Maple News reports that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) does not arbitrarily set a cut-off score for the Express Entry draws under the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). Instead, the cut-off score is a byproduct of how many invitations to apply (ITAs) the government decides to issue during a specific draw.
Each Express Entry draw begins with the federal government determining the number of candidates it wants to invite. From there, IRCC selects the top-ranking individuals from the existing pool of profiles. The lowest score among the invited candidates becomes the cut-off score for that round.
To better understand this approach, consider a sports analogy: if a basketball coach chooses the five tallest players, the height of the shortest selected player becomes the benchmark. The coach didn’t aim to select players over a certain height; instead, they aimed to select the top five tallest individuals. Similarly, candidates are invited not because they surpass a fixed “cut-off score,” but because they rank among the top profiles based on CRS.
The tie-breaking rule comes into play when multiple candidates have the same CRS score at the cut-off point. In such cases, IRCC uses the date and time of profile submission to decide who receives an invitation. Candidates who submitted their profiles earlier are favoured over those with later submission dates.
Several factors can influence the CRS cut-off score over time, such as the size and frequency of draws, an influx of high-scoring profiles, or an increase in scores among current candidates in the pool. For example, if the draw size is reduced or delayed, the cut-off score may rise due to increased competition.
Ultimately, IRCC’s actual decisions lie in choosing how many candidates to invite and from which categories—such as general, category-based, or program-specific draws. The resulting cut-off score simply reflects the characteristics of the highest-scoring candidates chosen in that round.
This systematic, merit-based selection process continues to help Canada identify skilled immigrants who are best positioned to contribute to the country’s labour market and long-term economic growth.