The last Express Entry draws under the current scoring rules have happened. In the week of October 13, IRCC ran three rounds: a PNP draw at 772, a Canadian Experience Class draw at 519, and a French-language draw at 435, the highest French cutoff of 2026.
A day after the last of them, IRCC announced the biggest change to CRS scoring since job offer points were removed in March 2025. From November 3, 2026, candidates get new points for Canadian work experience or a job offer in a high-wage occupation, and an LMIA is no longer needed for a job offer to count. Every score in the pool will be recalculated, and IRCC says invitation rounds are paused while that happens, for up to two weeks.
This post covers what the recent cutoffs were, what the pool looks like going into the change, and what the new points are likely to do to the numbers you are watching. Every draw figure comes from IRCC's official rounds data. You can explore all of it on our Express Entry draws page.
The short version
- October cutoffs: PNP 772 (Oct 13), CEC 519 (Oct 15), French 435 (Oct 16), Trades 476 (Oct 1).
- French jumped 53 points, from 382 in August to 435, after an eight-week gap with no French round.
- CEC has not moved much since April. Every CEC cutoff since April 14 has fallen between 514 and 523.
- 2026 is already the biggest year for invitations since Express Entry launched in 2015: 143,467 ITAs in 62 draws, more than all of 2025 (113,998) or 2021 (114,224), the previous high.
- There has not been a single general, all-program draw in 2026. Every invitation has gone through CEC, PNP or a category.
- From November 3, high-wage Canadian work experience earns 20 to 70 extra points, and a qualifying job offer earns 50 to 100. You get one or the other, never both.
- Draws are paused while IRCC recalculates every profile, which it says could take up to two weeks.
- If you have a job offer, update your profile before November 3. Canadian work experience is recalculated automatically; job offer points need you to add the details.
October's draws at a glance
| Date | Draw | Invitations | Lowest CRS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 16 | French-language proficiency | 5,000 | 435 |
| Oct 15 | Canadian Experience Class | 2,500 | 519 |
| Oct 13 | Provincial Nominee Program | 752 | 772 |
| Oct 1 | Trades occupations | 3,500 | 476 |
| Sep 29 | Canadian Experience Class | 2,000 | 518 |
| Sep 28 | Provincial Nominee Program | 733 | 725 |
Source: IRCC Express Entry rounds, checked October 21, 2026.
French: the highest cutoff of the year
The October 16 round invited 5,000 candidates with a cutoff of 435, the highest of the eleven French-language draws held this year. The previous French round, on August 19, came in at 382, the lowest.
The likely reason is simple: time. From July to mid August, French rounds ran every two weeks, which kept the cutoff low because few new high scorers built up between rounds. The pattern shows in the data: the July 9 round, after a six-week gap, came in at 420, and the August 19 round, after two weeks, at 382. Then there was nothing for eight weeks. The pool kept growing, the strongest French-speaking profiles accumulated, and the first round after the gap went deep into them before reaching 5,000.
| French draw | Cutoff |
|---|---|
| Lowest of 2026 (Aug 19) | 382 |
| Median of 2026 (11 draws) | 400 |
| Highest of 2026 (Oct 16) | 435 |
So 435 is not a new normal. Expect the next French cutoffs to depend mostly on how long IRCC waits between rounds. They will also be affected by the new points, which we cover below.
To be eligible for a French round you need NCLC 7 or higher in all four French abilities. If you are close to that, our language test guide covers TEF and TCF scoring.
CEC: flat since April
The CEC cutoff has fallen within a nine-point band, 514 to 523, in every round since April 14. Earlier in the year it sat lower, 507 to 511, when rounds were much larger.
| Period | CEC rounds | Invitations per round | Cutoff range |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 7 to March 17 | 5 | 4,000 to 8,000 | 507 to 511 |
| March 31 to October 15 | 13 | 1,000 to 4,000 | 509 to 523 |
That is the real story of CEC in 2026: IRCC shrank the rounds from 8,000 invitations to around 2,000, and the cutoff rose about ten points and then stayed there. A CEC candidate at 505 in January had a real chance. Now they are waiting.
