IRCC September 2026: policy and draw review

September 2026 was quieter than August in volume and more revealing in detail. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada issued 11,288 invitations to apply across eight Express Entry rounds, 29% fewer than the month before, and held no French-language round at all. Outside Express Entry, a public policy allowing work permit holders to take short courses without a study permit came into effect, a long-running exemption for undeclared family members in sponsorship cases ended, and Ontario’s redesigned nominee stream completed a second month of open intake without a recorded invitation round.

This review sets out what was published, what the pool data behind the cut-offs shows, and what the changes mean for applications in progress. Information is current to 1 October 2026 and reflects the published record on that date.

Express Entry: eight rounds, 11,288 invitations

Round	Date	Category	Invitations	Lowest CRS invited
#439	Sep 1	Canadian Experience Class	2,000	521
#440	Sep 3	Physicians with Canadian work experience	229	198
#441	Sep 4	Healthcare and social services occupations	3,500	475
#442	Sep 14	Provincial Nominee Program	576	734
#443	Sep 15	Canadian Experience Class	2,000	519
#444	Sep 16	Senior managers with Canadian work experience	250	389
#445	Sep 28	Provincial Nominee Program	733	725
#446	Sep 29	Canadian Experience Class	2,000	518

The fall from August’s 15,811 is accounted for entirely by one category. August included two French-language rounds of 5,000; September included none. Set those aside and September was the larger month, at 11,288 invitations against 5,811.

The Canadian Experience Class received 6,000 invitations (53%), healthcare and social services 3,500 (31%), provincial nominees 1,309 (12%), and the two smaller categories 479 between them. The mechanics of the pool and the rounds are explained in how Express Entry actually works.

No French-language round, and why 382 is not a planning figure

The last French-language round was held on 19 August, at a cut-off of 382. None followed in September, and as of 1 October the interval stands at 43 days — the longest between two French-language rounds this year, passing the 42 days between 28 May and 9 July.

The category’s own record shows what such intervals do. Three earlier gaps of four weeks or more were each followed by a higher cut-off: 393 to 419 across March and April, 400 to 409 across May, and 409 to 420 across June. In each case the returning round was the same size as the one before it or larger, so the rise cannot be attributed to a smaller draw. The cut-off fell again only once rounds resumed at two-week intervals.

The figure of 382 was reached at the end of four rounds of 5,000 held within six weeks. It marks the low point of a drawdown, not a standing threshold, and the pool has had six weeks to refill since.

A pause is not a signal that the category has been withdrawn. January and June also passed without a French-language round, and the category still accounts for 50,500 of the 131,715 invitations issued between January and September, or 38%. IRCC publishes no schedule of rounds, and the timing and cut-off of the next one cannot be known in advance.

Canadian Experience Class: three identical rounds, and a pool that is refilling

Three Canadian Experience Class rounds were held a fortnight apart, each of 2,000 invitations, with cut-offs of 521, 519 and 518. Because the rounds are identical in size, this is the like-for-like comparison that August’s rounds did not allow: the three-point decline is a real movement, not an effect of volume.

It is also a small one, and the pool data IRCC publishes with each round explains why.

CRS range	30 Aug	13 Sep	27 Sep
601–1200	559	574	728
501–600	19,542	20,784	21,070
451–500	74,105	72,107	73,131
401–450	60,413	61,560	62,611
351–400	46,824	46,782	47,298
350 and below	25,230	24,986	25,066
Total	226,673	226,793	229,904

Candidates scoring 501 to 600 numbered 21,070 on 27 September, the highest figure in any snapshot published this year. Between the 30 August and 27 September snapshots, two Canadian Experience Class rounds invited 4,000 candidates from above 518, and the band still grew by 1,528.

The longer record makes the same point. The band stood at 11,648 on 29 March, after a first quarter in which 30,250 Canadian Experience Class invitations were issued at cut-offs between 507 and 511. In the six months since, 25,000 have been issued, cut-offs have ranged from 514 to 523, and the band has grown by more than 80%.

