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5. Calculating your CRS score

You need to calculate your Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score out of 1,200

Home > Work in Canada > Permanent Residency > Express Entry: The Ultimate Guide > Express Entry: Step-by-Step Guide > 5. Calculating your CRS score

All applicants who create their Express Entry profile are given a score, out of 1,200, based on factors that play an important role in the economic success of the newcomers once they migrate to Canada. These factors include your job experience, language skills (English and/or French), education, approved Job offer, provincial nomination etc.

Overview of the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS)

Express Entry candidates are given a score out of 1,200 based on the four major sections:

A. Core / human capital factors: these include points for Age, Education, Canadian Work Experience and Language proficiency. These are considered as key to economic success for immigrants.

B. Spouse or common-law partner factors: these include Spouse or common-law partner’s Language proficiency, Education, and Canadian Work Experience.

C. Skills transferability: this section provides additional points to your profile that are based on combination of factors, e.g a combination of your Education, Language proficiency, and/or Non-Canadian Work Experience.

D. Additional points: This section awards 600 additional points for a Provincial nomination, and other additional points for a valid job offer, etc..

The table below summarizes the maximum points that can be awarded for each factor. Be careful to look into each factor's detailed tab to calculate your CRS score.

Section/Factor	Maximum CRS points with a spouse or partner	Maximum CRS points without a spouse or partner
A. Core / human capital factors
Age	100	110
Level of education	140	150
Language proficiency	150	160
Canadian work experience	70	80
Total A.	460	500

B. Spouse or common-law partner factors
Level of education	10	N.A.
Language proficiency	20	N.A.
Canadian work experience	10	N.A.
Total B.	40	N.A.

C. Skill transferability factors
Combination of (i) Education and (ii) Language proficiency OR Canadian work experience	50	50
Combination of (i) Non-Canadian work experience and (ii) Language proficiency OR Canadian work experience	50	50
Combination of (i) a Certificate of qualification and (ii) Language proficiency	50	50
Total C.	100	100

D. Additional points
Brother or sister living in Canada (citizen or permanent resident)	15	15
French Language skills	30	30
Arranged employment	200	200
Provincial nomination	600	600
Total D.	600	600
TOTAL A + B + C + D	1200	1200

Section A. Core / human capital factors (Max points: 460 with spouse, 500 without)

Age (Max points: 100 with spouse, 110 without)

Age	CRS points with a spouse or partner	CRS points without a spouse or partner
17 years old or younger	0	0
18 years old	90	99
19 years old	95	105
20 to 29 years old	100	110
30 years old	95	105
31 years old	90	99
32 years old	85	94
33 years old	80	88
34 years old	75	83
35 years old	70	77
36 years old	65	72
37 years old	60	66
38 years old	55	61
39 years old	50	55
40 years old	45	50
41 years old	35	39
42 years old	25	28
43 years old	15	17
44 years old	5	6
45 years old or older	0	0

Level of education (Max points: 140 with spouse, 150 without)

For more information on how to get your Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) for your non-Canadian diploma, check this ECA page.

Points are only awarded for the highest level of education obtained.

Level of education	CRS points with a spouse or partner	CRS points without a spouse or partner
Doctoral level university degree (Ph.D.)	140	150
Master's degree, OR professional degree needed to practice in a licensed profession	126	135
Two or more certificates, diplomas, or degrees. One must be for a program of three or more years	119	128
Bachelor's degree OR a three or more year program at a university, college, trade or technical school, or other institute	112	120
Two-year program at a university, college, trade or technical school, or other institute	91	98
One-year degree, diploma or certificate from a university, college, trade or technical school, or other institute	84	90
Secondary diploma (high school graduation)	28	30
Less than secondary school (high school)	0	0

For “professional degree,” the degree program must have been in: medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, optometry, law, chiropractic medicine, or pharmacy.

Language proficiency (Max points: 150 with spouse, 160 without)

You can choose your first official language if you take the French and English test. The tests where you scored the best marks is the one you should take as your first official language. For more information, you should check this language test page.

For your first official language, the following conversion table lets you know how many CRS points you can claim based on your test results. This table is per ability, so for example, if you got a Canadian Level Benchmark (CLB) 7 for the four abilities (speaking, reading, listening, writing) and are single, you will get 17 x 4 = 68 points.

First Official Language Canadian Level Benchmark (per ability)	CRS points with a spouse or partner	CRS points without a spouse or partner
Less than CLB 4	0	0
CLB 4 or 5	6	6
CLB 6	8	9
CLB 7	16	17
CLB 8	22	23
CLB 9	29	31
CLB 10 or more	32	34

For the second official language, the following conversion table lets you know how many CRS points you can earn, per ability.

