Workers in these occupations stand the best chance of receiving PR through Express Entry

Working in certain occupations for as little as six months can greatly increase your chances of receiving an invitation to apply for Canadian permanent residence (PR)

To access these benefits, candidates must gain work experience in one of the occupations contained in Express Entry’s categories and wait for an eligible draw to be selected for an invitation.

See your eligibility for all Express Entry categories

This article will cover the in-demand jobs in each of Express Entry’s current occupation-based categories, encompassing:

• Healthcare and social services occupations;
• STEM occupations;
• Trade occupations;
• Agriculture and agri-food occupations;
• Education occupations; and
• Physicians with Canadian work experience.

What are category-based selections?

In category-based rounds of invitations, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) invites candidates in the Express Entry pool who are eligible for a specific category established by the Minister to meet an identified economic or demographic goal.

Categories can therefore be based on things like official-language ability, work experience in a specific occupation, or other factors deemed important by Canada’s Immigration Minister.

Even in category-based rounds, IRCC still

• identifies eligible candidates in the pool;
• ranks them by the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS); and
• invites the highest-ranking eligible candidates.

What do I need to do to be eligible for an Express Entry occupation category?

To be eligible for category-based selection under an occupation category, you must:

• Be eligible under one of Express Entry’s three programs with an active candidate profile in the Express Entry pool;
• Have gained at least six months of work experience (either in Canada or abroad)* within the last three years, in an occupation included in one of the categories;
• Meet any other stipulations in the ministerial instructions for the relevant draw.

*The work experience requirement is higher for the newly introduced “Physicians with Canadian work experience” category.

Healthcare and social services occupations

This category includes a mix of regulated health professions (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, therapists) and social services roles (e.g., social workers). In 2025, IRCC designated this category as a priority through the Express Entry system.

• Last draw: December 11, 2025
• Number of draws held in 2025: Seven
• CRS cut-off score range: 462 - 510

NOC stands for National Occupation Classification and is the system that Canada’s government uses to organize and classify occupations within the country. The system aims to capture and standardize descriptions of all occupations and is utilized by IRCC when immigration eligibility is contingent upon an applicant’s work experience and/or current occupation.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) occupations

This category focuses heavily on engineering roles, including engineering technologists/technicians, as well as cybersecurity.

• Last draw: April 11, 2024
• Number of draws held in 2025: None
• CRS cut-off score: 486 - 491

Trade occupations

This category spans construction leadership roles, industrial/mechanical trades, and some construction finishing roles. In 2025, IRCC designated this category as a priority through the Express Entry system.

• Last draw: September 18, 2025
• Number of draws held in 2025: One
• CRS cut-off score: 505

See your eligibility for all Express Entry categories

Agriculture and agri-food occupations

IRCC’s list for this category has become narrower in the last year, now including only one occupation, where previously it included three.

• Last draw: February 16, 2024
• Number of draws held in 2025: None
• CRS cut-off score: 354 - 437

Education occupations

This category was a new addition to the Express Entry system in 2025, and includes teachers and key school/childcare support roles.

Last year, IRCC designated the education category as a priority for invitation under the Express Entry system.

• Last draw: September 17, 2025
• Number of draws held in 2025: Two
• CRS cut-off score: 462 – 479

Physicians with Canadian work experience

This category is specifically for physicians with Canadian work experience and is the newest addition to the Express Entry categories.

Note that the work experience requirements here are different from those in other categories.

Candidates must have earned 12 months of full-time work experience (or equivalent part-time) in Canada, within the past 3 years, in one of the listed physician NOCs.

Per IRCC’s announcement, invitations under this new category are expected to begin in “early 2026”.

• Last draw: N/A
• Number of draws held in 2025: N/A
• CRS score range: N/A

“Priority” categories can change year to year

As the tables above reveal, not all categories see the same level of activity through Express Entry draws. This is due to the immigration department choosing specific immigration priorities toward the start of each given year, which they subsequently align with ITA issuances through Express Entry categories.

For example, in IRCC’s February 27, 2025 announcement, it stated that it would be prioritizing Francophone immigration and health, trades, and education in that year.

How IRCC chooses categories

IRCC states it chooses categories using

• labour market information and projections; and
• input from partners, including provinces/territories and other stakeholders.

Categories always follow demographic or labour market goals related to immigration, as IRCC is tasked by the Canadian government with addressing issues around equal weightage of official languages within Canada and persistent labour gaps.

IRCC also reports each year to Parliament on what categories were chosen, why/how they were chosen, the instructions used to establish them, and how many invitations were issued.

How to determine whether your role/work experience falls under a category-eligible NOC

Because the NOC system is huge, the key is to remember: your NOC should match what you actually did, not just what your job title was.

More specifically, whether your work experience or current role falls under a NOC is determined by how the main duties of your work align with the description and main duties provided in a given NOC entry—not the job title.

Every occupation has a TEER level (Training, Education, Experience, and Responsibilities) level associated with it, which broadly shows the “level” of that occupation.

Step-by-step: Comparing your work to a given NOC

• Go to the official NOC website, choose NOC 2021 Version 1.0, and search using the job title or the numeric code obtained from the above tables.
• Compare your real job duties to the NOC page’s main duties section.
  • If the duties match closely and you don't fall under any of the occupations included in the “exclusions” section, then you likely have found the correct NOC for your work.
  • If the duties don’t match closely, repeat the process and choose a different category-eligible occupation.

Look through supporting documents to strengthen your case. When you prepare proof of work experience (like reference letters), your listed responsibilities should reflect the same type of duties described in the chosen NOC’s “main duties” section.

See your eligibility for all Express Entry categories