PNP Express Entry Draw September 28 Invites 733 Candidates at CRS 725 | ImmigraCan

IRCC (*Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada*, Canada's immigration authority) issued 733 invitations to apply (ITAs) on September 28, 2026, in an Express Entry round reserved for the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) category, at a CRS (*Comprehensive Ranking System*, Express Entry's points system) cutoff of 725 points. It is the largest PNP invitation round since 955 invitations went out on June 22, and it landed two weeks after the September 14 PNP round that had set a cutoff of 734 with 576 invitations.

The Numbers of the September 28 Round

• Date: September 28, 2026
• Category: Provincial Nominee Program
• Invitations issued: 733
• CRS cutoff: 725 points
• Tie-break rule: profiles submitted before 1:36 a.m. UTC on September 17, 2026
• Change from the previous PNP round: 9 points lower than the 734 cutoff seen on September 14, with 157 more invitations issued

Candidates sitting exactly at 725 points only received an ITA if their Express Entry profile had already been created before that September 17 timestamp. Anyone who reached 725 afterward was left out on timing, not on score.

Why the Cutoff Dropped While Invitations Rose

A lower cutoff combined with a larger invitation count usually means one thing in a PNP round: more nominated candidates entered the pool in the two weeks between draws, and IRCC reached further down the ranking to invite them. This is different from a general or CEC (*Canadian Experience Class*) round, where the cutoff reflects the base strength of a candidate's profile. In a PNP round, a provincial nomination adds a flat 600 points to a candidate's CRS score. A candidate invited at 725 in this round was likely sitting at a base CRS score of roughly 125 before that nomination bonus — a score that would not come close to qualifying under any other Express Entry category on its own.

That is the core thing to understand about PNP rounds: the 600-point bonus does almost all the work, and the cutoff moves based on how many recently-nominated candidates are competing that week — not on a policy change or a tightening of requirements.

How This Round Fits the PNP Pattern of 2026

PNP rounds have been the most volatile category all year:

• June 22, 2026: 955 invitations issued, the largest PNP round of the year
• August 31, 2026: cutoff falls to 697, the lowest PNP cutoff of 2026 at that point
• September 14, 2026: cutoff rises to 734, with 576 invitations
• September 28, 2026: cutoff eases to 725, with 733 invitations — the largest PNP round since June

Across all Express Entry categories, IRCC has now issued roughly 129,700 invitations through more than 55 rounds since the start of 2026, keeping pace with a year of frequent, category-heavy draws. There is still no fixed schedule or published target volume for PNP rounds specifically — IRCC runs them whenever enough provincially-nominated candidates have accumulated in the pool.

A PNP Round Is Not a Province's Own Draw

It's worth being precise here, because the terminology gets confused often: this September 28 round is a federal Express Entry draw, run by IRCC, that only invites candidates who already hold a nomination from a province or territory. It is not the same event as a province running its own Expression of Interest (EOI) draw through its PNP portal — like Ontario's OINP, British Columbia's BC PNP, Alberta's AAIP, or Manitoba's MPNP, which select candidates for nomination in the first place.

In short: a provincial EOI draw is step one (the province picks who gets nominated), and a PNP round like this one is step two (IRCC invites already-nominated candidates to apply for permanent residence). If you have not yet received a provincial nomination, this specific round does not apply to your profile — you would first need to succeed in one of the provincial selection processes.

Who This Round Actually Reaches

To have been eligible for an ITA in this round, a candidate needed:

• An active Express Entry profile
• A confirmed nomination from a Canadian province or territory (adding 600 CRS points)
• A CRS score, including the nomination bonus, of at least 725 points
• A profile date that met the September 17 tie-break cutoff

Because the 600-point bonus dominates the score, nearly every nominated candidate who had completed their profile by the tie-break date was likely above 725 — the main risk in a round like this one is entering the pool too late relative to the tie-break window, not falling short on the underlying score.

What to Do If You're Pursuing a Provincial Nomination

1. Confirm which province matches your profile first. Each PNP stream has its own eligibility rules — occupation lists, job offer requirements, connection to the province — that have nothing to do with CRS. The ImmigraCan free eligibility quiz is a fast way to see which provincial and federal programs your profile could realistically qualify for.
2. Get your Express Entry profile active before applying to a province. Since the nomination bonus only counts once it's linked to an active profile, having your profile ready in advance means you don't lose time between a provincial nomination and the next PNP round.
3. Compare provinces side by side. The ImmigraCan programs catalog breaks down the requirements, processing times, and typical draw patterns of the major PNPs so you're not choosing blind.
4. If you're nominated and invited, the eAPR deadline is 60 days. Have your language test results, ECA (*Educational Credential Assessment*, required for education completed outside Canada), and provincial nomination certificate organized before an ITA arrives, not after.

One thing I learned the hard way validating my own electrician's license (309A) in Ontario between 2019 and 2022: provincial processes move on their own timeline, often slower than you'd plan for, and the paperwork you can prepare in advance is the only part of the wait you actually control. If a PNP is part of your plan, treat the documentation as something to build now, regardless of where you are in the nomination process.

For more context on how a PNP round compares to other Express Entry categories, see our coverage of the September 14 PNP draw.

What to Watch Next

The swing from 734 to 725 alongside a jump from 576 to 733 invitations shows PNP rounds are still reacting to pool composition week by week, not settling into a stable pattern. The number worth tracking is whether the next PNP round holds closer to this size or drops back toward the smaller rounds seen in August. Either way, a provincial nomination remains one of the fastest routes to an ITA for candidates whose base CRS score alone would not qualify under CEC or the general categories.

*Data for this round comes from IRCC's official Express Entry rounds dashboard. This content is informational and does not replace legal or immigration advice — ImmigraCan is not affiliated with the Government of Canada. For your specific case, consult a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) or a specialized lawyer.*