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Live from IRCC All-program rounds

General Express Entry Draws - Full History & CRS Cut-Offs

The latest General draw was held on Apr 23, 2024. IRCC invited 2,095 candidates at a CRS cut-off of 529.

Last updated: September 19, 2026 IRCC Express Entry rounds of invitations (all-program rounds)

178 Total draws
0 Draws in 2026
478 Average CRS cut-off
879 Days since last draw
General Express Entry draws ranking FSWP, CEC and FSTP candidates together by CRS score

General rounds are the classic all-program Express Entry draws. No category filter and no program filter is applied: every candidate in the pool who is eligible under any of the three federal programs is ranked together by CRS score, and the top-ranked candidates are invited.

IRCC has published these rounds under two different labels over the years. "No Program Specified" and "General", which is why you will see both wordings in the table above. They mean the same thing, and this page counts both.

Since these rounds began, IRCC has held 178 general (all-program) draws, issuing 516,117 invitations in total.

All General draw results

Draw #DateCategoryCRS Cut-offInvitations
Draw #294 Apr 23, 2024 General 529 2,095
Draw #292 Apr 10, 2024 General 549 1,280
Draw #290 Mar 25, 2024 General 524 1,980
Draw #288 Mar 12, 2024 General 525 2,850
Draw #286 Feb 28, 2024 General 534 1,470
Draw #283 Feb 13, 2024 General 535 1,490
Draw #281 Jan 31, 2024 General 541 730
Draw #280 Jan 23, 2024 General 543 1,040
Draw #279 Jan 10, 2024 General 546 1,510
Draw #275 Dec 18, 2023 General 542 1,325
Draw #272 Dec 6, 2023 General 561 4,750
Draw #268 Oct 10, 2023 No Program Specified 500 3,725
Draw #265 Sep 26, 2023 No Program Specified 504 3,000
Draw #263 Sep 19, 2023 No Program Specified 531 3,200
Draw #262 Aug 15, 2023 No Program Specified 496 4,300

Showing 1–15 of 178 draws

When is the next General draw?

IRCC has not run one of these rounds since April 23, 2024, about 879 days ago. On the pattern before that they came far more often, so this round type looks paused rather than delayed against a schedule IRCC never published.

Projection from past rounds, not an IRCC dateWhile these rounds were running, the gap between them averaged about 14 days across the last 6 rounds (Feb 13, 2024 – Apr 23, 2024). IRCC has shifted the balance between round types more than once, and it neither announces rounds in advance nor confirms when a round type has ended, so no meaningful next date can be projected from this history.

General draw history by year

Rounds held, invitations issued, and the range of CRS cut-offs within each year.

YearDrawsInvitationsLowest CRSHighest CRSAverage CRS
2024914,445524549536
20231976,700481561503
20221135,750491557515
20201668,100468478472
20192484,300438475460
20182588,700439456443
20172684,685413468438
20162633,223453538480
20152230,214450886526

What changed for General draws

All-program rounds are the ones people mean by 'the CRS cut-off', and their story in recent years is their absence. IRCC has leaned heavily on category-based and program-specific rounds instead, so general rounds have become the exception rather than the baseline. The gap between rounds here is the number worth watching on this page.

IRCC category labelIn useRoundsInvitationsCRS range
No Program Specified Jan 2015 - Oct 2023167495,597 413 - 886
General Dec 2023 - Apr 20241120,520 524 - 561
Every version IRCC has run this round under, read from its published rounds of invitations.

Is a General draw your route?

  • You are in the pool under any of the three programs and are ranked purely on CRS.
  • Your score is high enough to compete against the entire pool at once, with no category narrowing the field.
  • Not you: anyone hoping a general round will clear at a category-round cut-off. These are the hardest rounds to be picked in.
  • Worth knowing: when general rounds pause, a category or a provincial nomination is usually the faster route.

Who qualifies for General draws?

All-program rounds carry the highest cut-offs of any round type, because you are competing against the entire pool rather than a narrowed slice of it. That is also why category-based and program-specific rounds matter so much: they are the routes through which a mid-range CRS score can still receive an invitation.

