Express Entry Draw 445 Highlights
- Date and time: September 28, 2026, at 10:41:06 UTC
- Category: Provincial Nominee Program
- CRS cut-off: 725
- Invitations issued: 733
- Rank needed: 733 or above
- Tie-breaking rule: Candidates who submitted their Express Entry profile before 01:36:17 UTC on September 17, 2026, were prioritised where scores were tied
A Bigger Draw That Didn’t Push the Bar Up
Under normal Express Entry dynamics, issuing more invitations means reaching further down the ranked pool, which typically drags the CRS cut-off lower, sometimes sharply. Here, IRCC issued 733 invitations, 157 more than the September 14 round’s 576, yet the cut-off dropped only 9 points, from 734 to 725. That’s a remarkably small shift for a meaningfully larger draw, and it points to something specific about how the PNP-eligible pool was shaped heading into this round.
Reading the Pool Data Before Express Entry Draw 445
As of September 27, the day before this draw, there were 728 candidates in the Express Entry pool with CRS scores above 600, essentially the entire universe of provincially nominated candidates available at that tier. With 733 invitations issued, this round captured almost every eligible nominee in that range in a single sweep. That explains both the size of the draw and why the cut-off held relatively steady: IRCC wasn’t selecting from a deep surplus of high scorers, it was clearing out nearly the full available pool at once.
What This Means Looking Forward
A draw that empties most of the top of the pool at once often sets up a very different-looking round next time. With comparatively few new PNP-nominated candidates likely to have entered the pool above 700 points in the two weeks since, the next PNP draw may either shrink significantly in size or see its cut-off adjust more sharply, depending on how many fresh nominations provinces issue in the interim.
The Bigger Pattern for 2026
This round brings the year’s PNP draw count to 19, with cut-offs having ranged from a low of 697 on August 31 to highs above 800 earlier in the year. Combined with the record pace of Express Entry invitations overall in 2026, already surpassing 2025’s full-year total, this draw is another data point in a year where provincial nominations have consistently offered one of the fastest, most predictable routes through the system, even as the exact numbers shift from round to round.