Start with the thing that makes most guides to this subject wrong. A job offer is worth nothing in the Comprehensive Ranking System. IRCC removed the points for arranged employment on 25 March 2025. Before that a senior management offer carried 200 points and other skilled offers carried 50. Now both carry zero.
If a page tells you which jobs give the most Express Entry points, it is describing the rules as they were before that date. This matters beyond being out of date: people pay large sums for job offers backed by a Labour Market Impact Assessment, and the points were the reason. If someone is selling you an offer on that basis today, they are selling you something that no longer exists.
What replaced it is Express Entry category based draws, and the way to get invited now is to be in a category IRCC is inviting from.
What category based selection actually is
A general Express Entry round invites the highest scoring candidates in the pool, whatever they do. A category based round invites only candidates with experience in a particular set of occupations, and invites them at a lower score than the general round usually needs. Being in a category is worth more than any number of points you could have scraped from a job offer, because it changes which pool you are competing in.
IRCC announced the 2026 categories in February. The ones confirmed for 2026:
| Category | Examples IRCC gave |
|---|---|
| Health care and social services | Nurse practitioners, dentists, pharmacists, psychologists, chiropractors |
| Trades | Carpenters, plumbers, machinists |
| Transport | Pilots, aircraft mechanics and inspectors |
| Researchers and senior managers | Requires Canadian work experience. New for 2026, on the reasoning that some occupations need years of experience to contribute |
| Foreign medical doctors | A dedicated new category, requiring Canadian work experience |
Note what two of the new categories have in common: they require Canadian work experience. The direction of travel in 2026 is towards people already in the country, which is worth knowing if you are applying from abroad.
The change that will catch people out
Alongside the new categories, IRCC raised the minimum work experience for every renewed category from six months to one full year. It can be gained in Canada or abroad, but it has to fall within the previous three years.
If you were counting on six months of eligible experience to get into a category, you no longer qualify. That is the single most likely reason a candidate who was eligible in 2025 is not eligible now, and it will not show up as a rejection: you simply will not be invited.
What does raise your CRS score
With arranged employment gone, the levers that remain are the ones that were always the largest. In rough order of how much they move the number, and all set out on IRCCs CRS criteria page:
- A provincial nomination, worth 600 points. Nothing else comes close. A nomination effectively guarantees an invitation, which is why the provincial programmes are worth pursuing in parallel rather than instead.
- Language, and it is not close for second. Moving from CLB 7 to CLB 9 across all four abilities is worth more than most people expect, and it is the only major factor you can change in a few months. Retake the test.
- French. Strong French adds points of its own and opens the French language proficiency rounds, which have historically invited at much lower scores.
- Canadian work experience and Canadian education. Both score directly, and both feed the categories that now require Canadian experience.
- Your spouse’s language and education, if you are applying together. Commonly ignored and worth real points.
General rounds in 2026 have been clearing in the low to mid 500s, with category rounds often landing below that. Those figures move every round and come from tracking services rather than from IRCC, so treat them as a rough sense of the bar rather than a target.
Questions people are still asking
Do I need a job offer for Express Entry?
No, and you never strictly did. What has changed is that having one no longer helps your score either. A job offer is still useful for some provincial programmes, and it is obviously how you end up employed, but it adds nothing to your CRS.
I paid for an LMIA backed job offer. Is it worthless?
For CRS purposes, yes. It may still support a provincial nomination or a work permit, so it is not necessarily wasted, but it will not move your Express Entry score. If it was sold to you specifically for the points, that was sold to you after the points were gone.
I already had an invitation. Am I affected?
No. Candidates who had already received an invitation to apply, or whose permanent residence application was already in progress, were not affected by the removal. It changed the scores of everyone still sitting in the pool.
Is the removal permanent?
IRCC described it as a temporary measure and has not said when it will end. Treat it as the current rule and do not plan around it coming back.
Does my job offer need to be in the province I want to live in?
For Express Entry itself this no longer matters, because the offer is not being scored. For a provincial nomination it matters a great deal, since a province nominates you to live and work there.
Can I change jobs after getting permanent residence?
Yes. Permanent residence is not tied to an employer. This was true before the change and is still true.
How to work out where you stand
- Find your occupation’s NOC code and TEER level. Categories are defined by code, not by job title, and this is where most self assessments go wrong.
- Check that code against the current category list, and check whether you have a full year of experience in it within the last three years.
- Calculate your CRS honestly, without any points for a job offer.
- If you are short, book a language retake before you spend money on anything else. It is the cheapest points on the board.
- Apply to provincial programmes in parallel. A nomination is worth more than everything else combined.
For the mechanics of the system itself, our guide to the Canadian Express Entry system covers profiles, pools and invitations, and the three feeder programmes are covered separately: Federal Skilled Worker, Federal Skilled Trades and the Canadian Experience Class.
And since two of the 2026 categories now require Canadian experience, getting into the country on a work permit first has become the more realistic route for many people. Browse shortage jobs with visa sponsorship to start from that end.
Last checked September 2026. Categories are set annually and draw cut offs change every round. IRCC has described the removal of arranged employment points as temporary without naming an end date, so confirm the current position before relying on it.
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