IRCC plans to bring back job offer points under Express Entry, as part of wider reforms

Canada’s immigration department has revealed plans to reintroduce Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) points for job offers under the Express Entry system.

More specifically, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has announced their intention to award points to candidates with “job offers and Canadian work experience in high wage occupations...” under the Express Entry system.

The plan also reveals that IRCC will consider “how to reward those...who are certified to work in regulated occupations” in the context of the Express Entry system.

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The above are part of a “broader suite of reforms” to the Express Entry system, as reported in IRCC’s latest departmental plan, published on March 13, 2026.

IRCC does not provide a clear timeline on when the above changes, nor the promised broader reforms, will be implemented in its department plan; noting that the document “.... details...priorities, plans, and associated costs for the upcoming three fiscal years”.

As of this writing, no further details regarding these changes have been announced.

Many in-demand occupations in Canada, including those in Express Entry’s occupational categories, are regulated—meaning that, to practice them professionally, workers need to obtain certification from a regulatory body specific to that profession or industry (usually at the provincial level).

These planned measures are in support of Canada’s Talent Attraction Strategy, a key part of immigration reforms to attract top global talent, as promised by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s platform on the campaign trail last year.

Which occupations are classified as "high wage"?

IRCC's departmental plan does not specifically define "high wage" in the context of the proposed Express Entry reform.

Currently, the Express Entry system assesses skilled work experience based on the Training Education, Experience, and Responsibilities (TEER) classification—under Canada's National Occupation Classification (NOC) system—with higher TEER (0, 1, 2) occupations generally commanding higher wages.

Notably, under this system, wages are not directly assessed.

Other parts of Canada's immigration system, however, already have an operational definition for "high wage", which may be what the department chooses to use when implementing these new Express Entry reforms.

For example, in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), a position is classified as "high-wage" if the offered hourly wage for the occupation meets or exceeds the median hourly wage for the province or territory where the work is located.

In this context, the definition of high wage depends on where a candidate's work experience is accumulated in Canada. These figures are updated annually.

Current median wages for Canada's provinces and territories can be found in the table below:

The removal of job offer points

In March 2025, Canada stopped awarding bonus CRS points to Express Entry candidates who held valid job offers, including those backed by a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA).

The change came into effect on March 25, 2025, after initially being announced in December 2024.

Under the previous system, candidates with a qualifying job offer could receive an additional 50 or 200 CRS points depending on the skill level of the offer, adding significantly to their chances of receiving an invitation to apply (ITA) for permanent residence (PR).

IRCC made the change, citing concerns about fraud — specifically, the practice of candidates purchasing LMIAs to inflate their scores artificially.

By removing the points incentive, Ottawa aimed to undercut a key driver of that market and strengthen the overall integrity of the immigration system.

The change exempted any candidates who had claimed job offer points and who either received an ITA already or had a PR application currently in process; however, any candidates in the Express Entry pool who had been benefiting from job offer points saw their CRS score drop by 50 or 200 points overnight.

This reshuffled the competitive landscape significantly — candidates without job offers, whose scores remained unchanged, suddenly found themselves in a relatively stronger position.

Valid job offers continue to carry weight in other parts of the Express Entry system — it remains relevant for eligibility under the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP), and certain Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) streams.

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