This is because Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has a published service standard of six months for Express Entry applications making it, as the name implies, one of the fastest ways to become a permanent resident of Canada.

Receiving an invitation to apply (ITA) for permanent resident status through Express Entry is heavily dependent on a candidate’s Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score. The higher a candidate scores, the more likely it is that they will receive an ITA.

A CRS score is based on a combination of human capital factors such as age, work experience, occupation, language ability and education.

Recent Express Entry draws, especially general draws, have seen minimum CRS scores above 500. However in the current make-up of candidates in the Express Entry pool (as of February 28), there are 18,106 candidates with scores above 500.

For context, the same data shows there 211, 487 Express Entry candidates in the pool. Put another way, less than one-tenth of Express Entry candidates have high enough CRS scores to be considered for a general Express Entry draw so far in 2024.

This may lead those who have a CRS score less than 500 to wonder if it’s still worth entering the Express Entry application pool or if they are better off pursuing a different pathway to Canadian immigration.

Recent Express Entry draws

The minimum CRS score required to receive an ITA changes in each Express Entry draw and can be influenced by the type of draw (general, program-specific, or category-based).

CRS scores have shown some wide variation throughout Express Entry draws in 2024. As of March 12, there have been ten Express Entry draws.

Six of the draws were general, meaning candidates were considered from all Express Entry programs and categories. Scores for the general draws ranged from 525 to 541.

CRS scores for these draws have typically been lower than general draws, ranging from 336 to 437, depending on the category. Category-based selection draws were introduced in May 2023 as a means for IRCC to target Express Entry candidates who possess specific in-demand attributes. Five of the six categories are occupation-based for:

• Healthcare occupations
• Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professions
• Trades occupations, such as carpenters, plumbers, and contractors
• Transport occupations
• Agriculture and agri-food occupations

The remaining category is for Express Entry candidates with strong French language proficiency.

Candidates in this category saw the lowest score of the year so far (336) in a February 29 draw for 2,500 candidates. Another draw in the same category on February 1 was comparable at 7,000 ITAs issued to those with a CRS of 365.

What this means is that candidates with a CRS score that is too low for a general draw may still have a chance at getting an Express Entry ITA if they are eligible for category-based selection. Last year IRCC invited more than 16,000 Express Entry candidates in category-based draws.

What is Express Entry?

Express Entry is an application management system that oversees the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) or the Canadian Experience Class (CEC).

Those interested in applying for one of these programs must first self-evaluate if they meet the eligibility criteria for their desired program.

If so, the candidate will then need to complete and upload their Express Entry profile to obtain their Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score. Once they get a CRS score, they must wait for an ITA from IRCC.

How to improve your score

Express Entry candidates with lower scores can work on improving it while they wait for an ITA. Any update to human capital factors can be updated in their profile.

Language skills

Statistics Canada has recently published a study on the economic outcomes of skilled newcomers based on their language abilities. It found that more than any one factor, language was the biggest predictor of successful economic integration. For example, it said that immigrants who had obtained a level 10 (CLB or NCLC) reading ability earned 25% more than their counterparts with a level 7 ability.

The maximum CRS score a candidate without an accompanying spouse can get for language ability is 136 (34 points for each of the four evaluated language abilities: reading, writing, listening and speaking).

Candidates can take any of the IRCC-recognized language tests ( the Canadian Language Benchmark or Nivea de competence linguistique canadine) as many times as necessary to get their desired score, in either or both English and French.

Eligible tests include:

• CELPIP General Test
• IELTS General Training
• Pearson Test of English (PTE) Core
• TEF Canada: Test d’évaluation de français
• TCF Canada: Test de connaissance du français

Education

IRCC also gives points for increased levels of education. Candidates without an accompanying spouse who obtain a post-secondary degree of one year will receive a score of 90 for education while those who have a post-secondary degree of three years or more get 120 points.

This means that, depending on an individual’s circumstances, going back to school may be a good option for increasing an overall CRS score.

Age

Candidates who are considering applying to an Express Entry program are advised to do so sooner rather than later because younger candidates receive more points than those who wait until their 30s or 40s.

Those who enter the pool between the ages of 20 and 29 (without an accompanying spouse) will get 110 points. After a candidate turns 30, this goes down to 95 points and continues to decrease each year until 40, when the maximum points for age goes down to 50.

Provincial Nomination

Express Entry candidates who also receive a provincial nomination automatically get an additional 600 CRS points, which almost guarantees an ITA in an upcoming draw.

Those already in the Express Entry pool can apply for a nomination directly to the province in which they wish to reside or wait for the provincial government to issue an Expression of Interest (EOI) in a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) draw before applying. EOIs for nomination are similar to an ITA for Express Entry.