CRS points with a spouse or partner cannot exceed 22 points.

Second Official Language Canadian Level Benchmark (per ability)	CRS points with a spouse or partner	CRS points without a spouse or partner
Less than CLB 5	0	0
CLB 5 or 6	1	1
CLB 7 or 8	3	3
CLB 9 or more	6	6

Canadian work experience (Max points: 70 with spouse, 80 without)

You need to find your NOC here first, and then check if you job experience in that NOC is eligible here.

Canadian Work Experience	CRS points with a spouse or partner	CRS points without a spouse or partner
None or less than a year	0	0
1 year	35	40
2 years	46	53
3 years	56	64
4 years	63	72
5 years	70	80

Section B. Spouse or common-law partner factor (Max 40 points)

Level of education (Max 10 points)

For more information on how to get an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) for a non-Canadian diploma, check this ECA page.

Points are only awarded for the highest level of education obtained.

Spouse’s Level of education	CRS points with a spouse or partner	CRS points without a spouse or partner
Doctoral level university degree (Ph.D.)	10	N.A.
Master's degree, OR professional degree needed to practice in a licensed profession	10	N.A.
Two or more certificates, diplomas, or degrees. One must be for a program of three or more years	9	N.A.
Bachelor's degree OR a three or more year program at a university, college, trade or technical school, or other institute	8	N.A.
Two-year program at a university, college, trade or technical school, or other institute	7	N.A.
One-year degree, diploma or certificate from a university, college, trade or technical school, or other institute	6	N.A.
Secondary diploma (high school graduation)	2	N.A.
Less than secondary school (high school)	0	N.A.

For “professional degree,” the degree program must have been in: medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, optometry, law, chiropractic medicine, or pharmacy.

Language proficiency (Max 20 points)

The following conversion table lets you know how many CRS points your spouse or common-law partner can earn for you, per ability. For more information, you should check this language test page.

Spouse’s First Official Language Canadian Level Benchmark (per ability)	CRS points with a spouse or partner	CRS points without a spouse or partner
CLB 4 or less	0	N.A.
CLB 5 or 6	1	N.A.
CLB 7 or 8	3	N.A.
CLB 9 or more	5	N.A.

There is no additional points for the second Official Language, there no need for your spouse or common-law partner to take French and English tests.

Canadian work experience (Max 10 points)

You need to find your NOC here first.

Spouse’s Canadian Work Experience	CRS points with a spouse or partner	CRS points without a spouse or partner
None or less than a year	0	N.A.
1 year	5	N.A.
2 years	7	N.A.
3 years	8	N.A.
4 years	9	N.A.
5 years	10	N.A.

Section C. Skill transferability factors (Max 100 points)

Level of Education (Maximum 50 points)

The skill transferability factors are the most important in your CRS score. You can add up to a 100 points to your score, almost guaranteeing you to be drawn from the pool. However, it is not easy. For candidates in the Federal Skilled Workers program (that do not have Canadian work experience), scoring a CLB 9 in all four language abilities is what could make you stand out.

For example here, if you have at least CLB 9 in all four abilities, and a Master's degree (which theoretically had to obtain a Bachelors first that is usually 4 years long), you will get an additional 50 points. This is why it is extremely important to assess all your credentials with an ECA and not just your highest degree (check here for the ECA page), it will not cost you more money if you do it in one take.

You can check here on how to prepare your language tests.

Education level + Language proficiency	Points for CLB 7 or more on all first official language abilities, with one or more under CLB 9	Points for CLB 9 or more on all four first official language abilities
Secondary school (high school) credential or less	0	0
Post-secondary program credential of one year or longer	13	25
Two or more post-secondary program credentials AND at least one of these credentials was issued on completion of a post-secondary program of three years or longer	25	50

This can come in handy if you are eligible to the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), you could also get an additional 50 points if you satisfy to the two conditions below, on (i) the level of education, and (ii) the Canadian work experience.

Level of education + Canadian work experience	1 year of Canadian work experience	2 years or more of Canadian work experience
Secondary school (high school) credential or less	0	0
Post-secondary program credential of one year or longer	13	25
Two or more post-secondary program credentials AND at least one of these credentials was issued on completion of a post-secondary program of three years or longer	25	50

You cannot get more than 50 points in this category, even if you get the 50 points from the first table, and the 50 points from the second table. And you cannot get more than 100 points in this whole section.

Foreign work experience (Maximum 50 points)

Foreign work experience + Language proficiency	Points for CLB 7 or more on all first official language abilities, with one or more under CLB 9	Points for CLB 9 or more on all four first official language abilities
No foreign work experience	0	0
1 or 2 years of foreign work experience	13	25
3 years or more of foreign work experience	25	50

This can come in handy if you are eligible to the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), you could also get an additional 50 points if satisfy to the two conditions below, on (i) the foreign work experience, and (ii) the Canadian work experience.

