Updated July 2026. December 2025 turned out to be one of the busiest months of the year for Express Entry — six draws in total, continuing the clustered pattern IRCC had kept up since late summer 2025. Here’s how it actually played out, compared to what analysts expected going in.
How December 2025 Actually Went
- December 10: Canadian Experience Class (CEC) draw — 6,000 ITAs at a CRS cutoff of 520
- December 11: Healthcare and social services occupations draw
- December 15: Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) draw
- December 16: CEC draw — 5,000 ITAs at a CRS cutoff of 515, a new low for CEC draws in 2025, breaking the previous record of 518 set in July
- December 17: French-language proficiency category draw — 6,000 ITAs at a CRS cutoff of 399
Across the month, IRCC issued 19,522 invitations — bringing the 2025 year-to-date total to 113,998 ITAs by December 17.
What This Confirmed About 2025’s Pattern
The month validated the trend that had defined Express Entry since September: IRCC clustering multiple draws per week rather than spacing them evenly, and leaning heavily on category-based selection (CEC, French-language proficiency, healthcare, and PNP) rather than general, all-program rounds. CEC cutoffs falling to 515 by mid-December showed the trend of declining CRS requirements for in-Canada work experience holders continuing right through year-end, while the French-language category’s CRS 399 cutoff — one of the lowest of any category all year — reflected how much IRCC prioritized bilingual candidates in the year’s final rounds.
What This Means Going Forward
If you’re in the pool with Canadian work experience or French-language ability, the low December cutoffs are a useful reference point for how competitive those categories can get when IRCC runs consecutive draws. General (all-program) draws, by contrast, kept a much higher bar throughout the period, since they draw from the entire pool rather than a filtered subset.
Source: CIC News, December 2025 Express Entry draw coverage.
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