  • An Express Entry profile in the pool, and eligibility for at least one of the three federal programs: the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Federal Skilled Trades Program or the Canadian Experience Class.
  • A CRS score at or above the cut-off published for that round.
  • No occupation, category, language-category or nomination requirement applies. Your score is the only thing being compared.

Because nothing narrows the field, an all-program round is the purest test of your CRS score. If your score sits below recent all-program cut-offs, the realistic paths are to raise it, or to qualify for a category-based or provincial route.

How to be considered in a General draw

  1. Confirm you qualify for a federal program

    You must be eligible under the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Federal Skilled Trades Program or the Canadian Experience Class to enter the pool.

  2. Create your Express Entry profile

    Your profile generates your CRS score, which is the only thing an all-program round compares.

  3. Compare your score with recent cut-offs

    The table on this page shows what these rounds have actually required rather than what is rumoured.

  4. Close the gap, or find a narrower route

    If an all-program cut-off is out of reach, a category-based round or a provincial nomination is usually the realistic path rather than waiting for the cut-off to fall.

General Express Entry Draws - Frequently Asked Questions

General rounds are the classic all-program Express Entry draws. No category filter and no program filter is applied: every candidate in the pool who is eligible under any of the three federal programs is ranked together by CRS score, and the top-ranked candidates are invited.
They are not running on a regular rhythm at the moment. Across the last 6 rounds (Feb 13, 2024 – Apr 23, 2024) the average gap was about 14 days, and the most recent one was held on Apr 23, 2024. There are 178 rounds on record in total. IRCC publishes no schedule and has changed the mix of round types more than once. A category can stay on the official list without a round being held.
There is no fixed pass mark: the cut-off is simply the score of the lowest-ranked candidate invited in that round. Historically this group has ranged from 413 to 886 CRS, averaging about 478, and the most recent round came in at 529. Treat the recent rounds in the table as your guide rather than the all-time low. If more than one person had that lowest score, IRCC ranked them by the date and time they submitted their Express Entry profile.
IRCC has not run one of these rounds since April 23, 2024, about 879 days ago. On the pattern before that they came far more often, so this round type looks paused rather than delayed against a schedule IRCC never published. While these rounds were running, the gap between them averaged about 14 days across the last 6 rounds (Feb 13, 2024 – Apr 23, 2024). IRCC has shifted the balance between round types more than once, and it neither announces rounds in advance nor confirms when a round type has ended, so no meaningful next date can be projected from this history.
516,117 invitations across 178 rounds on record, including 0 so far in 2026. Those totals are recalculated every time this page loads.
Because nothing narrows the field first. In an all-program round every eligible candidate in the pool is ranked together, so the cut-off settles wherever the invitation count runs out. Category-based rounds filter the pool down to a much smaller group before ranking, which is why their cut-offs are usually far lower.
No. All-program rounds apply no occupation, category or nomination filter. Your CRS score is the only thing being compared, which makes these rounds the most competitive route in Express Entry.
No. IRCC removed arranged-employment points from the Comprehensive Ranking System on 25 March 2025. A job offer no longer changes your CRS score. It can still help on the Federal Skilled Worker 67-point grid and with many provincial streams.
The draw table on this page has the answer, and it is the number worth watching here: IRCC has leaned heavily on category-based and program-specific rounds in recent years, so all-program rounds have become the exception rather than the baseline.
Usually not. All-program rounds are the hardest to be picked in, and their timing is the least predictable of any round type. A category-based route or a provincial nomination is generally faster than waiting for an all-program cut-off to fall.
Draw figures are copied from IRCC's published rounds. They were last updated from that feed on Sep 19, 2026. Nothing on these tables is entered by hand. The figures are IRCC's own published rounds of invitations, the same record behind our full Express Entry draw history. This is not an official IRCC tool. Always confirm your own eligibility and score in your Express Entry profile, or with a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) or immigration lawyer.

Official IRCC sources

Eligibility rules on this page were last checked against IRCC on September 15, 2026. Draw figures come from IRCC's published rounds and are not part of that review. This is not an official IRCC page.

Draw figures were last updated from IRCC on Sep 19, 2026.

Every Express Entry draw type we track

IRCC runs several different kinds of round. Each one below has its own cut-off history, its own rhythm, and its own rules about who is even in the running.