale of this round matters as much as the cut-off itself: a larger invitation volume in a single round tends to pull the cut-off down, since IRCC is reaching further down the ranked pool to fill more places. Candidates with a CRS score at or near 507 without a nomination or category eligibility should treat this as the most directly relevant figure in the batch.
Since arranged-employment points were removed from the CRS on 25 March 2025, this ranking runs entirely on age, education, official language ability and Canadian work experience. The CRS calculator can show which of those factors has the most room to move for a specific profile sitting close to this threshold.
The PNP cut-off of 742 and what it does not tell you
Round 403's cut-off of 742 belongs to candidates who already held a provincial or territorial nomination before this round opened, which adds 600 CRS points on its own. The remaining roughly 142 points came from the candidate's own age, education, language and experience profile. This cut-off cannot be compared directly to round 404's general CEC figure, since the two rounds draw from populations with a 600-point structural difference between them.
Anyone considering whether to pursue a provincial nomination pathway rather than waiting for a general round can use the CRS calculator to see the difference a nomination would make to their own current score.
French-Language proficiency at CRS 393
Round 405 invited 4,000 candidates from the French-Language proficiency category at a cut-off of 393, more than 100 points below the general CEC round in the same batch. This category draws only from candidates who meet its language criteria, which is why it can clear a large volume of invitations at a comparatively low overall CRS score.
A candidate with strong French test results but a CRS score below 507 should check their result against the Canadian Language Benchmark using the CLB conversion tool, since category eligibility depends on the CLB level achieved rather than on CRS score alone.
Movement since the previous batch
The batch before this one, closing March 5, 2026, ran a PNP round at 710, a CEC round at 508, a French-Language round at 397, and a Senior managers with Canadian Work Experience round at 429. Against that batch, the PNP cut-off rose from 710 to 742, the CEC cut-off held nearly flat, moving from 508 to 507, and the French-Language cut-off eased slightly from 397 to 393. This batch did not repeat the Senior managers round, running only three rounds instead of four.
The batch that followed, closing April 2, 2026, brought the PNP cut-off up further to 802 and shifted the category round to Trades Occupations at 477. Readers should treat these as sequential data points rather than a fixed trend, and use the live draw table to see the fuller pattern across more than two batches at a time.
What to take from this round
- Round 404 issued 4,000 Canadian Experience Class invitations at CRS 507, the most useful benchmark in this batch for a general profile.
- Round 403's PNP cut-off of 742 reflects a 600-point nomination and should not be compared directly to the general CEC figure.
- Round 405 shows a French-Language proficiency round clearing 4,000 invitations at CRS 393, well below the general round threshold.
- Check your own score with the CRS calculator and confirm a language result's CLB equivalent with the CLB conversion tool before assuming category eligibility.
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.