Canadian Experience Class (CEC) Draw
The latest Express Entry draw on December 16 2025 was a Canadian Experience Class round that invited 5,000 candidates with a CRS cut‑off of 515, the lowest threshold seen for any CEC draw in 2025 so far . The tie‑breaker was the profile creation/update time of September 9 2025 18:58:59 UTC, meaning only profiles that reached 515 points on or before that date* were eligible .
Key points from the draw:
– Record low CRS: 515, down from 520 in the previous CEC draw on December 10 .
– Size: 5,000 invitations – the second‑largest CEC draw of the year .
– Eligibility: Minimum CRS 515; profile must have been created/updated before the September 9 tie‑breaker .
– Impact: With the pool holding about 237,302 candidates, this drop signals that IRCC is aggressively clearing the backlog before year‑end .
These figures suggest that candidates with strong Canadian work experience and language scores in the low‑500s now have a realistic chance of receiving an ITA, especially if they already have a profile in the pool.
