Express Entry Draw 346: 511 PNP Candidates Invited on May 12, 2025

Key Takeaways From Express Entry Draw 346 on May 12, 2025

• Type of draw: Provincial Nominee Program
• Invitations issued: 511
• CRS score: 706
• Tie-breaking rule: March 04, 2025 at 22:35:42 UTC
• Prediction for the next draw: Canadian Experience Class draw on May 13-14, 2025.

Our Analysis of This PNP Express Entry Draw on May 12, 2025

Today’s PNP-specific Express Entry draw invited just 511 candidates with a minimum CRS score of 706. With this draw, the total number of ITAs issued to PNP applicants in 2025 now stands at 4,590. The total number of invitations this year is 33,940. While invitations do feel slow at the moment, at the same time last year around 38,955 invitations had been sent across all programs and categories through the Express Entry system — but there had been 2 more draws.

Regarding the CRS for this round of invitations, the score did drop from 727 in the last PNP round to 706 today. This round was a larger round, at 511 invitations, compared to the April 28, 2025 draw, which invited 421 candidates to apply for permanent residence.

Interestingly, it seems likely that many of these candidates would have been in the pool in the last round with a score between 706-727. Following the last PNP draw on April 27, there were 416 candidates with a provincial nomination remaining in the Express Entry pool. Today, there were 513 candidates in the Express Entry pool. So, it seems almost all PNP candidates in the Express Entry pool would now have received an invitation to apply.

This is consistent with what we’re expecting to see in the Express-Entry aligned PNP in 2025. Given that the provinces have low nomination allocations, competition will be high at the provincial level to receive an invitation. However, once in the pool, competition for the invitations will likely remain relatively low for PNP candidates. This is a stark contrast to the competition for category-based invitations (outside of French language draws) and for the Canadian Experience Class program draws, which have been paused for some time now. When (or if) they resume, competition will be very high — with more than 22, 316 candidates in the pool with a score higher than 501.

How Does The Provincial Nominee Program Work in 2025 Under Express Entry?

If you’re not familiar with Canada’s Express Entry system, it’s an application management system used to manage economic immigrants to Canada. The benefits of the Express Entry system are that it offers streamlined application timelines for people who are ranked highly and invited to apply for permanent residence. After you receive an invitation and submit your application, it usually  takes IRCC around 6 months to make a decision. This is much faster than other pathways to permanent residence — like family sponsorship, which takes around 24 months as of April 28, 2025.

• Keen to learn more about Express Entry? Check out our dedicated Express Entry page.

With that in mind, the Provincial Nominee Program is a program that’s offered at the provincial level but then managed and approved at the federal level. Some PNPs require you to be eligible for Express Entry, so they can be inter-related, but there are also PNPs that allow you to immigrate even if you don’t qualify for Express Entry.

Learn more about Canada’s PNPs via our PNP Tracker, which comes with a range of tools, including a stream finder. You’ll need to sign up for our free account to access these helpful tools, so if you want to skip straight to those — sign up here.

You can also sign up for up-to-date information about Express Entry draws via your free Moving2Canada account. Just subscribe to our newsletter for news about the draws and our analysis as it happens, so you’ll never miss the latest results. This can be a powerful tool to help you identify trends and map your pathway to permanent residence in Canada.