Phew - this is one of the trickier sections to follow isn't it! I think it is easiest to explain with an example. Supposing you genuinely and reasonably believe you had 140 points without a job offer and put in your EOI. This gets selected and you go on to apply for residence. When the Case Officer does an in-depth analysis of your case, they discover that 5 of the points (for example) that you had claimed were not valid for some reason - perhaps a year of work experience was not deemed relevant, then you only have 135 points. Firstly, they look at whether someone would still have been selected with 135 points on the date when your EOI was selected, if yes, no problem, you can be approved. If the answer is no, they then look at all EOI selections since the date of your selection to see if your EOI would have been selected later with 135 points. If it would, then they go ahead and approve your residence (assuming everything else is okay). If the answer is still 'no', then they defer (delay) making a decision until 6 months after your EOI entered the Pool in the hope that one of the remaining selections will include people with 135 points. At the end of the 6 months, your EOI will expire and if you would not have been selected with 135 points, then you get rejected. Does this help?