IRCC issued 17,694 invitations across seven rounds in October 2026, more than in August, with 15,811, and September, with 11,288. Ten thousand went to French-speaking candidates, in two rounds eleven days apart with a 28-point gap in the cutoff. It was the last full month under the old CRS rules: since November 3, IRCC has been recalculating profiles with the Labour Market Integration factor and pausing rounds while it does.

The seven rounds of October

Category names as published by IRCC. The 17,694 total is our sum over the official table; IRCC does not publish running totals. September had eight rounds and 11,288 invitations.

French: the highest cutoff of the year, then back in range

The two French-language rounds explain the month. Round #450, on October 16, closed at 435: the highest cutoff of 2026 for this category, fifteen points above the previous maximum. It came 58 days after the previous French round, #437 on August 19. September had none. IRCC does not publish how many French-speaking candidates are in the pool, but the simplest reading of a cutoff like that after eight weeks without rounds is that high profiles piled up with no round to take them.

Eleven days later, #452 handed out the same 5,000 invitations and the cutoff dropped to 407. Twenty-eight points lower with the same volume. The first round took the highest profiles and the second returned to the range of the year’s ten previous French rounds, which ran from 382 to 420.

If you have French at CLB 7 or higher: the high cutoff in #450 was not a new standard, it was the effect of the pause. When rounds come close together, the cutoff falls. What we do not know is how often they will return after the recalculation.

PNP: the cutoff does not measure what it seems

The two Provincial Nominee Program rounds had cutoffs of 772 and 761. Since a nomination adds 600 points, that is equivalent to base scores of 172 and 161. The practical reading is that almost no one holding a nomination was left out: on October 12 there were 749 candidates with more than 600 points in the pool and #448 invited 752; on October 25 there were 787 and #451 invited 792. The figures are from different days, so this is an inference, but the pattern has held since September.

If you are in a provincial process: with a nomination loaded in the profile, the invitation came in the next PNP round, which in recent months has run every two weeks. The work is in getting the nomination, and each province has its own requirements for granting one.

Canadian Experience Class: one larger round

There was a single CEC round in October, against three in September, but with 2,500 invitations instead of 2,000. The cutoff landed at 519, one point above the last September round. Across four rounds since September 1, the CEC cutoff has moved between 518 and 521.

If you have Canadian experience and sit between 480 and 518: the CEC round does not reach you. From November 3, the bonus for 12 months in a high-wage occupation can add 20, 40 or 70 points. For this group it is the change with the most points at stake. We explain how it works in our October 16 article.

Trades and transport: the two category rounds

Round #447 for trades invited 3,500 people with a cutoff of 476, the second trades round of the year. Round #453 for transport, the last of the month and the last before the recalculation, invited 150 with a cutoff of 477. That is half the 300 of the August transport round, with a cutoff seven points higher. The category is still limited to four occupations in aircraft maintenance, vehicle mechanics and piloting, with no truck driving; we covered the detail in our August article.

If you work in one of those occupations: at 476 or 477 you are in the 451 to 500 band, which held 71,112 candidates on October 25. It is the most crowded band in the pool, and category rounds were the only door that reached it in October without a provincial nomination.

What to watch now

• The next pool distribution. The one published is still from October 25. The first one IRCC publishes after the recalculation shows how much each band rose with the new factor, and that is the one that counts for placing yourself.
• November cutoffs do not compare with these. If the first CEC round after November 3 closes above 519, part of the difference is the recalculation, not a higher standard. That is an example, not a prediction.
• French is still the highest-volume lever. Ten thousand of October’s 17,694 invitations were French-language. CLB 7 in French across all four abilities opens that category.
• Your NOC code. The high-wage bonus depends on the code, not on your pay. Check that the code for each job in your profile matches what you actually did.