Through the PNP, provinces nominate the candidates who are viewed as the most likely to successfully integrate into the provincial workforce and contribute to the local economy by filling urgent job vacancies.

Each province has multiple streams that target in-demand attributes within the province. For example, provinces may target candidates with specific occupations, international graduates, entrepreneurs and some even have PNP streams for candidates who are willing to work in rural areas or on farms.

Express Entry candidates should note that the PNP is a separate immigration program and they will be required to submit a separate application and fee to the nominating province.

A nomination is not the same as getting PR but it signals to IRCC that an individual is potentially a strong candidate, which is an advantage on a PR application.

Through the Express Entry application management system, which handles immigration applications from three different economic immigration programs*, the only way to apply for Canadian PR is by receiving an ITA from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) when the department conducts an Express Entry draw.

*The Express Entry system manages applications from the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP).

Once an Express Entry candidate receives their ITA, they transition to “applicant” status and IRCC gives the individual 60 days to submit their APR.

What happens if my CRS score changes after I get an ITA?

However, in some cases, there may be a material change that impacts a candidate’s eligibility for the ITA they received from IRCC (both negatively and positively). Examples of such changes that may impact a candidate’s CRS score will be outlined below.

At this time, IRCC clarifies that “if a candidate realizes … that their circumstance has changed or that the information in their profile, [based on] which they were issued an ITA, is no longer accurate”, they have two options for how to proceed.

Option 1: Decline the ITA

Express Entry candidates who experience a change in circumstance that may have a negative impact on their CRS score are “encouraged” by IRCC to decline their ITA. Declining an ITA is the only way for candidates to revise the information in their Express Entry profile.

A negative change in circumstance can mean anything that either negatively impacts a candidate’s ability to meet the minimum entry criteria (MEC) for the program they applied to or drops their recalculated CRS score below the minimum CRS score for their round of invitations.

Option 2: Proceed with submitting the APR

Candidates who experience a change in circumstance but do not want to decline their ITA may still submit their APR to IRCC. However, it is important to remain aware that candidates who choose to continue with their application are responsible for ensuring that the change in circumstance is properly reflected in their APR.

This means that, whether the change in circumstance was positive or negative, the candidate must take the time at this stage of the process to correct the information that IRCC brought over from their Express Entry profile to their APR before submitting the application.

Examples of changes that may affect your CRS score

The following outlines different ways that a change in circumstance may affect an applicant’s CRS score after they receive an ITA.

The applicant’s CRS score may increase if they:

• Graduate from a higher level of schooling
• Reach the threshold for an additional year of Canadian work experience
• Obtain a certificate of qualification
• Improve their language test scores

The applicant’s CRS score may decrease if they:

• Retake their language test after their original scores expire but complete the test with lower results
• Lose a qualifying offer of arranged employment

An applicant’s CRS score may either increase or decrease depending on the addition of a spouse or common-law partner to their Express Entry application. This addition may positively or negatively impact the CRS score of a principal applicant because their score can either increase or decrease based on the human capital of their spouse or partner.

Note: One change for which applicants are not penalized as it relates to their CRS score after receiving an ITA is if their birthday occurs after their ITA was issued. Although age is a prominent factor in the human capital section of an applicant’s CRS score calculation, IRCC provides an exemption that prevents ITA recipients from losing CRS points in this case.

What happens when you decline an ITA from IRCC

When an Express Entry applicant declines their ITA, they are returned to “candidate” status.

At this time, the candidate’s profile will be returned to the Express Entry pool and remain active for as long as the profile maintains its validity. Once a profile returns to the candidate pool, the candidate will be able to update their profile information and they will continue to be considered for a new ITA in future Express Entry draws as long as they continue to meet the MEC.

Though Canada has demographic and integration reasons to require that newcomers demonstrate these language abilities, they also act as powerful predictive factors of immigrant success in Canada (which is a key reason why they are included under the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS)—Canada’s scoring system for assessing immigration candidates).

A recent study by Statistics Canada helped illuminate the effects of language ability on immigrant income, by correlating the scores of approved language tests (for Canadian immigration) with the economic outcomes of immigrants accepted under the Express Entry system, in the years following their landing in Canada.

How is an immigrant’s language ability assessed under the Express Entry system?

Newcomers under the Express Entry must take approved language tests to determine their ability in at least one of Canada’s two official languages (English and French). These tests assess a candidate’s reading, writing, speaking, and listening abilities in a language.

To be eligible under Express Entry’s three programs (the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), and the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP)), candidates must meet different language ability criteria to be eligible for the respective stream:

Under the CEC candidates must receive at least a CLB or NCLC level 7 in all language abilities—if their job meets a National Occupation Classification (NOC) Training Education Experience and Responsibilities (TEER) 0 or 1. If their occupation is a NOC TEER level 2 or 3, they must meet a CLB or NCLC level 5 in all language abilities;

Under the FSWP candidates must receive at least a CLB or NCLC level 7 in all language abilities; and

Under the FSTP candidates need a CLB or NCLC level 5 for speaking and listening, and level 4 in reading and writing.

