Express Entry

Express Entry is not an immigration program. It is the system IRCC uses to manage applications under three federal economic immigration programs, as well as certain streams of the Provincial Nominee Program, and to rank eligible candidates.

That distinction matters, because meeting a program’s requirements only gets you into the pool. Being invited to apply is a separate question, determined by your CRS score, the type of invitation round, and the other eligible candidates competing for an invitation.

All three federal programs also require that you intend to live outside Quebec, which selects its own economic immigrants under a separate agreement with the federal government.

The three programs

Federal Skilled Worker

Skilled work experience, in Canada or anywhere else

One year of continuous, paid, full‑time work, or an equivalent amount of continuous part‑time work totalling 1,560 hours, within the last ten years. Only up to 30 hours a week counts toward that total, so a year of 60‑hour weeks does not compress into six months.

The work must be in TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 and in the same NOC as the occupation you claim as your primary occupation. You must have performed the actions in the lead statement and a substantial number of the main duties, including all the essential duties.

Language: CLB 7 in English or NCLC 7 in French, in all four abilities
Education: At least a completed Canadian secondary school credential, or a foreign equivalent supported by an Educational Credential Assessment
Selection grid: A separate 67‑point grid, distinct from the CRS, scoring language, education, experience, age, arranged employment and adaptability. You need at least 67 out of 100 to qualify
Settlement funds: Required, unless you qualify for an exemption

Canadian Experience Class

Skilled work experience gained inside Canada

One year of paid, full‑time work, or an equivalent amount of part‑time work totalling 1,560 hours, in Canada within the three years before you apply. The work must be in TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3, and must have been performed while you held temporary resident status and were authorized to work.

Unlike the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the experience does not need to be continuous, and it can be accumulated across more than one eligible occupation.

Self‑employment, and work gained while a full‑time student, generally do not count toward the minimum requirement, subject to specific exceptions.

Language: CLB or NCLC 7 for TEER 0 and 1 occupations; CLB or NCLC 5 for TEER 2 and 3
Education: No requirement
Settlement funds: No requirement

Federal Skilled Trades

Experience in a designated skilled trade

Two years of paid, full‑time work, or an equivalent amount of part‑time work totalling 3,120 hours, in an eligible skilled trade within the last five years. The trade must fall within the specific NOC groups designated for this program, a narrower set than TEER 0 to 3.

The experience must have been gained in a country where you were qualified to practise the trade independently, and you must meet the applicable occupational requirements.

Language: CLB or NCLC 5 for speaking and listening; CLB or NCLC 4 for reading and writing
Offer or certificate: Either a valid full‑time job offer for at least one year, which may come from up to two employers, or a certificate of qualification in your trade issued by a Canadian provincial, territorial or federal authority
Education: No requirement
Settlement funds: Required, unless you qualify for an exemption

How the system works

You create a profile, which places you in the pool if you meet the requirements of one of the three federal programs. A profile is generally valid for twelve months.

IRCC then holds invitation rounds, and invites the highest‑ranking candidates who qualify for each round. The cut‑off score you see reported afterwards reflects the score of the lowest‑ranked candidate invited, rather than a threshold set in advance. Where candidates share the same score at the cut‑off, a tie‑breaking rule applies, based on when their profiles were submitted.

A high score does not help in a round you are not eligible for. A candidate with 550 points who does not qualify under the Canadian Experience Class will not be invited in a CEC‑only round that cuts off at 510.

If you receive an invitation to apply, you have 60 days to submit your complete permanent residence application with the required supporting documents.

The profile is a claim. The application is the proof.

The information used to establish your eligibility and your CRS score must be supported by the required evidence at the application stage. If a claim cannot be substantiated and your corrected score falls below the cut‑off for your invitation round, or you no longer meet the program requirements, your application may be refused. Inaccurate information can also raise misrepresentation concerns.

Category‑based selection

Some invitation rounds are restricted to candidates who meet the requirements of a particular category. Candidates within that category are ranked by CRS score, and the highest‑ranking eligible candidates are invited. These rounds may have different cut‑off scores from general or program‑specific rounds.