Two cautions apply. The band counts every candidate in the pool at that score, including those not eligible for Canadian Experience Class rounds, so it is an indicator and not a measure. And nothing in the published record indicates what size future rounds will be. What the data does show is that rounds of 2,000 a fortnight have not reduced the number of candidates above 500.

The tie-breaking date matters at the margin

Each round’s results carry a second figure that receives little attention. IRCC’s rule reads: “If more than one candidate has the lowest score, the cut-off is based on the date and time they submitted their Express Entry profiles.”

For the 29 September round, that date was 13 February 2026. A candidate holding exactly 518 points was invited only if the profile had been submitted before then; a candidate at 518 with a profile submitted in the spring or summer was not. The 1 September round, by contrast, carried a tie-breaking date of 18 August 2026, which excluded only profiles submitted in the final two weeks before the round.

A published cut-off therefore does not mean that every candidate at that score was invited. Candidates sitting exactly on a recent cut-off should read the tie-breaking date alongside it.

Healthcare, physicians and senior managers

The healthcare and social services round on 4 September invited 3,500 candidates at 475, the same cut-off as the category’s previous round in June, which invited 4,000. Across its three rounds this year the category has cut off at 467, 475 and 475.

Two narrower categories also drew. The round for physicians with Canadian work experience invited 229 candidates at 198, following 169 in February and 223 in June. The round for senior managers with Canadian work experience invited 250 at 389, continuing a decline from 429 in March and 392 in July.

These cut-offs sit far below the general pool because the categories are narrow, not because the standard is lower. Eligibility turns on documented work experience in the occupations IRCC has listed for each category, assessed against the duties performed and not a job title.

Provincial rounds invite every nominee in the pool

The two provincial rounds invited 576 candidates at 734 and 733 at 725. Net of the 600 points a nomination carries, the underlying scores are 134 and 125.

The pool snapshots show what these rounds are doing. On 13 September, 574 candidates held scores above 600; the round the next day invited 576. On 27 September the figure was 728; the round the next day invited 733. The same relationship holds for every provincial round since June.

In practice each round invites every nominee then in the pool, and the published cut-off is simply the score of the lowest-ranked nominee at that moment. It is not a threshold a nominee needs to reach.

Ontario: two months of open intake, no invitation round recorded

Ontario’s amendments replacing its eight former nominee streams with the Ontario Workforce Priority stream came into force on 25 June 2026, and the expression-of-interest portal opened on 4 August. As of 1 October, the province’s program updates page records nothing further: the 4 August notice remains the most recent entry, and no invitation round under the new stream has been published.

Federal Provincial Nominee Program rounds continued through September, but they draw on nominations from every province and territory and indicate nothing about Ontario’s new stream.

The practical position is unchanged from August. Outside the physicians route, registration begins with an employer’s job offer; a registered expression of interest is a place in a pool; and the province has published no round from which an invitation could have come. A claim that an Ontario invitation has been secured, or can be arranged, should be checked against that record and against the representative’s licence.

Work permit holders may take short courses without a study permit

A temporary public policy signed by the Minister on 5 August 2026 allows foreign nationals holding a valid work permit “to study without a study permit for a course or program of studies of durations of six months or less.” The policy takes effect 30 days after signature and was announced by IRCC on 9 September. It expires on 31 December 2027 and, by its own terms, “may be revoked at any time, without prior notice.”

The only condition is a valid work permit, and the exemption lasts until that work permit expires or the policy ends, whichever comes first. Its stated purpose is to let workers already in Canada “upgrade their skills, obtain new credentials or professional licensing, and advance into higher-skilled occupations.” IRCC’s announcement names tradespeople, nurses and laboratory technicians as examples.

The limits are stated as plainly. The announcement reads: “Full-time studies will still require a study permit.” It adds: “This measure is not a new pathway for workers to come to Canada.” The same announcement restates the government’s commitment to reduce the temporary population to less than 5% of the total population by the end of 2027.

In practical terms, a licensing preparation course, a bridging program or a trade certification can now be taken alongside work without a separate application, provided the course itself runs six months or less. A longer certificate or diploma cannot. Where a course is full-time, or its length is uncertain, the wording of the announcement is reason to confirm the position before enrolling.

