The French-language pause ended one day after the CEC pause did. On May 28, 2026, IRCC issued 4,500 Invitations to Apply at CRS 409 in the first French-language round since April 29 — a larger draw than the previous one, but with the cutoff up 9 points. Pair that with yesterday's CEC round and the message is the same in both lanes: the pool absorbed more high-scoring profiles during the 29-day silence, and IRCC's bigger scoop wasn't enough to keep the floor from rising.
What happened
On May 28, 2026 at 10:52:36 UTC, IRCC issued 4,500 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) to French-language Express Entry candidates with a minimum CRS score of 409, according to Immigration News Canada and CIC News. The tie-breaking rule selected profiles created before April 29, 2026 at 22:20:00 UTC.
This was Express Entry draw #418 — the 30th round of 2026, the 4th draw in May, and the 6th French-language draw of the year. It came exactly one day after the May 27 CEC round at CRS 518, restoring the CEC-then-French cluster cadence that IRCC followed through most of January, February, and April but skipped entirely in May until this week.
Through this draw, IRCC has issued 30,500 French-language ITAs in 2026 across 6 draws — making French the second-largest pathway after CEC (37,250 ITAs across 9 draws). Total Express Entry ITAs for the year now sit at roughly 79,841.
Why the cutoff climbed 9 points
The same pool dynamics that pushed CEC from 514 to 518 worked on the French side too — and the math is even cleaner because IRCC actually opened the tap.
The April 29 French round invited 4,000 candidates at CRS 400. The May 28 round invited 500 more at a 9-point higher floor. That's 12.5% more invitations and a cutoff that still rose. Three things were happening underneath:
French-eligible candidates kept accumulating. Twenty-nine days is a long pause for a category that historically runs every 14–18 days. New profiles entered the French-eligible pool during that window while none exited, and the share of those candidates sitting above 400 grew faster than IRCC's invitation bump could clear.
The 4,500-ITA size was the offset, not the fix. If IRCC had repeated the April 29 size of 4,000, the cutoff would likely have landed near 413–415. The extra 500 invitations brought it back down to 409 — still 9 points higher than April 29, but well below where the math without the bump would have put it.
409 sits in the middle of the French range, not the high end. Across the six French draws in 2026, cutoffs have ranged from a low of 393 (March 18) to a high of 419 (April 15). The May 28 cutoff of 409 is dead-centre — higher than the typical 397–400 we've seen this year, but nowhere near the April 15 spike that followed the February 6 mega-draw of 8,500 ITAs.
French draws this year
| Draw # | Date | French ITAs | CRS Cutoff |
|---|---|---|---|
| 394 | February 6 | 8,500 | 400 |
| 401 | March 4 | 5,500 | 397 |
| 405 | March 18 | 4,000 | 393 |
| 411 | April 15 | 4,000 | 419 |
| 414 | April 29 | 4,000 | 400 |
| 418 | May 28 | 4,500 | 409 |
The arc tells you exactly what IRCC is doing. The 8,500-ITA February draw — the largest category-based round in Express Entry history — drained the French-eligible pool down to a 400 floor. By April 15, that pool had refilled enough to push the cutoff to 419 on the same 4,000-ITA size. The April 29 round at 4,000 cleared the top of the pool back to 400. The May 28 round, after a 29-day pause and at 4,500 ITAs, settled at 409. That's a pool that's grown again but not yet to April 15 territory.
The implication for what comes next: if IRCC returns to a roughly 14–18-day French cadence at 4,000–4,500 ITAs, the cutoff should stabilise in the 405–412 range. A longer gap or smaller round size pushes it back toward 415+. A return to 5,000+ ITAs would drop it back below 400.
What this means for the rest of the pool
The 9-point bump in the French cutoff is the second confirmation in two days that the Express Entry pool shift is broad-based, not isolated to CEC. As of the May 24 pool snapshot, the 401–450 CRS band sat at 65,963 candidates — a band where most French-eligible profiles cluster once you add the 25–50 points that NCLC 7+ French is worth on top of a base score in the 350–400 range.
For a candidate with a base CRS of 360 (typical for a 25-year-old with one year of foreign work experience, no Canadian degree, and CLB 9 English), adding NCLC 7 French is worth 25 CRS points. That puts them at 385 — five points below the May 28 cutoff but well within striking distance with NCLC 8 or a stronger English retest. The May 28 result confirms that French at NCLC 7+ remains the single highest-yield CRS lever for anyone outside Canada with a foreign degree.