PNP: high and noisy as always
The October 13 PNP round came in at 772. A provincial nomination adds 600 points, so PNP cutoffs mostly reflect how many nominees are in the pool on the day, not anything you can act on. They have ranged from 697 to 805 this year. If you have a nomination, an invitation in one of the next few PNP rounds is very likely.
Category draws
| Category | Rounds in 2026 | Latest cutoff | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trades | 2 | 476 (Oct 1) | 476 to 477 |
| Healthcare and social services | 3 | 475 (Sep 4) | 467 to 475 |
| Transport | 1 | 470 (Aug 7) | 470 |
| Senior managers with Canadian experience | 3 | 389 (Sep 16) | 389 to 429 |
| Physicians with Canadian experience | 3 | 198 (Sep 3) | 169 to 223 |
| Skilled military recruits | 1 | 368 (Jul 23) | 368 |
The large categories, trades and healthcare, have settled in the mid 470s, about 45 points below CEC. The small new categories (physicians, senior managers, military recruits) invite a few hundred people at very low cutoffs, because eligibility is narrow enough that IRCC can invite almost everyone who qualifies.
2026 by the numbers
| Year | Draws | Invitations |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 52 | 98,903 |
| 2025 | 58 | 113,998 |
| 2026 (to October 16) | 62 | 143,467 |
By this point in 2025, IRCC had held 43 draws and issued 74,183 invitations. This year it has nearly doubled that.
Where those 143,467 invitations went:
| Draw type | Rounds | Invitations | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canadian Experience Class | 18 | 57,750 | 40% |
| French-language proficiency | 11 | 55,500 | 39% |
| Healthcare and social services | 3 | 11,500 | 8% |
| Provincial Nominee Program | 20 | 10,022 | 7% |
| Trades | 2 | 6,500 | 5% |
| Other categories | 8 | 2,195 | 2% |
French-language rounds have issued almost as many invitations as CEC, from a much smaller group of eligible candidates, with cutoffs more than 100 points lower. If you are deciding where to spend months of study, French is still the biggest single lever in Express Entry. That could change: the French bonus is one of the things IRCC is now reviewing (see below).
The pool going into November
IRCC publishes the pool's score distribution with each round. As of October 12, 2026, there were 229,456 candidates in the pool.
| CRS range | Candidates |
|---|---|
| 601 to 1,200 | 749 |
| 501 to 600 | 21,638 |
| 451 to 500 | 71,612 |
| 401 to 450 | 63,528 |
| 351 to 400 | 47,167 |
| 301 to 350 | 17,123 |
| 0 to 300 | 7,639 |
Two numbers matter. 22,387 candidates score above 500, which is the zone CEC rounds have been drawing from. And 71,612 sit between 451 and 500, just under it. Compared with the September 27 snapshot, the pool shrank by 448 overall but the 501 to 600 band grew by 568. High scorers were arriving faster than CEC rounds of 2,000 were inviting them, which is consistent with the cutoff edging up.
The November 3 change will reshuffle this table, because tens of thousands of these candidates are about to gain points.
What changes on November 3
IRCC announced the changes on October 16 in two releases: Canada refocusing Express Entry on top talent and a backgrounder on high-wage occupations. The full rules are on IRCC's 2026 changes page.
A new "labour market integration" factor
Canadian work experience points and the new job offer points are combined into one factor, worth up to 150 points (140 if you have an accompanying spouse or partner). You score it one of two ways, and IRCC gives you whichever is higher.
