Express Entry ITAs Outpace Top CRS Profile Growth

Express Entry ITAs outpace top CRS profile growth, i.e., Canada’s Express Entry pool, which is used to select applicants for permanent residence, may now have almost 50% fewer top-scoring profiles than it had two weeks ago under the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS).

This estimate is based on the latest published pool data and the results of recent draws.

After February 15, a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) draw took place on February 16. In that round, 279 invitations to apply (ITAs) were issued with a cut-off score of 789. The next day, on February 17, a Canadian Experience Class (CEC) draw issued 6,000 ITAs with a cut-off score of 508.

Based on the February 15 pool numbers as well as the draws that followed, it can be estimated that there are now about 11,000 profiles in the pool with scores of 501 or higher.

This number is only an estimate. It is not known how many new profiles have entered the pool or how many applicants have improved their scores since February 15.

Even so, the estimated 11,000 high-scoring profiles show a clear drop compared to early February. At the same time, CRS cut-off scores have also gone down. This suggests that the government has been issuing ITAs faster than new high-scoring profiles are being added to the pool.

This recent trend may be good news for CEC applicants with CRS scores in the low 500s. Before January 2026, the last time a CEC draw had a cut-off score below 510 was on September 19, 2024.

So far in 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has issued 20,000 ITAs through CEC draws. This equals 18% of the Federal High Skilled (FHS) landing target of 109,000 for the year.

By February 28, 2025, IRCC had issued only 9,350 CEC ITAs, which was about 7.5% of that year’s FHS target.

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