CRS Rule Changes
This page records changes to the Comprehensive Ranking System and when our calculator was updated. We check IRCC's criteria page and the official calculator automatically every day.
2025-03-25: Job offer points removed
IRCC stopped awarding CRS points for job offers (arranged employment) for current and future candidates. Previously a job offer in NOC TEER 0 Major Group 00 was worth 200 points and other skilled job offers 50 points. Scores in profiles may take a few days to update.
What it meant for candidates
- Candidates who had a qualifying job offer lost 50 points (or 200 for senior management offers), with no change to any other factor.
- Candidates without a job offer kept the same score, but moved up relative to those who lost points.
- A job offer can still matter outside the CRS: some provincial nominee streams require one, and a nomination is worth 600 points.
- Calculators that still ask about job offers — several popular ones did when we checked in October 2026 — overstate scores for those candidates.
How Express Entry round types have changed
Points are only half the story: who gets invited also depends on which round types IRCC runs. The table below is built from IRCC's published rounds of invitations and updates automatically after every draw. Category-based rounds (by occupation or French ability) only started in 2023; since then, a score that is too low for a general or CEC round can still be enough in a category round you qualify for.
| Round type | First round | Latest round | Rounds | Invitations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General (all programs) | Jan 31, 2015 | Apr 23, 2024 | 178 | 516,117 |
| Canadian Experience Class | Feb 20, 2015 | Sep 29, 2026 | 70 | 252,317 |
| Provincial Nominee Program | Nov 30, 2016 | Sep 28, 2026 | 114 | 71,384 |
| Federal Skilled Trades Program | May 26, 2017 | Aug 6, 2020 | 7 | 3,055 |
| Federal Skilled Worker Program | Feb 2, 2023 | Feb 2, 2023 | 1 | 3,300 |
| Healthcare and social services occupations | Jun 28, 2023 | Sep 4, 2026 | 16 | 41,850 |
| STEM occupations | Jul 5, 2023 | Apr 11, 2024 | 3 | 10,900 |
| French-language proficiency | Jul 7, 2023 | Aug 19, 2026 | 36 | 130,200 |
| Trades occupations | Aug 3, 2023 | Oct 1, 2026 | 7 | 13,850 |
| Transport occupations | Sep 20, 2023 | Aug 7, 2026 | 4 | 2,945 |
| Agriculture and agri-food occupations | Sep 28, 2023 | Feb 16, 2024 | 3 | 1,150 |
| Education occupations | May 1, 2025 | Sep 17, 2025 | 2 | 3,500 |
| Physicians with Canadian work experience | Feb 19, 2026 | Sep 3, 2026 | 3 | 891 |
| Senior managers with Canadian work experience | Mar 5, 2026 | Sep 16, 2026 | 3 | 1,000 |
| Skilled military recruits | Jul 23, 2026 | Jul 23, 2026 | 1 | 4 |
What to do when the rules change
- Your profile score is recalculated by IRCC; you do not need to resubmit, but check that the new score matches what you expect.
- Re-check your score in the CRS calculator and compare it with the latest cut-offs for the round types you qualify for.
- Rely on IRCC's own announcements for effective dates — news articles and social media posts often get them wrong.
How we keep the calculator accurate
- Every points table is transcribed from IRCC's CRS criteria page.
- Our scoring engine is tested against the scoring code of IRCC's own calculator on thousands of random profiles on every update.
- A daily job compares IRCC's published tables with ours and alerts us when anything changes.
Spotted a difference? Tell us.