How did differing language abilities impact immigrant success in the years after initial landing?

The study by Statistics Canada found that all four tested language abilities had positive effects on an immigrant’s income in the years after landing, with the effect increasing as the tested language ability of a newcomer increased (in all four abilities).

Among these language abilities, reading seemed to have the strongest effect on earnings—however, the differences between the effect of individual language abilities on earnings were largely the same with little difference between them.

For example, the study found that immigrants with a level 10 (CLB or NCLC) reading ability earned 25% more when compared to immigrants with a level 7. Immigrants with a level 10 listening ability earned 18% more than their level 7 counterparts; increased speaking ability (using the same two levels as a comparison) earned newcomers 19% more while writing ability earned 22% more. The study notes that clear differences in earnings for all abilities only appeared from level 6 or above in each skill, with no noticeable difference between CLB or NCLC levels 5 to 6 in the earnings of newcomers.

However, none of these language abilities, alone or together had predictive ability in determining whether an immigrant could find employment, suggesting that other factors assessed in the CRS likely had a larger impact on finding work in Canada after landing.

How does language ability stack up against other factors assessed under the CRS?

Canada’s CRS assesses multiple human capital factors of an immigration candidate to determine how successful they are likely to be in settling and integrating into Canadian society. Specifically, these are:

• Language ability;
• Pre-landing Canadian work experience;
• Education; and
• Age.

According to the results of this study, language ability was one of the most important human capital factors in predicting immigrant success—even when compared to other factors.

Specifically, tested language ability was as important as pre-landing Canadian work experience (thought to be the most impactful factor in short-, medium-, and long-term earnings of newcomers). In addition, language ability was found to be “much more important” than education level and age at immigration in predicting the earnings of newcomers in the initial years after landing.

In addition, language abilities helped explain differences in immigrant earnings based on nationality. Though some differences in earnings are usually observable based on an immigrant’s source country, when language abilities were standardized across these groups, differences in earnings were greatly reduced—indicating that much of this difference to begin with could likely be explained by varying proficiencies in English or French.

Language ability was even able to standardize differences in economic outcomes among Express Entry’s three programs. This is significant, as traditionally CEC candidates tend to perform the best economically in Canada (thought largely to be due to their abundance of pre-landing Canadian work experience, and Canadian education)—however when controlling for language ability the difference in earnings between candidates in the CEC, FSTP, and FSWP reduced by two thirds—indicating that language ability was again significant in earnings in years after landing.

How can newcomers use this information?

Based on the results of this study, newcomers to Canada would do well to invest heavily into their language abilities—not just in establishing writing, reading speaking, and listening capacity, but also in continually developing and refining their language skills—especially if English or French is their second language. Doing so could have an outsized effect on their earnings shortly after landing in Canada; a result which could subsequently snowball into greater success throughout their Canadian immigration journey.

Notably, the study did have limitations that newcomers may want to consider—specifically the focus on Express Entry candidates, and lack of consideration towards Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) candidates may skew incomes and effects of language proficiency.

Now is the time to start your job search with confidence. With helpful guidance and a positive approach, you can make the journey to employment more productive and boost your chances of success. Simply follow these helpful tips to kickstart your job search.

1. Build a Resume for the Canadian Job Market

Landing a job in Canada begins with tailoring your resume to fit a Canadian style resume . Ensure to highlight your relevant skills, education, and work experience for each job application in a way that is customized for the exact role. Be sure to include your achievements and qualifications that are aligned with the job description. It’s a good idea to learn about job seeker best practices and Canadian employer expectations. This will improve your chances of securing interviews and landing the job.

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2. Get Networking

Making connections in Canada is a powerful way for job seekers to get ahead. Engage with seasoned professionals in your field through online and in-person events and industry associations. Remember: someone in these networks may have a lead on a fantastic job or might connect you with the right person who can propel your career forward. Networking not only keeps you informed about the latest industry trends, but also allows you to learn valuable insights from experienced Canadian professionals working in the field today. It’s a great way to inspire and jumpstart your own professional journey. 

3. Tap into Employment Services, Job Sites, and Job Fairs

Discover the many resources available for job seekers in Canada like you. Consider registering for one of the free employment services provided by the Government of Canada. These services help you connect with employers and provide a wide list of job opportunities across the country. Leveraging popular job sites are also helpful, as employers actively look for candidates there. Make it a priority, as well, to attend some job fairs, whether virtual or in person in your area; these career events are a good way to directly connect with employers and learn about job openings. By using these services, fairs, and online platforms, you can significantly expand your reach and increase your chances of finding suitable employment fast.