French‑language proficiency
Healthcare and social services
STEM occupations
Trade occupations
Education occupations
Transport occupations
Physicians Canadian work experience
Senior managers Canadian work experience
Researchers Canadian work experience
Skilled military recruits Separate requirements

What each category asks for

For most occupational categories, you need at least twelve months of full‑time work experience, or its part‑time equivalent, within the preceding three years, in a single occupation on that category’s list. The experience does not need to be continuous, and it does not have to be your primary occupation.

Healthcare and social services, STEM, trades, education and transport accept qualifying Canadian or foreign work experience
Physicians, senior managers and researchers require Canadian work experience
French‑language proficiency works differently: it requires at least NCLC 7 in all four language abilities
Skilled military recruits have separate service, education and job‑offer requirements, rather than a twelve‑month occupational test

Whichever category applies, you must still qualify under one of the three federal programs and meet the requirements of the particular invitation round.

The occupational lists are built from specific NOC codes, not broad fields. An occupation that sounds as though it belongs in a category may not be on its list, and one that sounds unrelated sometimes is. IRCC establishes and announces categories in advance, but the categories and their requirements can change over time.

What is worth checking first

Before building a profile, it is worth settling four things: which of the three programs you actually qualify under, how your occupation maps to a NOC code, whether the work experience you are counting can be documented the way IRCC expects, and whether your CRS score gives you a realistic prospect of receiving an invitation.

A score built on an optimistic reading of your eligibility, your occupation or your work experience is fragile. The right starting point is not the CRS calculator. It is understanding which claims you can actually substantiate.

Reviewed 11 November 2026 against the Ministerial Instructions in force from 3 November 2026.

What changed in the CRS on 3 November 2026

IRCC replaced part of the Comprehensive Ranking System with a new Labour Market Integration factor. Points for job offers, which were removed on 25 March 2025, have been reintroduced for high‑wage occupations. Profiles created before 3 November 2026 are being rescored under the new rules, and the overall CRS maximum has risen to 1,270 points.

The factor pays for one thing or the other

The Labour Market Integration factor is worth up to 150 points for a candidate with no accompanying spouse or common‑law partner, and 140 points for a candidate with one.

It awards the greater of your Canadian work experience points and your qualifying job offer points. The two are not added together. This is the part of the change most often misread: a job offer worth 100 points does not raise a score by 100 points unless the candidate’s Canadian work experience was worth less than that.

A candidate with no accompanying spouse	Canadian experience	The factor awards
1 year in an occupation not on the high‑wage list, plus a top‑level job offer	40	100
1 year at the top wage level, plus a top‑level job offer	110	110
5 years at the top wage level, plus a top‑level job offer	150	150

Each candidate above holds the same job offer, worth 100 points on its own. In the first case it adds 60 points. In the second and third it adds nothing, because the Canadian work experience score is already higher.

“High‑wage” is about the occupation, not your salary

Under the Ministerial Instructions, a high‑wage occupation is one whose median wage is at least 1.3 times the median wage of the entire Canadian workforce. IRCC works out which occupations meet that test and publishes them in its high‑wage occupations list.

Eligibility for these points turns on the occupation’s NOC code, not on what you personally earn. A high salary in an occupation that is not on the list attracts no points under this factor, and a modest salary in an occupation that is on the list does not cost you them.

The three wage levels

The occupation’s median wage	Job offer	Canadian experience bonus
At least 2 times the workforce median	100	70
At least 1.5 but less than 2 times	70	40
At least 1.3 but less than 1.5 times	50	20
Not an eligible high‑wage occupation	0	0

Canadian work experience

Points for the length of Canadian work experience are unchanged, and so are the rules on what counts: 40 points for one year rising to 80 for five or more, without an accompanying spouse, and 35 rising to 70 with one. The high‑wage bonus in the table above sits on top of those.

For CRS purposes, qualifying Canadian work experience is assessed over the preceding ten years. That is a different period from the three years used to establish eligibility under the Canadian Experience Class, and the two are easily confused.

How a year built from different wage levels is scored

The high‑wage bonus needs at least one year of Canadian experience in high‑wage occupations. It does not have to be a year in a single occupation, and it does not have to be continuous.

Where the year is made up of time at more than one wage level, the points follow the lowest level in the mix. A year made of six months at the top level and six months at the middle level is awarded at the middle level.