Canadian + Foreign Work Experience	1 year of Canadian Work Experience	2 years or more of Canadian Work Experience
No foreign work experience	0	0
1 or 2 years of foreign work experience	13	25
3 years or more of foreign work experience	25	50

Certificate of qualification (Maximum 50 points)

This skill transferability factor concerns the candidates eligible under the Federal Skilled Trades program, that hold a valid certificate of qualification in a trade occupation issued by a competent provincial or federal authority. You can get an additional 50 points if your language proficiency in the four abilities is at CLB 7 and hold a certificate of qualification. For more on the eligibility under the Federal Skilled Trades program, you should check here.

Certificate of qualification + Language proficiency	Points for CLB 5 or more on all first official language abilities, with one or more under CLB 9	Points for CLB 7 or more on all four first official language abilities
With a certificate of qualification	25	50

Section D. Additional factors (Max 600 points)

Additional factors

You can get up to 600 additional points.

You can check here how to prepare your French language test.

For provincial nominations, you need to check which provinces have an Express Entry program and that is open. You can learn all about provincial nominations here.

Arranged employment means that your have a job offer that is validated by Service Canada.

Additional points	Maximum 600 points
Brother or sister living in Canada who is a citizen or permanent resident of Canada	15
Scored NCLC 7 or higher on all four French language skills and scored CLB 4 or lower in English (or didn’t take an English test)	15
Scored NCLC 7 or higher on all four French language skills and scored CLB 5 or higher on all four English skills	30
Post-secondary education in Canada - credential of one or two years	15
Post-secondary education in Canada - credential three years or longer	30
Arranged employment - NOC 00	200
Arranged employment – any other NOC 0, A or B	50
Provincial or territorial nomination	600

If it is determined that the applicant obtained more than 50 percent of their education via distance learning, the applicant should not be awarded additional Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) points for having a Canadian education credential.

With all of this information about the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS), you should be able to calculate your ow CRS score if you followed steps 1 to 4. You can use this tool here that will calculate your CRS score.

Claiming points for Work Experience

To be able to claim any points for work experience, it must:

be acquired by the foreign national in Canada or outside Canada in one or more occupations listed in Skill Type 0 Management Occupations or Skill Level A or B of the National Occupational Classification matrix,
consist of full-time remunerated work experience, or the full-time equivalent for part-time work experience, with one or more employers, and
be acquired within the last 10 years.

Express Entry Step-by-Step Guide

Click here for the next step, submitting your Express Entry profile and getting into the pool.

1. Finding your NOC (National Occupational Classification)

To be eligible, you need to first check that you work experience, as defined by the NOC system, is eligible for Express Entry. First check out this page to learn how to find your correct NOC.

Go to step 1.

2. Getting your Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) if you credential is not Canadian

You need to get your foreign educational credential assessed by one of IRCC's approved third parties. Click here to see the procedure to get this done, the list of approved third parties and the one we recommend.

Go to step 2.

3. Taking your English and/or French language tests

For all the three Express Entry programs, you need to take English and/or French test(s) and score a number of points to be eligible. Find out all you need to know about language tests here.

Go to Step 3.

4. Checking your eligibility to Express Entry

Under Express Entry, there are eligibility requirements for each of the three economic immigration programs. To find out if you could be eligible under any of the three programs, click here.

Go to Step 4.

5. Calculate your Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score - YOU ARE HERE

You need next to understand how to calculate your Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score. This score is the one you will be ranked with in the Express Entry pool.

6. Getting into the Express Entry Pool

After taking your language exam(s), and getting your ECA (if your credential is not Canadian), you need to verify your eligibility through the Come to Canada Tool and then create your Express Entry profile to get into the pool of applicants.

Go to step 6.

7. Receiving an Invitation to Apply (ITA)

If you have enough CRS points, you will get an Invitation to Apply. You will have 60 days to fill additional forms and submit your supporting documents.

Go to step 7.

8. Your document checklist: Tips and Advice

After receiving you Invitation to Apply (ITA), you will need to upload the requested supporting documents. Get ahead and make sure you will not have a problem gathering them.

Go to step 8.

9. From Ackownlgedgment of Receipt (AoR) to Passeport Request (PPR)

After submitting your documents, learn about the process of approval of your application and the different updates that will let you have an idea on where you application is at.

Go to step 9.

10. Preparing your landing in Canada

Check out our before landing and living pages, to learn all about Canada, its biggest cities, its healthcare and education systems, what things to do first when arriving in Canada, etc.