Express Entry Draw 336: 646 PNP Candidates Issued Invitations on February 17, 2025

Key Takeaways for The Latest Express Entry Draw

• Type of draw: Provincial Nominee Program
• Invitations issued: 646
• CRS score: 750
• Tie-breaking rule: July 23, 2024 at 17:41:11 UTC
• Prediction for the next draw: Canadian Experience Class on February 18, 2025.
• Did you receive an invitation this draw? Update your Moving2Canada account for more information about your next steps. It takes just a few minutes and gives you easy access to information and checklists to make your transition to permanent residence in Canada simpler, more affordable, and less stressful.

Key Observations From the Latest PNP Express Entry Draws

CRS Cut-off Declining Slightly:

• January 7, 2025: 793
• February 4, 2025: 802
• February 17, 2025: 750

The decrease in CRS score could suggest a small drop in competitiveness among those eligible for PNP selection. However, it could also be down to the fact that more nominations were issued.

Number of Invitations Issued:

The latest draw on February 17, issued 646 invitations, which is higher than the previous two PNP draws (471 invitations issued on January 7, then 455 invitations issued on February 4).

This could suggest that more and more PNP-eligible candidates are entering the Express Entry pool following a slow start to the year.

Increase in Draw Frequency: 

To our surprise, IRCC held only one PNP Express Entry draw in January, issuing 471 invitations. Today’s draw marks the second PNP draw of February, bringing the total number of monthly PNP invitations to 1,101.

This could suggest that IRCC is returning to the bi-weekly PNP draws for future months.

Comparison to Other Express Entry Draws in 2025

Canadian Experience Class vs Provincial Nominees

Aside from the PNP-specific draws, there have been three Canadian Experience Class (CEC) draws, with a total of 9,350 invitations issued to eligible candidates with a CRS score ranging from 521 to 542.

The number of CEC invitations issued (9,350) is nearly six times higher than the number of PNP invitations (1,572), despite both having the same number of draws in 2025.

This discrepancy is due to two main reasons:

1. IRCC is prioritising CEC candidates over PNP nominees so far in 2025 (this would explain why we saw only one PNP draw in January).
2. There are significantly more CEC-eligible candidates in the Express Entry pool compared to PNP-eligible candidates.

Both of these factors are influenced by the latest Immigration Levels Plan, which has shifted focus toward in-Canada candidates. Meanwhile, PNP allocations were reduced, leading to fewer invitations issued through this program.

We expect IRCC to continue issuing more ITAs to CEC candidates than PNP candidates throughout 2025. However, the gap between the two programs may narrow later in the year, especially if provinces and territories secure additional nomination allocations beyond what was initially granted in the levels plan.

What’s Happened to Category-Based Draws?

Another key observation from the 2025 Express Entry draws so far is the absence of category-based draws.

While the 2025 Immigration Levels Plan allocates over 41,000 spaces for candidates in Healthcare or Trades occupations, and those with French-language proficiency, IRCC has not yet conducted any category-based draws this year.

While CEC and PNP have dominated the year’s early draws, we expect category-based draws to resume soon, hopefully seeing our first by the end of this month.

How Does The Provincial Nominee Program Work 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 six 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 February 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 offered at the provincial level but then managed and approved at the federal level once the nomination has been issued by the province. Some PNP streams require you to be eligible for Express Entry, so they can be inter-related, but there are also streams 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.