There is also a difference in how overlapping jobs are treated. For length points, work beyond full time and simultaneous full‑time jobs count as a single period of full‑time work. For the high‑wage bonus, simultaneous periods are assessed as distinct periods instead.

What makes a job offer qualify

Not every offer counts. A qualifying offer is for full‑time work in Canada — at least 30 hours a week — continuing for at least one year from the day a permanent resident visa is issued, rather than from the date of the offer.

For TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 occupations, the offer must come from a single employer, and the work must be paid by wages or commission
For a skilled trade, the offer may come from up to two employers
For physicians in NOC 31100, 31101 or 31102 who will provide publicly funded medical services, a separate provision applies
An offer from an embassy, high commission or consulate in Canada does not qualify

An officer still assesses whether the offer is genuine

That assessment looks at whether the employer is actively engaged in the business, whether the offer is consistent with the employer’s reasonable needs, whether its terms can reasonably be fulfilled, whether you are qualified to do the work, and whether the employer has complied with employment and recruitment law.

An offer that is revoked stops being a qualifying offer.

The LMIA requirement

Two things changed here, through two different legal mechanisms, and it is worth keeping them apart.

The amended Ministerial Instructions removed any LMIA requirement for a job offer to attract CRS points. Holding one earns nothing extra
A separate temporary public policy removes LMIA‑related requirements for job offers used to establish Federal Skilled Worker or Federal Skilled Trades eligibility, subject to the conditions of that policy
The offer may be for a new or existing position, with a new or existing employer

These changes are confined to Express Entry. They do not remove LMIA requirements that may apply to an employer‑specific work permit. An employer who reads this as the abolition of the LMIA has misread it.

Eligibility and points are two separate tests

A job offer used to establish program eligibility does not have to be in a high‑wage occupation. It does have to meet the requirements of the particular program.

Under the Federal Skilled Worker Program, qualifying arranged employment contributes to the 67‑point selection grid. It does not substitute for the work experience, language or education requirements.

Under the Federal Skilled Trades Program, a qualifying offer can satisfy the employment‑offer requirement for an applicant who holds no Canadian certificate of qualification.

An offer can therefore establish eligibility while attracting no CRS job offer points at all.

CRS is math. Eligibility is law.

A job offer may help you qualify for a program, raise your CRS score, do both, or do neither. Which rules apply to your circumstances matters more than adding up the points.

The high‑wage occupations list

The initial list, effective 3 November 2026, holds 186 NOC codes — 31 at the top wage level, 89 at the middle level and 66 at the lowest qualifying level. Only ten are TEER 3 occupations, and none are TEER 4 or TEER 5, so a great many skilled and hands‑on roles attract no points under this factor even at a strong wage.

The list is built from Job Bank, Labour Force Survey and Census data for the three years before it was published, and IRCC may update it. The level that applies to you is the one on the list at the time your invitation is issued. See IRCC’s high‑wage occupations list →

Profiles where the job offer has no LMIA

IRCC’s online profile form has not yet caught up with the change, and still asks whether a positive LMIA was issued. IRCC has published temporary instructions for candidates whose qualifying job offer is not supported by one.

As at 11 November 2026, IRCC instructs these candidates to answer Yes to the positive LMIA question in the Work history section, and to enter the following placeholder details:

LMIA number — 00000
Issuance date — 1 January 2026
Expiry date — 1 January 2029

These are temporary entries authorised by IRCC for the Express Entry profile form. They do not represent an actual LMIA, and they do not establish authorisation to work in Canada. Because IRCC may change or withdraw them once the system is updated, check IRCC’s current instructions before relying on them rather than a version copied from elsewhere. See IRCC’s instructions →

Recalculation, and reading cut‑off scores

When the changes took effect on 3 November 2026, IRCC began recalculating existing Express Entry profiles under the revised CRS. It advised that the process could take up to two weeks, and that invitation rounds would be suspended while it ran.

Because the revised scoring changes the distribution of scores across the whole pool, cut‑off scores from rounds held before 3 November 2026 are not a reliable guide to the rounds that follow. A recalculated score is better read against the results of rounds held after the recalculation. Figures on this page follow the Ministerial Instructions and IRCC’s published guidance as at November 2026, and are subject to change.