Round 294: The Last All-Program Express Entry Draw, and Why It Has Not Returned
Somewhere in a lot of older Express Entry guides sits a sentence like “general draws happen regularly and invite the highest CRS scores across every programme.” It was true once. The last general express entry draw 2024 produced — round 294, held on 23 April — is the point where that sentence stopped being accurate, and understanding its place in the record explains why guides written before that date are quietly out of step with the current system.
What round 294 actually was
On 23 April 2024, IRCC issued 2,095 invitations at a CRS cut-off of 529 — a “General” round, IRCC’s label for an all-program draw open to Federal Skilled Worker, Federal Skilled Trades, and Canadian Experience Class candidates alike, ranked purely by score with no occupation or attribute filter. It looked, at the time, like an ordinary Tuesday on the Express Entry board.
Round 294 in Express Entry history — the turning point
Round 294’s place in Express Entry history only became visible in hindsight. From 30 May 2024 onward, every single round IRCC has run has been either Provincial Nominee Program, Canadian Experience Class, French-language proficiency, or one of the occupation categories. No general round has appeared since — not once in 2025, not once in 2026 to date. Over two full years of exclusively targeted selection followed what, at the time, looked like business as usual.
Why are there no all-program draws anymore
The mechanism behind the shift goes back further than round 294 itself. In June 2022, Parliament passed Bill C-19, amending the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to let the Minister select Express Entry candidates by category — specific work experience, French ability, and similar attributes — rather than by raw score alone. Category-based selection launched the following year, in May 2023, and has expanded every year since: six categories in 2023, ten by 2026. As the categorised share of invitations grew, the system simply stopped needing broad, unfiltered rounds to hit its invitation targets.
The wider context this sits inside
It’s worth remembering that general draws were themselves a comeback story before they became a memory. Only one Federal Skilled Worker-specific round has ever been held in this entire window — 2 February 2023, 3,300 invitations at CRS 489 — meaning FSW candidates without Canadian experience have relied almost entirely on general and category rounds to get an invitation at all. With general rounds gone and category eligibility narrowing to specific occupations or French ability, that route has become considerably harder to walk for anyone whose profile doesn’t fit a current category.
What this means if you’re planning around it
Treat “general draw” as a historical term for now, not a route to plan a timeline around. The end of general Express Entry draws doesn’t mean the end of invitations — CEC, PNP and category rounds have kept running steadily — but it does mean a strong, well-rounded profile with no Canadian experience, no provincial nomination, and no French ability may simply have no current door to walk through. Whether that applies to your own file, and what to do about it, is worth raising directly with a licensed RCIC rather than assuming the old rules of thumb still hold.