Express Entry Draw 358: 225 PNP Candidates Invited on August 6, 2025

Key Takeaways From Express Entry Draw 358 on August 6, 2025

• Type of draw: Provincial Nominee Program
• Invitations issued: 225
• CRS score: 739
• Tie-breaking rule: April 23, 2025 at 06:35:51 UTC
• Prediction for the next draw: Canadian Experience Class draw on August 7, 2025, or potentially a French language draw. Predictions are challenging given the shortened week due to a public holiday on Monday and IRCC’s recent inconsistency.

How Does This Latest Draw Stack Up Against Other PNP-Only Draws This Year?

This week’s PNP draw, while relatively small, invited almost everyone in the Express Entry candidate pool with a provincial nomination. The pool data from August 5 shows that there were just 228 candidates in the pool above the 601+ range, which is almost exclusively made up of PNP candidates.

At 739, today’s draw also saw the lowest CRS cut-off since June 2, 2025, which had a CRS cut-off of 727.

Here is how it compares to past 2025 PNP draws:

This brings the total number of invitations issued through PNP-specific draws in 2025 to 6,278.

Why Was The PNP Draw on a Wednesday?

This week, there was a public holiday across parts of Canada on the Monday. Typically, a public holiday will interrupt IRCC’s draw schedule. In this case, instead of the draw taking place on the public holiday, IRCC delayed the draw to the Wednesday.

Why?

We aren’t sure. The data from the pool was collected on August 5, however, so it’s possible that IRCC wanted to wait for the pool data on Tuesday when its officers were back at work so the draw could take place the next day.

Why Are PNP Draw Sizes So Small in 2025?

The federal government’s Immigration Levels Plan for 2025-2027 slashed the allocation for permanent residence through the Provincial Nominee Program. With restrictive caps on the amount of nominations each province can issue, PNP draw sizes are getting smaller as provinces near their allocation limits for the year. We expect this trend to continue for the rest of the year.

Is the PNP Still a Smart Pathway to Permanent Residence in 2025?

The PNP route remains a smart and strategic pathway to permanent residence in 2025,  but whether it’s the right choice for you depends heavily on your individual profile.

For candidates who are struggling to meet the CRS thresholds for Canadian Experience Class (CEC) or category draws, a provincial nomination is still one of the most effective ways to secure an invitation, thanks to the 600-point CRS boost it provides. It’s also worth bearing in mind that each draw invites almost all of the PNP candidates in the Express Entry pool. So while the PNP draws are small, almost everyone with a nomination is receiving an invitation to apply each time a draw takes place.

However, competition to secure a provincial nomination has become increasingly steep. Provinces have limited nomination allocations, and many have stricter selection criteria, prioritizing candidates with specific work experience, in-demand occupations, strong language skills, or existing ties to the province.

This means that even highly qualified candidates may find themselves ineligible for certain provincial streams, or facing long waits in expression of interest (EOI) pools.

In short, while a provincial nomination can be a powerful tool for boosting your CRS score and securing an ITA, it’s important to understand the individual requirements of each province, stay alert to program openings, especially as provinces continue to refine their immigration priorities throughout 2025.

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.

• 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 can also subscribe to our email list for up-to-date information about Express Entry draws. We share these updates as they happen, 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.