Senior Managers Express Entry Draw: September 16 Invites 250 at a Record-Low CRS 389 | ImmigraCan

IRCC (*Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada*, Canada's immigration authority) issued 250 invitations to apply (ITAs) on September 16, 2026, in the third-ever Express Entry round for the Senior Managers with Canadian Work Experience category, at a CRS (*Comprehensive Ranking System*, Express Entry's points system) cutoff of 389 points. That is the lowest cutoff this category has ever recorded, three points below the previous low.

The Numbers of the September 16 Round

• Date: September 16, 2026 (drawn at 12:44:28 UTC)
• Round number: #444
• Category: Senior Managers with Canadian Work Experience
• Invitations issued: 250
• CRS cutoff: 389 points
• Tie-break rule: September 1, 2026, at 23:05:13 UTC

The tie-break line means candidates sitting exactly at 389 points only received an ITA if their profile had already been submitted before September 1. Anyone who reached 389 after that date, even on the same day as the draw, was left out — not on score, but on timing.

A Category That Keeps Getting Cheaper to Enter

Senior Managers with Canadian Work Experience is one of the occupational categories IRCC added in its February 18, 2026 overhaul of Express Entry, alongside two other new categories introduced the same round. It targets four executive NOC (*National Occupational Classification*) codes — 00012, 00013, 00014 and 00015 — and requires at least 12 months of Canadian work experience in one of those occupations within the past three years.

This is only the third time IRCC has drawn from this category, and each round has been cheaper than the last:

• March 5, 2026 (first draw): 250 ITAs at CRS 429
• July 10, 2026 (second draw): 500 ITAs at CRS 392
• September 16, 2026 (third draw): 250 ITAs at CRS 389

The cutoff has now dropped 40 points across three rounds in a little over six months. Because this category specifically targets senior, experienced professionals — a group that usually loses CRS points to the system's age curve — a lower cutoff was expected from the start. What is notable is that it keeps falling even as the pool of eligible candidates has had more time to grow.

Why the Volume Dropped Back to 250

The July round issued double the invitations of March and September — 500 versus 250 in each of the other two. IRCC does not publish the reasoning behind volume changes for category-based rounds, but the pattern so far suggests this category is being run in smaller, more frequent batches rather than at a fixed size. Reading a policy shift into one draw's invitation count is speculation; the cutoff trend is the fact worth tracking.

Who Actually Qualifies for This Category

To be eligible for a Senior Managers with Canadian Work Experience round, a candidate needs:

• An active Express Entry profile
• At least 12 months of work experience within the past three years in NOC 00012 (legislators and senior managers - public and private sector), 00013 (financial, communications and other business services), 00014 (health, education, social and community services), or 00015 (trade, broadcasting and other services), gained in Canada under a valid work permit
• The general Express Entry minimum requirements (language test results, and an ECA — *Educational Credential Assessment* — for education completed outside Canada, when applicable)

Unlike the CEC (*Canadian Experience Class*), this category is not one of the three core federal programs — it is a category-based round that draws candidates who are already in the pool under one of those programs, provided their occupation matches one of the four NOC codes above.

What This Means If You Work in a Senior Management Role

1. Check your NOC code first. If your Canadian job title does not map cleanly to 00012 through 00015, this category will not reach you no matter your CRS score — the ImmigraCan free eligibility quiz helps confirm which occupational category, if any, applies to your profile.
2. A falling cutoff rewards candidates already in the pool. Since this category has run only three times, there is no fixed schedule to plan around. Keeping a profile active and current is what lets a candidate benefit when a round like this one happens.
3. Compare it against other paths. The ImmigraCan programs catalog lines up CEC, FSW (*Federal Skilled Worker*), FST (*Federal Skilled Trades*) and the active category-based rounds of 2026 side by side, since a candidate can qualify for more than one at once.
4. If an ITA arrives, the eAPR deadline is 60 days. Proof of the qualifying work experience, language results and, where applicable, the ECA should already be organized before an invitation shows up — not assembled afterward.

One note from my own experience: I validated my electrician's license (309A) in Ontario between 2019 and 2022, and the lesson that applies here too is not to wait on one process before starting another. Confirming your NOC classification and gathering proof of experience can happen while your CRS score is still moving — there is no reason to leave it for after an ITA lands.

What to Watch Next

With the cutoff down 40 points in three rounds, Senior Managers with Canadian Work Experience is behaving like one of the more accessible category-based pathways in Express Entry right now — but it is also one of the narrowest, limited to four specific NOC codes. The number to watch is not just the next cutoff, but whether IRCC keeps running 250-invitation rounds or returns to the 500 seen in July.

*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.*