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This is the Express Entry Q3 2026 summary. It covers how many draws and invitations there were, who received them, and where Q4 could go. It follows our Q2 2026 analysis and sits next to our category predictions from 14 September 2026.

Every chart stops at 30 September and has its numbers in a table underneath. Figures come from IRCC’s published rounds of invitations.

Express Entry Q3 2026 in numbers

A draw week is a calendar week with at least one draw. Q3 2026 matched Q3 2024 on invitations, but did it in 24 draws instead of 17.

Invitations by quarter, 2023 to Q3 2026

• The red line, 2026, has followed the same U as the earlier years. High in Q1, a dip in Q2, back up in Q3.
• It has done it at a higher level every quarter. Q1 was 55,830 against a 2023 to 2025 average of 31,646. Q2 was 33,237 against 16,637. Q3 was 42,648 against 30,638.
• Q4 is where the lines part. The blue 2024 line drops to 14,029. The gold 2025 line climbs to 48,160. The red line has to pick a direction.

Where Q4 can go

Express Entry has been dynamic. Q4 brought 24,218 invitations in 2023, 14,029 in 2024 and 48,160 in 2025. Q3 2026 closed at 42,648. These are educated extrapolations from how earlier years went, not forecasts from IRCC.

• Upper arm, the 2025 shape. The current pace carries to 31 December. Our 14 September range of 45,000 to 60,000 invitations sits on this side.
• Middle, slower than 2025. Q3 pulled intake forward and Q4 is lighter. The average Q4 over 2023 to 2025 was 28,802.
• Lower arm, the 2024 shape. A near pause, with provincial nominee and small category rounds only.

What we are watching to tell them apart:

• The size of the October rounds. Rounds under 2,000 invitations point to the middle or lower arm.
• Whether a French round arrives. It is the largest block in our 14 September range and there has been none since.
• Gaps of three weeks or more between draw weeks.
• The next Immigration Levels Plan. Q4 in earlier years followed the allocation behind it, so a new plan can move every number here.

How fast invitations built up in 2026

• 50,000 invitations by 18 March. The same mark came on 8 June in 2023, 8 July in 2024 and 7 August in 2025.
• 100,000 invitations by 22 July, day 203 of the year. 2023 got there on 7 December (day 341) and 2025 on 10 December (day 344), so 2026 was at least 138 days ahead. 2024 never did.
• 131,715 by 30 September. On the same date the earlier years stood at 86,048, 84,874 and 65,838.

The same climb, one quarter at a time

Q1. 55,830 invitations in 19 draws. That is the biggest quarter of the four years, and more than twice the Q1 of 2024 (26,695).

Q2. 33,237 invitations in 15 draws. Q2 is the quiet quarter every year, and 2026 took about three times as many as Q2 2025 (11,162).

Q3. 42,648 invitations in 24 draws. The 2024 line finishes in the same place (41,420) but needed only 17 draws, and its steepest stretch came in July.

Draw weeks: the same rhythm, bigger weeks

• Draw weeks have come about every second week since 2023. Each year to 30 September there were 19 or 20 of them, 1.9 to 2.1 weeks apart.
• What changed is what happens inside a draw week. Draws per draw week went from 1.6 in 2023 to 1.9, 2.1 and now 3.1.
• Each draw week now carries about 6,900 invitations. It was 4,302 in 2023, 4,467 in 2024 and 3,465 in 2025.

Who was invited in Q3

• French and the Canadian Experience Class took 34,000 of the 42,648. That is 79.7 per cent. French alone took 20,000 in four draws, up from 7,000 in Q3 2025.
• Provincial nominee draws were frequent and small. Seven draws, 3,865 invitations. Healthcare had one round of 3,500.
• General draws have gone. They were 14,000 of the 26,500 in Q3 2023 and have not returned in a later Q3.
• No education, STEM or trades round in the quarter, although all three are on the 2026 list.

