Announced 16 October 2026 ยท Effective 3 November 2026
What changes in Express Entry on 3 November 2026
A new Labour Market Integration factor replaces the Canadian work experience line, job-offer points return for high-wage occupations, and the LMIA requirement goes away. Here is the detail, with the parts IRCC has not published yet marked as such.
2 days until the rules change
If you hold a qualifying job offer, add it to your Express Entry profile before 3 November 2026. Work-experience points are recalculated for you; job-offer details are not, so an offer missing from your profile scores nothing.
The four changes
A new scoring factor
Labour Market Integration replaces the Canadian work experience line. It scores either your Canadian work experience or a qualifying high-wage job offer, whichever is worth more, never both.
Job-offer points return
Removed in March 2025, back from 3 November 2026 but only for occupations on IRCC's high-wage list. Worth 50, 70 or 100 points depending on the wage tier.
No more LMIA
A Labour Market Impact Assessment will no longer be needed for a job offer to earn points, or to meet Federal Skilled Worker and Federal Skilled Trades requirements.
Draws pause
IRCC recalculates every profile in the pool, which it says may take up to two weeks. Expect a gap in rounds rather than a permanent change in cadence.
The points
Your occupation sits in one of three wage tiers, set by the median wage for that occupation across Canada compared with the average median wage of all occupations. This is about the job, not your own salary.
Within your tier there are two ways to score, and you get whichever is worth more, never both. The whole factor caps at 150 points without a spouse, or 140 with one.
2 times the median wage
31 occupations
- 12+ months of Canadian experience in this job
- +70 points on top
- A job offer in this job
- 100 points
1.5 times the median wage
89 occupations
- 12+ months of Canadian experience in this job
- +40 points on top
- A job offer in this job
- 70 points
1.3 times the median wage
66 occupations
- 12+ months of Canadian experience in this job
- +20 points on top
- A job offer in this job
- 50 points
Reading this: find your tier, then take the larger of the two numbers. The experience points are added to the points you already earn for how long you have worked in Canada. The job-offer points replace that calculation rather than adding to it, so an offer only helps if it beats what your experience already scores.
186
eligible occupations in total. Anything not on IRCC's list earns nothing from this factor, whatever it pays.
What IRCC has not published yet
IRCC has announced this change but its Comprehensive Ranking System page still shows the pre-November points. The figures above come from the announcement and its accompanying material, not from a revised official grid.
- • Several sites state a new overall maximum of 1,270 points. That is an inference from adding the published per-factor maximums, and no IRCC page states it. We keep the ceiling at 1,200 until IRCC says otherwise.
- • Secondary sources disagree on the exact job-offer values. We use the figures carried consistently across IRCC's announcement coverage.
We check IRCC's grid regularly and will update these tables the day it publishes. Confirm anything here against IRCC's own criteria page before acting on it.
What to do
- 1
Check whether your occupation is listed
Only the 186 occupations on IRCC's high-wage list earn these points. Our calculator resolves your NOC code to its tier.
- 2
Add any job offer to your profile before 3 November 2026
Work-experience points are recalculated automatically. Job-offer details are not, so an offer you have not entered scores nothing.
- 3
Work out what your score becomes
The two routes compete rather than stacking, so the change is worth nothing to some candidates and up to 100 points to others.
What happens to draws
IRCC will pause invitation rounds while it recalculates the pool, for up to two weeks. The most recent round was #453 on 28 October 2026. We publish every round as IRCC releases it, with cut-offs grouped by draw type.
Sources: IRCC's announcement of 16 October 2026 and its coverage (reference), and IRCC's high-wage occupations list. This page is maintained alongside a live dataset of 454 rounds and is updated when IRCC publishes new detail.