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Express Entry CRS Score Calculator Tool

Answer a few questions and find out with our tool how much CRS points you can claim!

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The CRS Calculator Tool will let you know, depending on your answers, how much Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) points you could claim in the Express Entry pool.

1. What's Express Entry?

4. What's the CRS score threshold?

2. What's a CRS score?

5. How to increase your score with a PNP?

3. The CRS Calculator Tool

6. How's the CRS score calculated?

What's Express Entry?

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) uses the Express Entry system to select the desired candidates to apply for permanent residence.

Three federal programs go through the Express Entry system: the Federal Skilled Workers (FSW) program, the Federal Skilled Trades (FST) program, and the Canadian Experience Class (CEC). You need to be eligible to one of these programs to be able to enter the Express Entry pool of candidates, where each candidate is assigned a CRS score.

What's a CRS score?

A Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score is assigned to each candidate, depending on a number of factors, including age, level of education, language proficiency, work experience, etc.

Beware that calculating your CRS points does not mean you are eligible to one of the three programs of Express Entry. You will need to make sure you are eligible to one of the three programs before. You see the eligibility criteria of each federal program here.

To be able to know your exact CRS score, you will need to have your language test results, and your Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) if your degree is not Canadian. If you do not have these, you can still try and see how many CRS points you can claim for other factors.

You can either use our CRS Calculator Tool below, or calculate the score by yourself using the point tables provided here.

The CRS Calculator Tool

1) What is your current status?

i. Is your spouse/partner a permanent resident or Canadian citizen?

ii. Is your spouse/partner accompanying you to Canada?

2) What is your age?

You must select the age you will be on the day you receive your Invitation to Apply (ITA).

3) Level of education

i. What is your highest educational level?

The only qualification that you can take into account are either:

a Canadian educational credential, or
an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA), if your studies were completed outside Canada.

ii. Do you have a Canadian educational credential?

In order for your Canadian credential to qualify:

You must have been physically present in Canada and have been enrolled in full-time study for at least eight months.
You must not have studied French or English (as language classes, not studies in French or English) for more than 50% of the program of study.
You must not have received a scholarship or fellowship that requires you to come back home (your country) at the end of your studies.
You must not have studied in a program in which distance learning amounted to more than 50% of the program of study.

iii. What is the highest level of your Canadian credential?

4) Language abilities

You need language test results (less than 2 years old) to prove your proficiency in French or English.

i. Is your language test report issued less than two years ago?

5) Work Experience

The work experience must be:

acquired in an occupation under NOC Skill Type/Level 0, A or B,
full-time (or the equivalent in part-time, at least 15h/week), and
remunerated.

i. How many years of Canadian work experience have you accumulated over the past 10 years?

If you are not sure about the NOC relevant to your job, you may check your NOC here.

What's the minimum CRS score?

To become a permanent resident of Canada through the Express Entry system, you will need to receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) from IRCC. You will only receive an ITA if your CRS score is above or equal to the minimum CRS score set in a draw.

A draw is a mechanism used by IRCC in which they select Express Entry applicants whose CRS scores are above a threshold that they set at each draw. Draws usually take place on Wednesdays every two weeks, but IRCC does deviate from this unspoken rule. The minimum CRS score of the past draws usually range between 440 et 460 points.

To check on the latest draw threshold score and see what were the historic draw scores from 2015 till today, use this page.

How to increase your score with a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP)?

Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) are an immigration option to consider when not having enough CRS points. Indeed, when selected by a province to receive a provincial nomination, you will receive an additional 600 points, which will automatically will get you an ITA in the next draw.

However, when you obtain your permanent residence with a provincial nomination, you will need to stay in the province (more detailed information on the subject here).

Most provinces have immigration streams that are aligned with Express Entry, however, each province and each stream has its own eligibility criteria. You can use our PNP Eligibility Tool to find out if you could be eligible, and you should also check out our PNP Live Monitor for the latest updates on each stream of the PNPs.

How's the CRS score calculated?

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 the accompanying 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 a 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 understand how to calculate your CRS score.

Section/Factor	Maximum CRS points with spouse/partner	Maximum CRS points without spouse/partner
A & B. Core / human capital factors
Age	100	110
Education level	150	150
Language proficiency	170	160
Canadian work experience	80	80
Total A & B.	500	500

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
Provincial nomination	600	600
Valid job offer	200	200
French abilities	30	30
Sibling in Canada (citizen or permanent resident)	15	15
Total D.	600	600
TOTAL A + B + C + D	1200	1200

Sections A & B. Human capital factors (Max 500 points)

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

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

Education Level (Max points: 150 points)

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. The maximum points that can be awarded for education are 150 CRS points, either if single or with an accompanying spouse or common-law partner.

