Canada's Express Entry Reset: How Your CRS Score Changes
From 3 November 2026, Canada's Express Entry awards up to 70 extra CRS points for a year of work in a high-wage occupation and 50 to 100 points for a qualifying job offer in one, and no longer requires an LMIA to claim them. Invitation rounds are paused for up to two weeks while the immigration department (IRCC) recalculates every profile in the pool, and no restart date has been published.
Whether your score rises depends on one thing: whether your occupation is on IRCC's high-wage list. Your own salary does not count.
What changed
The change touches one part of the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS): the points for Canadian work experience and job offers, now combined into a "labour market integration factor". Everything else, including provincial nomination (600 points), French and skill transferability, is unchanged.
Until 2 November | From 3 November | |
Job offer points | An LMIA was needed to count | 50, 70 or 100 for a qualifying high-wage offer, no LMIA |
Canadian work experience | Up to 80 points (single) or 70 (with partner) for 1 to 5+ years | Same points, plus a high-wage bonus of 20, 40 or 70 |
Maximum for this factor | 80 (single), 70 (with partner) | 150 (single), 140 (with partner) |
Invitation rounds | Running | Paused for up to two weeks |
Will your score go up?
Check these four points in order. This is a reading guide to the announced rules, not immigration advice.
Is your occupation (your NOC code) on IRCC's list of high-wage occupations? If not, your points do not change.
Do you have at least 12 months, or 1,560 hours, of Canadian work experience in a listed occupation? If yes, you gain 20, 40 or 70 points depending on the occupation's level. Months can be combined across jobs.
Do you have a job offer in a listed occupation? If yes, it can be worth 50, 70 or 100 points, with no LMIA needed.
Have you both? IRCC gives you whichever route scores higher. The two are never added together.
The two new point sources
The level of your occupation sets the points, and the job-offer route pays more than the experience route at every level.
Occupation level (median wage vs national average) | Work-experience bonus (12 months) | Job-offer points |
2x or more | 70 | 100 |
1.5x to under 2x | 40 | 70 |
1.3x to under 1.5x | 20 | 50 |
Not on the list | 0 | 0 |
The experience route can reach a higher total because it adds to the existing points for years of Canadian work: 80 + 70 = 150 for a single applicant, or 70 + 70 = 140 with a partner. A job offer alone tops out at 100.
Which jobs count
An occupation counts as high-wage if the national median wage for its NOC code is at least 1.3 times the average median wage of the Canadian workforce. The test uses all workers in that occupation across Canada, so a high salary in a low-wage occupation earns nothing, and a modest salary in a listed occupation can earn the full bonus.
There are three levels: 2x, 1.5x and 1.3x. IRCC bases them on three years of wage data from Job Bank, the Labour Force Survey and the Census. Your level is fixed on the date you receive an invitation to apply, not the date you built your profile.
One immigration site counts 186 listed occupations (31 at 2x, 89 at 1.5x and 66 at 1.3x). IRCC does not publish that total, so treat it as an unofficial count and check the official list.
The pause, and what to do now
IRCC says it will automatically recalculate scores for candidates already in the pool, including points for eligible Canadian work experience, and that recalculation could take up to two weeks. Invitation rounds are paused until it finishes. Some sites say "about 17 November"; that is simply two weeks after 3 November, not an IRCC date.
The pool held 228,724 candidates on 25 October, and the last draws show how high the bar has been.
Draw | Date | Lowest score invited |
Provincial Nominee | 26 October | 761 |
French-language proficiency | 27 October | 407 |
Canadian Experience Class | 15 October | 519 |
What to do:
Look up your NOC code on IRCC's high-wage list and note its level.
Check that your profile shows your Canadian work experience and any job offer correctly.
Keep your language test, profile and any documents valid through the pause.
Watch IRCC's Express Entry page for the restart date rather than relying on forecasts.
Be wary of anyone who promises an invitation; extra points do not guarantee one.
What is not known yet
Several points are still open, and commentators disagree on some of them.
Restart date. IRCC has not published one.
Late job offers. It is unclear whether an offer added to a profile after 3 November will be scored. Law-firm guidance says candidates who want job-offer points should update their profiles before that date.
The LMIA field. IRCC's online profile still asks for an LMIA. One site reports that applicants with a genuine offer and no LMIA are told to enter a placeholder, but the timing of that instruction is unclear.
Earlier invitations. IRCC has only said the level is fixed at invitation. How earlier invitations are treated is not stated.
Unusual cases. Self-employment, offers from an applicant's own company, Quebec offers, seasonal work and split offers are not addressed, nor is the effect of a spouse's experience.
Conflicting pages. IRCC's CRS criteria page still shows the old grid, and some older pages describe the old LMIA rules. The 16 October announcement is the newer statement.
Cut-offs. No one can yet say how the changes will move cut-off scores.
Frequently asked questions
Do I still need an LMIA for Express Entry? Not to earn job-offer points. The LMIA requirement for employer-specific work permits generally stays.
How many extra points can I get? Up to 70 for experience, or 50 to 100 for a qualifying job offer, whichever scores higher.
Does my salary matter? No. Points depend on your occupation's NOC code and national wage data.
Will my score be recalculated automatically? Yes, for candidates in the pool, including eligible Canadian work experience. Job-offer information needs to be in your profile.
When do draws resume? IRCC has not said. The pause is expected to last up to two weeks from 3 November.
Does this guarantee an invitation? No. Additional points do not guarantee an invitation to apply.
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