Express Entry is not a program. It is the queue that manages three programs — the Federal Skilled Worker Class, the Federal Skilled Trades Class and the Canadian Experience Class. You create a profile, you sit in a pool, you get ranked, and if you are invited you have 60 days to file the real application.
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From $3,388.87 taxes included
You must qualify for at least one of the three programs before your profile goes into the pool. The Canadian Experience Class is the most common route for people already here: it needs at least one year of skilled Canadian work experience — 1,560 hours at 30 hours a week — in the three years before you apply. The Federal Skilled Worker Class is aimed at people with foreign skilled experience and is scored on its own points grid. The Federal Skilled Trades Class covers specific trades occupations.
Creating a profile costs nothing. You will need a language test result from an approved test, and for foreign education, an educational credential assessment from a designated organization. Those cost money and take time, so start them first.
Proof of funds is required unless you are invited under the Canadian Experience Class, or you have a valid job offer and are authorised to work in Canada.
Everyone in the pool gets a Comprehensive Ranking System score built from age, education, language ability, work experience, and combinations of those factors, plus additional points for things like a spouse's credentials, Canadian study, and French ability.
IRCC then runs rounds of invitations. Some are general. Many are category-based, where only candidates who meet a defined category are invited, at a lower score than a general round would require. For 2026, IRCC added categories for foreign medical doctors with Canadian work experience, researchers and senior managers with Canadian work experience, transport occupations including pilots and aircraft mechanics, and highly skilled applicants recruited by the Canadian Armed Forces — alongside continuing rounds for strong French skills and for health care and social services.
A provincial or territorial nomination adds 600 points, which in practice guarantees an invitation in the next relevant round. That is why provincial programs matter so much to candidates whose base score is mid-pack.
An invitation to apply gives you 60 days to submit the full permanent residence application. Everything you claimed in the profile now has to be proved: reference letters that state hours and duties, police certificates from every country you lived in, a medical exam, and a complete travel and address history.
This is where files fail. A reference letter that omits weekly hours, a job title that does not match the duties, an unclaimed period of self-employment — any of these can cost you the application, and a finding of misrepresentation generally makes you inadmissible to Canada for five years.
The government cost for a principal applicant under the Federal Skilled Worker or Canadian Experience Class is $1,590, which includes the processing fee and the right of permanent residence fee. Biometrics are $85 per person, to a family maximum of $170. Our legal fee is $3,388.87, taxes included, published up front.
There is no fixed number. The cut-off is whatever score the last person invited in a given round had, and it moves with the size of the pool and the type of round. A category-based round can invite candidates well below a general round's cut-off. That is why the useful question is not "what score do I need" but "which categories and which provincial streams am I eligible for, and what can I do in the next six months to move my score."
Yes, and most people should. Retaking a language test is usually the highest-value move, because language points are large and they also multiply through the skill transferability factors. Completing a credential, adding a year of skilled experience, or getting a spouse's language test done can all help. Update your profile when anything changes — an inaccurate profile that gets you invited is worse than a low score.
The invitation expires and you go back to the pool if your profile is still valid. You are not banned, but you have lost that round, and the score you need next time may be higher. Sixty days sounds generous until you discover a police certificate from a former country takes eight weeks. Start the long-lead documents when the profile goes in, not when the invitation arrives.
Plenty of straightforward Canadian Experience Class candidates succeed without one. Get advice when your work history is complicated — self-employment, contract work, duties that do not match your job title, gaps, or a National Occupational Classification code that is arguable. Also get advice if you have any criminal record, prior refusal, medical issue, or an earlier application where something was declared differently. Those are the files where a fixable problem becomes permanent.
Open your file tonight — a licensed Ontario lawyer will confirm everything with you by tomorrow.