Why the Trades Category Has Gone Through Three Different Versions Since 2023
Here’s a myth worth retiring: that the “trades category” is a single, stable thing you can research once and rely on indefinitely. It isn’t. Since it launched, the trades category versions Express Entry has actually been through three distinct instruments, each with its own occupation list and its own eligibility rules — and treating them as interchangeable is exactly the kind of mistake that leads applicants astray.
Version 1: the original, 2023–2024
Trade occupations was one of six categories in the very first wave of category-based selection, launched 31 May 2023. The first-ever trades round came on 3 August 2023: 1,500 invitations at a CRS cut-off of 388. Version 1 ran for well over a year, drawing a total of four rounds across that window — 3 August 2023, 19 December 2023, 4 July 2024, and 23 October 2024 — with cut-offs ranging from 388 up to 436. Under the original occupation-based category rules across this whole period, eligible experience needed to be 6 months of continuous full-time (or equivalent part-time) work in the past 3 years in a listed occupation.
Version 2: a quieter, single-round update, 2025
For 2025, trades continued as one of the four active priority categories, but under a rebuilt instrument: Trade occupations (Version 2). It held exactly one round, on 18 September 2025 — 1,250 invitations at a CRS cut-off of 505, noticeably higher than any Version 1 round had reached. There’s a genuinely useful, if unverified, detail worth flagging here: some reporting suggests the underlying occupation list itself changed meaningfully going into 2025, with occupations added across several categories including trades — but the specific count wasn’t independently confirmed, so treat any precise number you see quoted elsewhere with caution.
Version 3: the 2026 rebuild, and a bigger structural change
Trades was rebuilt again for 2026 — “Trades Occupations, 2026-Version 3” — and held its first round on 2 April 2026: 3,000 invitations at a CRS cut-off of 477. This version arrived alongside a change that applies across every occupation-based category, not just trades: the minimum work-experience threshold doubled, from 6 months to 1 year. As of 2026, every occupation-based category — trades included — requires at least 12 months of full-time work experience, or the part-time equivalent, accumulated within the past three years, in a single listed occupation, with the experience not needing to be continuous.
There’s also a persistent claim circulating that cooks were removed from the trades occupation list for 2026. That detail wasn’t independently confirmed in the research behind this article, so it’s flagged here as unverified rather than stated as settled fact — anyone whose eligibility hinges on a specific occupation should check the current, live IRCC list directly rather than relying on secondhand summaries.
How trades category eligibility has changed, at a glance
| Version | Active period | Rounds held | CRS cut-off range | Minimum experience |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Version 1 | 2023–2024 | 4 | 388–436 | 6 months in past 3 years |
| Version 2 | 2025 | 1 | 505 | 6 months in past 3 years |
| Version 3 | 2026 | 1 (to date) | 477 | 12 months in past 3 years |
Why this history matters more than any single cut-off number
The Express Entry trades occupation list history matters because a candidate who researched the trades category in, say, 2023 and assumed those rules still hold today would be working from outdated information on two fronts: the experience threshold has doubled, and the occupation list itself has apparently shifted between versions, even if the exact details of that shift aren’t fully pinned down here. This is really the broader lesson behind the myth: category names stay stable, but the instruments behind them — the occupation lists, the experience minimums, the actual eligibility rules — do not.
This article traces the published version history and draw record as far as they’ve been confirmed; it isn’t a current, occupation-by-occupation eligibility check. Before relying on any specific occupation’s inclusion in the trades category, verify it against IRCC’s live category-based selection page, and for anything specific to your own trade and work history, a licensed RCIC or Canadian immigration lawyer is the appropriate person to consult.