The policy does not extend a work permit, and nothing in it changes the rules for post-graduation work permits, which are set out in the PGWP clock. Work authorisation more generally is covered on the work permits page.

Family sponsorship: the undeclared family member exemption has ended

IRCC’s page for the policy now reads: “The public policy allowing certain undeclared family members to be sponsored ended on September 10, 2026.” Applications received between 31 May 2019 and that date will continue to be assessed under it.

The policy addressed one of the harshest rules in family immigration. A person applying for permanent residence must declare every family member, accompanying or not, and in most cases have them examined. Under paragraphs 117(9)(d) and 125(1)(d) of the Regulations, the consequence for failing to have a non-accompanying family member examined is, in IRCC’s words, “a lifetime bar on being able to sponsor that family member.”

Since 2019 a series of public policies had lifted that bar for a defined group: spouses, partners and dependent children whose sponsor had become a permanent resident as a refugee or protected person, or had been sponsored as a spouse, partner or dependent child, and only where the undeclared relative would not have made the sponsor ineligible at the time. IRCC’s public policies page lists no successor as of 1 October.

For a new application, the regulation now applies as written. What remains is a request for humanitarian and compassionate consideration, which is discretionary and decided case by case.

The lesson for anyone preparing a permanent residence application of any kind is the one the regulation was written to enforce: declare every spouse, partner and dependent child, including those who are not coming to Canada. The cost of an omission falls years later, on the family member left out. Sponsorship routes are set out on the family sponsorship page.

Unchanged in September

• Parents and Grandparents Program. IRCC’s notice of 15 July stands without amendment. No interest to sponsor forms are being received and no reopening date has been announced. The super visa remains the available route.
• Study permit proof of funds. The higher amounts set out in the August review have applied to applications submitted since 1 September: $23,448 for a single applicant outside Quebec, with tuition and travel additional.

October so far, and what is due

One round has been held in October: trades occupations on 1 October, with 3,500 invitations at a cut-off of 476. The category’s only other round this year, on 2 April, invited 3,000 at 477.

Two scheduled items fall in the coming months. Under section 94 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Minister must table the annual report to Parliament “on or before November 1 of each year or, if a House of Parliament is not then sitting, within the next 30 days on which that House is sitting after that date.” The report must include “the number projected to become permanent residents in the following year” — the figures from which admissions targets, and ultimately round sizes, follow. Its contents are not known in advance.

Separately, IRCC’s commitment to develop options for the paused Self-Employed Persons Program, described in the August review, was targeted for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026–27, which began on 1 October.

Practical implications

• A French-language cut-off of 382 was the low point of four closely spaced rounds. After each long interval this year, the first round back has cut off higher.
• September’s three Canadian Experience Class rounds are directly comparable. The decline from 521 to 518 is real, and small against a pool above 500 that is at its largest of the year.
• A candidate sitting exactly on a cut-off should check the round’s tie-breaking date before concluding that the score was sufficient.
• Provincial nominees are, on the published record, invited at the first provincial round after their nomination reaches the pool. The cut-off in those rounds is not a hurdle.
• An Ontario expression of interest is not an invitation, and no invitation round under the new stream has been published.
• Work permit holders may take a course of six months or less without a study permit while the work permit remains valid. Longer or full-time study still requires one.
• The exemption for undeclared family members is closed to new sponsorship applications. Every family member should be declared on every permanent residence application.
• Future round sizes, categories and cut-offs are not published in advance and cannot be predicted.

Sources

Figures in this review are taken from primary government sources. Round results, tie-breaking dates and the pool distribution are from IRCC’s rounds of invitations record. The study measure is quoted from the public policy and IRCC’s notice of 9 September; the sponsorship change from the archived public policy; the Ontario position from the province’s program updates page; and the reporting requirement from section 94 of the Act. Quoted passages are reproduced verbatim.

Processing times are not reproduced in this review. IRCC updates its published times monthly, and figures repeated in an article become inaccurate without notice. Current times for a specific application type should be checked against the department’s processing times tool.