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Your CRS score is the number Canada uses to rank you against everyone else who wants to immigrate through Express Entry, the online system for skilled workers applying for permanent residence. If your number is below a draw's cutoff, you wait; at or above it, you are invited to apply. So the obvious question is how to make it bigger. This post walks through the changes that add points, roughly in the order they usually matter, with the official points table linked beside every figure. New to the score itself? Start with what the CRS score is.
You have estimated your score, or are about to, and want to know which of the things you could do next would actually move it. You do not need to know any terminology already; every term is explained where it first appears.
The score has two halves, each worth up to 600, for a total of 1,200 (IRCC: check your score). The first half is about you: age, education, how well you read, write, speak and listen in English or French, work done in Canada, and bonus points for certain combinations of those. The second half is "additional points" for specific situations, and one of them, a provincial nomination, is worth the entire 600 on its own.
Every figure below comes from IRCC's CRS criteria page, which gives two columns for most items, with and without an accompanying spouse or partner. This post uses the "without" column unless we say otherwise.
Canada measures language on a scale called the Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) for English and the NCLC for French. You sit an approved test, and each score is converted to a CLB level; our score conversion guide covers every accepted test.
Language matters more than anything else you can change because it counts twice.
First, it earns points on its own, separately for each of the four abilities. Per ability, CLB 7 is worth 17 points, CLB 8 is 23, CLB 9 is 31, and CLB 10 or higher is 34 (CRS criteria). Moving one ability from CLB 7 to CLB 9 adds 14 points; moving all four adds 56.
Second, it unlocks the combination bonuses IRCC calls "skill transferability". Your education combined with language is worth up to 25 points if all four abilities are at CLB 7 or higher with at least one below 9, and up to 50 if all four are at CLB 9 or higher. Work experience outside Canada combined with language works the same way: three or more years of foreign experience is worth 25 points at CLB 7 and 50 at CLB 9 (CRS criteria). The whole section is capped at 100.
So if one ability sits at CLB 8, retesting to reach CLB 9 can add points in two places at once, which is why CLB 9 across all four is what most people chase when they retest.
If you have any French, or could learn some, it counts in three places.
As a second official language, each ability at CLB 9 or higher is worth 6 points, up to a combined 24 (22 with a partner) (CRS criteria).
On top of that come separate additional points for French. Scoring NCLC 7 or higher on all four French abilities is worth 25 additional points if your English is CLB 4 or lower (or you took no English test), and 50 if your English is CLB 5 or higher in all four abilities (CRS criteria).
NCLC 7 in all four abilities is also the entry requirement for the French-language proficiency category in category-based draws, covered below. Our guide to French-language routes to Canada has the whole picture.
With an accompanying spouse or partner, your own points come from a slightly lower column (age tops out at 100 instead of 110, for example), and your partner then adds up to 40 points: up to 10 for education, 20 for language, and 10 for Canadian work experience (CRS criteria). If your partner is not coming, or is already a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, you are scored as if you had no partner.
Two things follow. A partner who takes a language test adds points an untested partner cannot. And either of you can be the principal applicant, so calculate the score both ways and let the higher one lead.
An Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) is the report confirming your foreign education equals a Canadian credential; our ECA guide explains how to get one. Assessing only your highest degree can leave points on the table.
The education table has a row for "two or more certificates, diplomas, or degrees", where at least one is from a programme of three years or longer, worth 128 points against 120 for a single bachelor's degree (CRS criteria). The same split runs through skill transferability: with CLB 9 in all four abilities, one post-secondary credential combined with language is worth 25, and two or more are worth 50. A diploma finished before your degree, assessed alongside it, can add points in two places.
These are the levers for people already in Canada on a work or study permit.
One year of skilled work in Canada is worth 40 points, rising to 80 for five years or more (CRS criteria), and Canadian experience also combines with your education and your foreign experience for further skill-transferability points. A credential from a Canadian post-secondary programme of one or two years adds 15 points, and three years or longer adds 30 (CRS criteria).
From outside Canada, neither is quick: both take years and a permit first.
A brother or sister living in Canada who is 18 or older and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident is worth 15 additional points (CRS criteria). You cannot change it, but it is easy to forget to claim.
A nomination from a province or territory adds 600 points (CRS criteria), half of the maximum score and more than everything else on this page combined. Provinces run their own programmes with their own rules, and some streams pick candidates straight from the Express Entry pool; our guide to the Provincial Nominee Program explains how.
Raising your score is one way to reach a cutoff; the other is to be in a draw with a lower one. IRCC holds category-based draws that invite only candidates who fit a category, such as French-language proficiency or work experience in listed occupations, and those draws set their own cutoffs (IRCC: category-based selection). If you already fit a category, you may not need the extra points at all; our post on category-based draws explains how they work.
No. As of March 25, 2025, IRCC removed the points for a job offer (what the rules call "arranged employment") for all current and future candidates in the pool; before that date an offer was worth 50 points, or 200 for a senior management role (IRCC: job offer). The change is set out in Ministerial Instructions 2025-1.
An offer can still matter for eligibility, since some programmes and provincial streams require one, so still record it in your profile (IRCC: job offer). It just no longer adds to your number.
Age points peak between 20 and 29, start to fall at 30, and reach zero at 45 (CRS criteria). Every birthday after 29 takes points from an otherwise unchanged profile, so the same language result or ECA is worth more this year than next. If you are weighing whether to test now or later, the clock is part of the arithmetic.
Cutoffs move from draw to draw and depend on which programme or category a draw targets. A score invited last month may not be next month, and nobody, including us, can promise you an invitation. What you can do is know where your points come from and which items above would change the number, then decide which are worth the time and the test fees.
Our free CRS calculator computes the same score the full report shows, section by section, so you can see where your points come from first. The full report lists the steps that would add points as checklist items on the Express Entry routes: an assessed credential, a language result, a provincial nomination. It computes and explains; it does not promise an invitation.
Start with the free CRS calculator to see your score section by section. Then take the free questionnaire for a summary of the routes that fit you and the steps that would move your number.
Answer our free questionnaire and see your eligibility summary instantly. You only pay to unlock your full personalized immigration report.