Education and STEM: on the list, no round yet

• Education had two rounds in 2025: 1,000 invitations on 1 May and 2,500 on 17 September. That is 378 days since the last one, to 30 September.
• STEM has had three rounds in its history: 5 July 2023, 8 December 2023 and 11 April 2024. That is 902 days.
• Both are named in IRCC’s 2026 category instructions. A category that is named and never used is rare, since researchers is the only one with no round ever. So we expect education to draw at least once. That was our highest-conviction prediction, at one to two rounds of 1,500 to 3,000 invitations.
• STEM is a smaller call. One round of 500 to 1,500, and the 2026 STEM list is only 11 occupations. More in our healthcare and STEM draws post.

If Express Entry is replaced: what the 2015 launch looked like

Canadian immigration press reported in April 2026 that IRCC plans to retire the current Express Entry programs and launch a replacement. We have not seen a start date or the rules, so this section is our reading of the data and not IRCC’s plan.

• Express Entry opened small and high in 2015. The first draw, on 31 January, invited 779 candidates at a CRS cut-off of 886. The fourth invited 1,187 at 735.
• It settled within weeks. By the fifth draw, on 20 March, the cut-off was 481 on 1,620 invitations. Candidates were still learning how to build a profile, and many made mistakes in them.
• The whole of 2015 was 23 draws and 31,063 invitations. 2026 is at 59 draws and 135,215.

If a changeover is coming, taking in more people first gives IRCC a large number of applications to work through while a new system finds its footing. That fits a record Q3, and it would also fit a lighter Q4, the middle arm above. It does not rule out the upper arm, because IRCC could just as easily clear the current pool before it changes.

Three reasons to treat this as a reading and not a forecast:

• The 2015 pool was new and small. Today’s pool has years of profiles in it, and IRCC may carry them over.
• A replacement could change the categories and the scoring, so cut-offs under it may not compare with anything in this post.
• The next Levels Plan sets the 2027 target whatever happens to the system.

We will update this section when IRCC publishes dates or rules.

The first ten draws, 2015 against 2026

• 2015: 11,353 invitations in the first ten draws. They took 132 days, from 31 January to 12 June, and the largest single draw was 1,637.
• 2026: 34,848 invitations in the first ten draws. They took 46 days, from 5 January to 20 February, about three times the 2015 total. The largest draw was 8,500.
• The cut-offs tell the other half. In 2015 they stepped down from 886 to 453 as the rounds got bigger. In 2026 they run from 169 to 789, because small provincial nominee and physician rounds sit next to large category rounds.

Our 14 September predictions and what has happened since

On 14 September 2026 we predicted every category through 31 December: 21 to 26 rounds and 45,000 to 60,000 invitations in total. Through 1 October there have been six rounds and 9,059 invitations since. The cut-off ranges are checked round by round. The volumes stay open until 31 December, and French, the largest block, has not started.

What this means if you are in the pool

• The category you fit decides which rounds you can be invited in. In Q3, French and the CEC took four of every five invitations.
• Keep language results valid. A round can come at short notice, especially for education and STEM.
• Check your profile against the 2026 occupation lists for every category you could qualify for.
• Count Canadian work hours the way IRCC counts them. Our CEC work hours post explains how.
• A complete, accurate profile is in the best position if a new system arrives. One that has to be rebuilt is not.

The scoring and the programs are explained in how the Comprehensive Ranking System scores you and our Express Entry page, and every round since 2015 is searchable in the Express Entry draw history and trends tool.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• IRCC, Express Entry rounds of invitations
• IRCC, Express Entry category-based selection
• CIC News, Canada plans to retire current Express Entry programs and launch a replacement

Related reading

• Which Express Entry categories will draw before the end of 2026
• Express Entry Q2 2026: the data, the disparity, and what Q3 looks like
• Express Entry draw history and trends, every round since 2015
• Healthcare and STEM Express Entry draws 2026
• How the Comprehensive Ranking System scores you
• CEC work hours calculator