Option 1: Canadian work experience. You keep the existing points for years of Canadian experience (up to 80, or 70 with a spouse). On top of that, if you have at least 12 months (1,560 hours) of Canadian experience in a high-wage occupation in the last 10 years, you get:
| High-wage experience, at least 12 months | Extra points |
|---|---|
| In occupations paying at least 2 times the national median wage | 70 |
| At least 1.5 times the median | 40 |
| At least 1.3 times the median | 20 |
| Less than 12 months, or not high-wage | 0 |
The 12 months can be split across jobs, part-time or full-time, continuous or not.
Option 2: A qualifying job offer. Job offer points are back, but only for high-wage occupations:
| Job offer | Points |
|---|---|
| Occupation paying at least 2 times the median | 100 |
| At least 1.5 times the median | 70 |
| At least 1.3 times the median | 50 |
| Not a high-wage occupation | 0 |
"High-wage" is about the occupation, not your salary. An occupation qualifies if the median wage of everyone in that NOC across Canada is at least 1.3 times the median of the whole workforce. A well-paid job in a lower-paid NOC does not count, and a modestly paid job in a high-wage NOC does. IRCC publishes the list of eligible occupations, built from the last three years of Job Bank, Labour Force Survey and Census data. Its examples include engineers, electricians, and roles across health care, technology and education.
No more LMIA for job offers
From November 3, a job offer does not need a labour market impact assessment to earn points or to meet the job offer requirement for the Federal Skilled Worker and Federal Skilled Trades programs. Having an LMIA no longer earns anything extra either. Instead, an officer checks that the offer is genuine when you apply for PR: that the employer is real and active, can actually pay you, and follows employment law, and that you are qualified and likely to take the job.
IRCC's profile form has not been updated for this yet. If you have an offer without an LMIA, its changes page explains exactly how to record it in the meantime. Follow those instructions rather than leaving the offer out.
Recalculation and the draw pause
Every profile in the pool is rescored when the changes take effect. IRCC says this "could take up to two weeks" and that invitation rounds are paused until it is done. In practice, the October 16 French round was probably the last draw until mid November at the earliest.
What this will probably do to cutoffs
This part is our reading of the rules and the pool, not anything IRCC has said. Treat it as a forecast.
CEC cutoffs are likely to rise, possibly sharply. CEC candidates are, by definition, people with Canadian work experience, and many of them work in TEER 0 to 3 jobs that will be on the high-wage list. Those candidates gain 20, 40 or 70 points overnight. There are 71,612 people sitting between 451 and 500 right now. If even a fraction of them gain 40 points, they land above the current 519 cutoff, and CEC rounds of 2,000 to 2,500 will not clear them quickly.
Candidates in lower-wage occupations lose ground without losing points. If your NOC is not on the list, your score does not change. But the people around you in the ranking may jump past you. A CEC candidate at 515 in a retail or hospitality role could find the cutoff moving away from them even though nothing about their profile changed.
French rounds are affected too, but less. French-speaking candidates with high-wage Canadian experience gain the same points, so the French cutoff should rise as well. But the French pool is smaller and partly made up of people applying from abroad, who have no Canadian experience to be rewarded.
PNP is barely affected. A nomination is still worth 600 points, which outweighs anything the new factor adds.
Category draws may matter more. If CEC cutoffs climb, trades and healthcare rounds in the mid 470s become relatively more attractive for anyone who qualifies.
The first CEC round after the pause will tell us a lot. We will update this page and the draws dashboard when it lands.
What is still only a proposal
On October 15, the day before the announcement, IRCC published the results of its spring consultation on wider reforms. Unlike the high-wage points, none of these are decided, and IRCC has given no dates:
- Merging FSW, CEC and FST into one program. Survey respondents were split: 41% for, 46% against. Stakeholders worry about losing a dedicated trades route.
- Removing spousal points. Stakeholders generally supported this.
- Removing sibling points. Most stakeholders supported removal.
- Shrinking or reworking the French bonus. IRCC notes concerns that it is too large; views were mixed.
- Limiting study-in-Canada points to bachelor's, master's and PhD degrees.