For Canadian-experience candidates competing on the CEC side, French is the alternate route. The same profile that needs CRS 518 to win a CEC invitation needs only CRS 409 to win a French one. That's a 109-point gap on the same set of qualifications — and the gap has actually widened from the 114-point May 11 spread to today, because the CEC floor moved up faster than the French floor.
What's expected next
A category-based round is overdue. Throughout 2026, the CEC + French cluster has often been completed by a category draw within days — healthcare, trades, transport, education, or STEM. The last category round of any kind was the April 2 Trades draw at CRS 477, now 56 days ago. The longer this gap stretches, the larger the eventual round will need to be to clear backlogged profiles. Watch the May 30 – June 5 window for a Healthcare or Education round.
The next French draw depends on whether IRCC returns to its cluster cadence. If May 28 was the start of a new biweekly French cycle, the next round lands around June 10–12 at a cutoff likely between 405 and 412. If IRCC reverts to monthly French rounds (the late-2025 pattern), the next one slips to mid-June and the cutoff climbs back to 415+.
The next CEC round runs on its own clock. Based on the May 11 → May 25 and May 25 → May 27 spacing, the next CEC draw is expected around June 10. Expected size: 2,500–3,000 ITAs. Expected cutoff: 517–520 if pool growth continues at the May 10 → May 24 rate.
PNP cadence: 14 days, like clockwork. The next PNP round lands around June 8, with a likely cutoff in the 800–810 range.
What to do if you got invited
You have 60 days from May 28 — until July 27, 2026 — to submit a complete PR application.
- French test results. The IRCC application portal requires your TEF Canada or TCF Canada certificate uploaded with timestamps and test centre details. If yours is more than 24 months old at the time of submission, retake before applying.
- Immigration medical exam. Book a panel physician now. Wait times in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary are running 2–3 weeks through late June.
- Police certificates. From every country you've lived in 6+ months since age 18. Use our PCC guides by country — French test recipients often have France, Belgium, Morocco, Tunisia, or Algeria on their list, and France's PCC alone runs 8–10 weeks.
- Employment reference letters. Required for every work-experience claim — job title, duties, hours per week, dates, salary, on company letterhead.
- Proof of funds. Most French-stream applicants come through FSW or FSTP and need to show settlement funds against the 2026 LICO thresholds. Canadian Experience Class applicants are exempt.
- Updated PR fees. The April 30 fee schedule added roughly $75 per applicant. Build $1,590+ per principal applicant into your budget.
What to do if you weren't selected
If your CRS is 400–408: You're inside one round of the cutoff. A small bump moves you in. Retake TEF or TCF if your current score is right at NCLC 7 — moving to NCLC 8 in all four bands adds 25 CRS points. Push English to CLB 10 if you're at CLB 9. Check how to improve your CRS fast for the highest-yield levers and start them this week.
If your CRS is 380–399: You're one strong language retest away from the cutoff. The French → English combo is worth up to 50 points if both are pushed to top tier. Look at provincial nomination programs in parallel — BC PNP, Alberta AAIP, and Nova Scotia all consider French at NCLC 7+ a high-priority factor in their selection scoring.
If your CRS is below 380: The French route is the right strategy but you need more base points. The highest-yield moves: complete an ECA via WES or IQAS if you haven't yet (up to 200 CRS points for a Master's), add Canadian work experience through an LMIA-exempt or LMIA work permit, or pursue a provincial nomination through a French-speaking PNP stream like Quebec's PEQ or New Brunswick's targeted streams.
If you don't yet have French at NCLC 7: The investment is roughly 6–9 months of study from scratch if you have no French background, 3–4 months from intermediate (NCLC 4–5) to NCLC 7. TEF Canada and TCF Canada both test all four abilities (speaking, listening, reading, writing). See our TEF/TCF test guide for which test fits your profile and our French-language CRS guide for the points math.
The May 28 cutoff of 409 is a 9-point jump from April 29 — but the more important number is the 109-point gap between French (409) and CEC (518). That's the single largest French-to-CEC gap of 2026, and it's the strongest case yet for any CEC-eligible candidate sitting between 480 and 517 to start French today. Six months of focused French study (DELF B2 or equivalent) gets most adults to NCLC 7, adds 25–50 CRS points, and opens the parallel French draw lane with cutoffs 100+ points lower. The math says French has gone from "nice to have" to the single highest-leverage Express Entry move available.
CRS score check
Want to know where you stand after today? Run the numbers: CRS Calculator | All Express Entry Draws | French Language Guide | TEF/TCF Test Guide | How to Improve CRS Fast | Express Entry Pool Shift May 2026