4. Assess Your Credentials

As a newcomer to Canada, you may need to verify your qualifications to secure a job. Ensure your professional credentials are recognized in Canada by checking with organizations like the Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials (CICIC). This step is useful for a smooth transition into the Canadian workforce.

5. Elevate Your Resume: Certification and Volunteer Experience

You can also boost your job search by acquiring a Canadian certification in your chosen field. It’s a great idea to enroll in courses or programs aligned with the Canadian job market to expand and validate your skills, knowledge, and experience to potential employers. This will show potential employers your dedication to continuous learning and can significantly improve your employability.

Another great way to gain Canadian work experience and grow your network is through volunteering. Many organizations appreciate the skills and dedication newcomers bring as volunteers. Doing volunteer work not only highlights your abilities and enhances your skillset, but also demonstrates your commitment to making a positive impact in your community. Participating in relevant volunteer opportunities can provide valuable experience and even secure references to enhance your resume.

6. Seek out the Right Mentor

Additionally, you can accelerate your job search in Canada by finding the right mentor, one with industry experience who is eager to guide and support you in your professional journey. A good mentor can offer you valuable insights, career advice, and assistance in navigating the Canadian job market. In sharing their experiences and perspectives, they can help you set realistic goals and expectations. Cultivating a strong mentor-mentee relationship is crucial for overcoming challenges and accessing new opportunities.

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By embracing these insights, you can enhance your chances of finding a suitable job in Canada. Remember to stay persistent, learn about the local job market, and maintain a positive outlook throughout your job search journey. As a newcomer, your unique skills, diverse perspectives, and strong work ethic are all assets that can benefit a Canadian employer. With the right approach and a confident mindset, you’re well on your way to achieving professional success in Canada.

Why Choose TD?

150 years helping Canadians

TD has a proud history of delivering financial solutions to Canadians for more than 150 years. TD also brings a century of experience helping newcomers navigate the unique challenges of the Canadian banking system.

With over a thousand branches, a reputation for excellence in financial services, and the ability to also serve you in more than 60 different languages, TD has become one of the largest and most trusted banks in Canada, now serving 16 million Canadians.

TD offers online support and resources of interest to newcomers on topics such as banking basics, moving to Canada, credit score essentials, and more. TD is open longer hours for your convenience and has thousands of ATMs across Canada to help you take care of your everyday banking needs quickly and easily.

Ready to Bank?

Learn more about TD New to Canada Banking Package today.

Book an appointment to talk with a TD Personal Banking Associate about the TD New to Canada Banking Package. You can book online right away, or visit the TD website to learn more.

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The department invited 150 candidates in a category-based selection draw for agriculture and agri-food occupations.

Candidates required a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 437.

Get a Free Express Entry Assessment

Today’s draw follows two others this week. The first was a general draw that occurred on February 13 in which 1,490 candidates with a minimum CRS score of at least 535 received ITAs. 

On February 14, IRCC issued ITAs to 3,500 candidates in a category-based selection draw for health care occupations. Candidates needed a minimum CRS score of 422 to be considered. 

Another category-based selection draw occurred on February 1 inviting 7,000 candidates with strong French language proficiency.  It was the largest draw of the year so far.  

There were three general draws in January inviting a total of 3,280 candidates. The minimum CRS score for these draws ranged between 546 and 541. 

Summary of Express Entry draw results in 2024

What is category-based selection?

In May 2023 IRCC introduced category-based selection rounds of invitations. The department created six new categories targeting specific human capital attributes. One category is for candidates who can demonstrate proficiency in the French language. The remaining five categories are occupation-based for:

• Healthcare occupations
• Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professions
• Trades occupations, such as carpenters, plumbers, and contractors
• Transport occupations
• Agriculture and agri-food occupations

Candidates must be eligible for an Express Entry program and have an application in the pool through one of the three programs to be considered for category-based selection.

These categories were chosen following consultations with stakeholders such as provincial and territorial governments, employers, immigration researchers and settlement services to assess the most critical gaps in Canada’s labor force and target the candidates who are best suited to fill vacant positions.

What is Express Entry?

Express Entry is an application management system that oversees three economic immigration programs for skilled workers: the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Canadian Experience Class and the Federal Skilled Trades Program.

These programs use the Comprehensive Ranking System to evaluate candidates based on their human capital factors such as language ability, work experience, occupation, education, and age. Each factor is assigned a score, the scores are added together, and the result is a candidate’s overall CRS score.

Once a candidate has a CRS score, they are entered into the Express Entry application pool and ranked against other candidates. The candidates with the highest CRS scores are the most likely to receive an invitation in an upcoming Express Entry draw.

Candidates who receive an ITA have 60 days to submit their final application to IRCC for permanent resident status in Canada.