Express Entry is changing on November 3: high-wage points, job offers without an LMIA, and a pause in draws
IRCC is rebuilding how Canadian work and job offers score in the CRS. A new factor worth up to 150 points, job offer points back without an LMIA, and up to two weeks without invitations. What it means for your profile.
On October 16, 2026, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab announced the biggest change to the Comprehensive Ranking System since job offer points were removed in 2025. From November 3, 2026, Express Entry will give extra points to candidates whose Canadian work experience, or whose job offer, is in a high-wage occupation, and a job offer will no longer need a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) to count.
IRCC’s stated aim is to match Express Entry more closely to the labour market, naming engineers and electricians as examples. For people already in the pool, the practical questions are simpler: will my score go up or down, do I need to do anything, and when do draws resume?
The new Labour Market Integration factor
Canadian work experience and job offers now sit together in one factor worth up to 150 points (140 if your spouse or partner is coming with you). You score for one or the other, never both, and the system uses whichever gives you more.
- Canadian work experience: up to 150 points without a spouse (80 for length of work plus 70 for high-wage work), or 140 with a spouse (70 plus 70).
- A qualifying job offer: up to 100 points.
Skill-transferability points are not changing; they still use the existing rules on length of experience and ignore the new high-wage points.
Points for Canadian work: unchanged, plus a high-wage top-up
The points for years of Canadian work are the same as today’s TEER 0–3 experience points: 40, 53, 64, 72 and 80 for one to five or more years (35, 46, 56, 63 and 70 with a spouse). What is new is a top-up for experience in an eligible high-wage occupation:
| Occupation’s median wage vs. the Canadian average | Extra points |
|---|---|
| 2 times the Canadian average or more | +70 |
| 1.5 times or more | +40 |
| 1.3 times or more | +20 |
| Under 12 months of qualifying experience | 0 |
The 12 months do not have to be continuous, can be full time or the equivalent in part time, and can be combined across eligible jobs. Concurrent jobs count only up to the equivalent of 30 hours a week.
Job offer points are back, and the LMIA requirement is gone
A valid job offer in a high-wage occupation earns 100 points at 2 times the average median wage, 70 at 1.5 times and 50 at 1.3 times. An offer in any other occupation earns nothing under this factor.
From November 3, a job offer no longer needs an LMIA, either for these points or to meet the job offer requirement of the Federal Skilled Worker or Federal Skilled Trades programs. Having an LMIA adds no points and gives no priority. The offer can be for a new or existing position, from a new or existing employer.
Two points are easy to miss:
- Program eligibility and CRS points are assessed separately. For FSW or FST eligibility, an offer can still be in any TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 occupation that meets program rules, even if it earns no CRS points.
- The offer is tested when you apply for PR. Officers will look at whether it is genuine: the employer’s actual business, its ability to fulfil the offer, its need for the role, its compliance with employment and recruitment laws, and whether you are qualified and likely to take the job. IRCC says anti-fraud checks are in place. An offer that cannot survive that review can sink the whole application.
What counts as a high-wage occupation
An occupation qualifies if its median wage is at least 1.3 times the median wage of the overall Canadian workforce. The test is about the NOC occupation as a whole, not what you personally earn: a well-paid job in a lower-wage occupation does not qualify, and a modestly paid job in a high-wage occupation can.
IRCC will publish and maintain the list in three levels, based on the previous three years of data from Job Bank, the Labour Force Survey and the Census. Each occupation gets the highest level it reached in any of those years. IRCC names health care, skilled trades, engineering, technology and education among the fields that qualify. Check your exact NOC code against IRCC’s high-wage occupations page rather than assuming.
What happens to people already in the pool
- Your score is recalculated automatically on November 3, including points for eligible Canadian work experience.
- Claiming a job offer? Update your profile before November 3. IRCC says candidates who want job offer points must add the required information before that date.
- The online form has not caught up yet. Until it does, IRCC tells applicants whose offer has no LMIA to answer “yes” to the LMIA question and enter the placeholder values listed on its Changes to Express Entry page. Follow that page exactly; do not invent an LMIA number.
- Draws pause. The recalculation may take up to two weeks, and no invitation rounds will be held during it. Watch our live draw tracker for the first round after the restart.
Who gains, and who should check their numbers
Candidates with a year or more of Canadian experience in a high-wage occupation gain up to 70 points with no change to their file. Candidates with little or no Canadian experience but a genuine offer in a high-wage occupation can gain up to 100. Because the general cut-off is set by everyone else’s scores too, expect cut-offs to move once the new points are in the pool. Whether that helps you depends on where your occupation sits on the list.
Run your numbers in our updated CRS calculator, which already includes the high-wage and job offer questions, and see the summary of the changes on our Express Entry page.
Part of a wider shift
This follows the December 2025 measures for doctors, including a dedicated Express Entry category for physicians with Canadian work experience, and the February 2026 new and renewed categories for health care, skilled trades, research, transportation and education. Read how category-based selection works if you are unsure which round you fit.
What to do this week
- Find your exact NOC code and check it against IRCC’s high-wage list once published.
- Count your qualifying Canadian months in that occupation (1,560 hours is the bar).
- If you hold a job offer, confirm it is in an eligible high-wage occupation and update your profile before November 3.
- Make sure your reference letters prove the duties, hours and dates of the NOC you claim. Higher points mean closer scrutiny.
Our Brampton and London offices can check your NOC, your high-wage months and any job offer before the November 3 deadline. Request a consultation.
General information only, not legal advice. Based on IRCC’s news release Canada refocusing Express Entry on top talent that drives economic growth (October 16, 2026) and Changes to Express Entry (modified October 16, 2026). Rules and the high-wage list can change; confirm current requirements on canada.ca. IRCC makes all final decisions.
