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Dear future neighbour,

Provincial nominees had good news on Monday, October 26, 2026. Canada held a new Express Entry draw and invited 792 candidates with a provincial nomination to apply for permanent residence.

The minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score was 761. This was draw number 451, and it was the 63rd Express Entry draw of 2026.

See below the key details at a glance.

Why a score of 761 did not guarantee an invitation

This part confuses a lot of people, so let’s make it simple.

Sometimes several candidates land on the lowest score that gets invited. When that happens, Canada looks at the date and time each person submitted their Express Entry profile. In this draw, only profiles submitted before 6:00:26 p.m. UTC on April 3, 2026 made the cut.

So a candidate with exactly 761 points who created their profile after that time was not invited.

This draw also only considered candidates with a provincial nomination. A high score alone was not enough to be included. Your profile had to be in the right category.

How this draw compares with earlier nominee draws

The closest comparison is the draw held on October 13, which invited 752 candidates at a minimum score of 772. The latest draw invited 40 more people, and the cut-off was 11 points lower. It was also the largest nominee draw since June 22, 2026, when 955 candidates were invited.

Notice that more invitations do not always mean a lower cut-off, and fewer invitations do not always mean a higher one. Nominee draws have moved up and down this year, so there is no clear pattern to predict.

Where candidates stand in the pool

Here is the latest breakdown of scores in the Express Entry pool.

A look at the recent draws

Canada keeps switching between different types of draws. Here is the recent sequence.

Please don’t compare draws across categories. A French-language draw of 5,000 and a physicians draw of 229 are aimed at completely different groups of people. Each one has its own score and its own target.

What 2026 has looked like so far

Most invitations this year have gone to people with a connection to Canada, such as provincial nominees and people with Canadian work experience. Here is how the 63 draws break down.

In total, Canada has issued 144,259 invitations this year.

And here is every draw held in 2026 so far.

Big changes arrive on November 3, 2026

This is the part you should not skip. From November 3, 2026, Canada will add extra CRS points for candidates with a job offer or Canadian work experience in a high-wage occupation. These are jobs whose national median wage is at least 1.3, 1.5 or 2 times the Canada-wide median.

The extra points sit in a new section of the CRS called the Labour Market Integration Factor. Candidates get whichever of these is higher:

• Up to 100 points for a qualifying high-wage job offer.
• Up to 150 points for Canadian work experience, or 140 if the candidate has an accompanying spouse or common-law partner. This combines the existing points for length of experience with up to 70 points for high-wage experience.

A qualifying job offer will also no longer need a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA). The LMIA requirement is being removed from the job offer criteria under the Federal Skilled Worker Program and the Federal Skilled Trades Program too, although immigration officers must still be satisfied that the offer is genuine.

Canada has published a list of 186 eligible occupations. While it recalculates candidate scores, it will pause Express Entry invitations. The government says this could take up to two weeks.

This is also the first time job offer points are coming back since March 2025, when points for arranged employment were removed. If you have a job offer that might qualify, update your Express Entry profile before November 3 so the new points can count.

Already in Canada with a pending application?

Foreign nationals who have submitted an Express Entry application for permanent residence and live in Canada may qualify for a Bridging Open Work Permit. If your current work permit expires before a decision is made on your bridging permit application, you may be able to keep working under your previous permit conditions through maintained status, as long as you stay in Canada. Qualifying family members may also be able to get open work permits.

Stop guessing where you stand: Let’s check your Canada PR options together

If you are asking yourself whether your score is strong enough, whether a provincial nomination could change your chances, or whether the new high-wage points could work in your favour, you do not have to figure it out alone. Whether you are looking at provincial nomination, Express Entry, work permits, postgraduate work permits, spousal sponsorship, visitor visas, super visas, citizenship applications or school admissions, our team can walk you through the best route for your situation. Book your consultation here: https://euiacademy.selar.com/30minutes