What the Rise in Category-Based Draws Since 2023 Has Meant for General Applicants
The rise in category based draws since 2023 isn’t a gradual trend you’d only spot by squinting at a chart — it’s a hard before-and-after in IRCC’s own draw record, and it’s worth answering the obvious questions about it directly.
When did this actually start, and why?
Category-based selection launched on 31 May 2023, after Parliament passed Bill C-19 in June 2022, giving the Minister authority to select Express Entry candidates by specific attributes rather than only by overall ranking. The first-ever category round followed on 28 June 2023 — 500 invitations under healthcare occupations, at a CRS cut-off of 476 — with five more categories following through that summer: STEM, French-language proficiency, trades, transport, and agriculture and agri-food.
How often are general express entry draws held now?
Almost never, and there’s a specific date attached to that answer. The last general, all-program draw was round 294, on 23 April 2024 — 2,095 invitations at CRS 529. Every round since, across all of 2025 and all of 2026 to date, has run through a specific category, the Canadian Experience Class, or the Provincial Nominee Program. There have been zero general draws in either of the last two full years covered by IRCC’s own dataset.
Has the list of categories kept growing?
Category based selection share of express entry draws has climbed as the category list itself has expanded and shifted. 2023 ran on six categories. 2025 dropped STEM, transport and agriculture and agri-food, kept French-language proficiency, healthcare (renamed and broadened to “health care and social services”) and trades, and added education. 2026 added five more: physicians with Canadian work experience, senior managers with Canadian work experience, researchers with Canadian work experience, a new-occupation-list transport category, and skilled military recruits — while dropping agriculture and agri-food entirely. IRCC’s live page lists ten current categories as at 2 August 2026, though only French-language proficiency, healthcare and social services, and trades had actually been drawn in 2026 by the point this record was compiled.
What does category draws replacing general draws actually mean for someone who doesn’t fit a category?
It means the fallback most applicants used to rely on — a general, all-program draw that simply ranked every eligible candidate together — effectively stopped existing after April 2024. Three of the ten current categories (physicians, senior managers and researchers with Canadian work experience) are closed outright to anyone who has never worked in Canada, no matter how strong the rest of their profile is. That leaves French-language proficiency, healthcare and social services, trades, STEM, education and transport as the categories realistically open to an offshore applicant — and, as of this record, only the first three of those had actually seen a 2026 draw.
What this means in practice
Rise in category based draws since 2023 is the single most important structural fact for anyone building an Express Entry strategy today: the question isn’t “what’s my overall rank,” it’s “which of the currently-active categories, or the Canadian Experience Class, or a provincial nomination, does my file actually fit.” A general profile with a strong CRS score and none of those specific fits can sit in the pool for a long time waiting for a round that, on the current record, hasn’t happened since April 2024. A licensed RCIC can assess which of the active categories a specific profile genuinely qualifies for.