Canada has invited 1,000 candidates to apply for permanent residence through its Express Entry system under the Canadian Experience Class (CEC).
The invitation round was conducted on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, according to the latest ministerial instructions released by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Candidates required a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 523 to receive an invitation in the latest draw.
IRCC said the invitations were issued to the first 1,000 eligible foreign nationals ranked in the Express Entry pool.
The draw was conducted at 10:13:44 UTC on August 18, with a tie-breaking rule of August 17, 2026, at 22:09:00 UTC. Where candidates have the same lowest CRS score, the cut-off is determined by the date and time their Express Entry profiles were submitted.
The invitations were issued under the Canadian Experience Class, one of the three federal economic immigration programmes managed through Express Entry.
Express Entry is Canada’s primary online system for managing permanent residence applications from skilled workers. It covers the Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Worker Program and Federal Skilled Trades Program.
Candidates create profiles that are ranked using the CRS, which awards points for factors including age, education, language proficiency, work experience and other human-capital attributes. The highest-ranked candidates are invited to apply during periodic draws.
The Canadian Experience Class is designed for skilled workers who already have Canadian work experience and want to become permanent residents. Applicants generally need at least one year, or 1,560 hours, of eligible skilled work experience in Canada within the previous three years in occupations classified under NOC TEER categories 0, 1, 2 or 3.
Applicants must also meet minimum language requirements, including CLB 7 for TEER 0 and 1 occupations and CLB 5 for TEER 2 and 3 occupations.
The programme has no specific education requirement and applicants do not need to demonstrate settlement funds. However, they must plan to live outside Quebec.
The latest draw was more selective than the previous CEC round on August 5, which issued 3,000 invitations at a CRS cut-off of 516.
The August 18 draw therefore combined a higher CRS cut-off of 523 with fewer invitations, making it one of the more selective Canadian Experience Class rounds so far in 2026.
As of mid-August 2026, IRCC had issued more than 113,000 Express Entry invitations during the year, with a substantial share going to Canadian Experience Class candidates.