Education Level	CRS points without spouse/partner	CRS points with spouse/partner
Education Level	CRS points without spouse/partner	Principal Applicant	Spouse/Partner
Doctoral (PhD) degree	150	140	10
Master's degree, OR professional degree	135	126	10
Two or more credentials, with a least one for a program of three years or more	128	119	9
Three-year or more post-secondary credential	120	112	8
Two-year post-secondary credential	98	91	7
One-year post-secondary credential	90	84	6
Secondary (high) school diploma	30	28	2
Less than secondary (high) school	0	0	0

Language proficiency (Max points: 170 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 Language Benchmark (CLB)	CRS points without spouse/partner	CRS points with spouse/partner
First Official Language Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB)	CRS points without spouse/partner	Principal Applicant	Spouse/Partner
CLB3 or less	0	0	0
CLB4	6	6	0
CLB5	6	6	1
CLB6	9	8	1
CLB7	17	16	3
CLB8	23	22	3
CLB9	31	29	5
CLB10 or more	34	32	5

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

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

Second Official Language Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB)	CRS points without spouse/partner	CRS points with spouse/partner
CLB4 or less	0	0
CLB5 or CLB6	1	1
CLB7 or CLB8	3	3
CLB9 or more	6	6

Canadian work experience (Max points: 80 points)

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

The maximum points that can be awarded for Canadian work experience are 80 CRS points, either if single or with an accompanying spouse or common-law partner.

Canadian Work Experience	CRS points without spouse/partner	CRS points with spouse/partner
Canadian Work Experience	CRS points without spouse/partner	Principal Applicant	Spouse/Partner
Less than one year	0	0	0
One year	40	35	5
Two years	53	46	7
Three years	64	56	8
Four years	72	63	9
Five years or more	80	70	10

Section C. Skill transferability factors (Max 100 points)

Education Level (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 CLB9 in all four language abilities is what could make you stand out.

For example here, if you have at least CLB9 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.

If you have CLB9 on all four abilities, you will not get to add up the points for CLB7 also. It's either one or the other.

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

Education level + Language proficiency	Minimum CLB7 on the four language abilities	Minimum CLB9 on the four language abilities
Post-secondary education of less than 1 year	0	0
Post-secondary education of at least 1 year	13	25
At least 2 post-secondary credentials, one of which is a program at least 3 years	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.

Education level + Canadian work experience	At least 1 year of Canadian work experience	At least 2 years of Canadian work experience
Post-secondary education of less than 1 year	0	0
Post-secondary education of at least 1 year	13	25
At least 2 post-secondary credentials, one of which is a program at least 3 years	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 C.

Foreign work experience (Maximum 50 points)

Foreign work experience + Language proficiency	Minimum CLB7 on the four language abilities	Minimum CLB9 on the four language abilities
Foreign work experience: Less than 1 year	0	0
Foreign work experience: 1 to 2 years	13	25
Foreign work experience: at least 3 years	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	At least 1 year of Canadian work experience	At least 2 years of Canadian work experience
Foreign work experience: Less than 1 year	0	0
Foreign work experience: 1 to 2 years	13	25
Foreign work experience: at least 3 years	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.

If you have CLB7 on all four abilities, you will not get to add up the points for CLB5 also. It's either one or the other.

Certificate of qualification + Language proficiency	Minimum CLB5 on the four language abilities	Minimum CLB7 on the four language abilities
Issued 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.

Click here for more information on what is a valid job offer by the standards of IRCC.

Additional points	Maximum 600 points
Provincial or territorial nomination acquired through an Express Entry aligned PNP stream	600
Valid job offer in NOC skill type 00 (Senior Management)	200
Valid job offer in NOC skill type/level 0, A or B	50
Completion of post-secondary program in Canada, of at least 3 years in duration	30
Completion of post-secondary program in Canada, of 1 or 2 years in duration	15
French: at least CLB7 AND English: at least CLB5 - On all four language abilities	30
French: at least CLB7 AND English: lower than CLB5 or no test results- On all four language abilities	15
Sibling in Canada as Citizen or Permanent Resident	15

If during your studies in Canada, you received more than 50 percent of your education via distance learning, you should not get the additional Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) points for completion of post-secondary program in Canada.

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