- Reforming age points so mid-career candidates are not penalised as heavily.
IRCC says proposed regulatory changes will be published in the Canada Gazette first, so there should be warning before any of these take effect. We covered the original proposals in detail in our CRS overhaul guide.
What to do now
If you have a job offer: check whether the occupation is on the high-wage list, then update your profile before November 3 so the points are counted in the recalculation. If the offer has no LMIA, follow IRCC's instructions for recording it.
If you have Canadian work experience: you do not need to do anything for the points to be recalculated. Do check that your NOC code is right, because a wrong code could now cost you up to 70 points rather than nothing. If your work could reasonably fit a different, high-wage NOC, look at the duties carefully, and make sure your reference letters support the code you claim.
If you are close to 12 months in a high-wage job: that threshold is now worth 20 to 70 points. Keeping your profile active until you cross it may be worth more than anything else you can do.
If you are relying on French: the 435 cutoff was a one-off caused by the gap, but the bonus itself is under review. If you are near NCLC 7, it is still worth pushing for, and sooner is better than later.
If you just got an ITA: your invitation was issued on your score at the time, and the recalculation applies to profiles still in the pool. Focus on your 60-day document checklist. After you submit, the median across our tracker is 118 days from AOR to eCoPR (241 completed timelines), and you can compare your own progress on the Express Entry Tracker.
For everything else that moves your score, see our guide to improving your CRS score.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the CRS cutoff in the latest Express Entry draw?
The most recent draw, on October 16, 2026, was a French-language round that invited 5,000 candidates with a cutoff of 435. The latest CEC round, on October 15, invited 2,500 at 519, and the latest PNP round, on October 13, invited 752 at 772.
Are Express Entry draws paused in October and November 2026?
Yes. IRCC says invitation rounds are paused while every profile in the pool is recalculated under the new rules that take effect on November 3, 2026, and that recalculation could take up to two weeks. Draws should resume once it is complete.
What are high-wage occupation points in Express Entry?
From November 3, 2026, candidates with at least 12 months of Canadian experience in a high-wage occupation get 20, 40 or 70 extra points, depending on how much that occupation's median wage exceeds the national median. Alternatively, a job offer in a high-wage occupation earns 50, 70 or 100 points. You receive whichever is higher, not both.
Are job offer points coming back to Express Entry?
Yes, from November 3, 2026, but only for job offers in occupations on IRCC's high-wage list. Job offers in other occupations still earn no CRS points, though they can still meet the job offer requirement for the Federal Skilled Worker and Federal Skilled Trades programs.
Do I still need an LMIA for a job offer?
No. From November 3, 2026, a qualifying job offer does not need an LMIA to earn CRS points or to meet FSW and FST job offer requirements. An officer instead checks that the offer is genuine when you apply for permanent residence.
Will CRS cutoffs go up after November 3?
Probably, especially for CEC. Many CEC candidates work in high-wage occupations and will gain 20 to 70 points, which pushes more people above the current cutoff of around 519. This is our forecast based on the pool distribution, not an IRCC statement. The first CEC round after the pause will show how big the effect is.
Why was the French draw cutoff so high in October 2026?
The October 16 round came after eight weeks with no French draw, so high-scoring French-speaking candidates had built up in the pool. The previous round, on August 19, came after a short gap and had a cutoff of 382. French cutoffs mainly track how long IRCC waits between rounds.
Do I need to update my Express Entry profile before November 3?
Only if you have a job offer you want points for. Canadian work experience points are recalculated automatically. Job offer points need the offer details in your profile before November 3. It is also a good time to check that your NOC codes are correct.
Draw data from IRCC's official Express Entry rounds, through round #450 on October 16, 2026. Pool distribution as of October 12, 2026. Rule changes checked against IRCC's October 15 and 16, 2026 publications on October 21, 2026. The cutoff forecast is our own analysis. Confirm details on canada.ca and speak to a licensed representative for advice on your own profile.