On October 16, IRCC announced two changes to Express Entry that take effect on November 3, 2026: job offer points are coming back, after being removed in March 2025, and an LMIA is no longer required for an offer to count.
The second is the deeper change, even if it draws fewer headlines than the first.
In short: from November 3 a job offer again earns CRS points, but only if the occupation appears on a list of 186 high-wage occupations. That is 50, 70 or 100 points depending on the level. The LMIA requirement disappears, both for the points and for Federal Skilled Worker and Federal Skilled Trades eligibility. IRCC will recalculate the profiles already in the pool and will pause invitation rounds while it does so.
The new factor
IRCC is adding a CRS factor called Labour Market Integration. It covers two things:
- Canadian work experience, with extra points if it was gained in a high-wage occupation, and
- a job offer in a high-wage occupation.
The rule worth remembering is that they are mutually exclusive. IRCC compares what each route would give and awards whichever is higher. They are not combined.
The factor is capped at 150 points for an applicant without a spouse or common-law partner, and 140 for one with a spouse.
The job offer points
| Offer in an occupation whose median wage is… | Points |
|---|---|
| At least twice the average median wage | 100 |
| At least 1.5 times, but less than twice | 70 |
| At least 1.3 times, but less than 1.5 | 50 |
| An occupation that is not on the list | 0 |
An offer outside the list earns nothing in the CRS. It may still serve for program eligibility, which is a separate matter, and we come back to that below.
The LMIA requirement disappears
This is the change that will move the most files.
Until now, for a job offer to count in Express Entry, the employer had to obtain a Labour Market Impact Assessment: the study through which Service Canada assesses the effect of hiring a foreign national on the local labour market. It is expensive, slow, and many employers were simply unwilling to start it.
From November 3:
- No LMIA is needed for an offer to qualify, neither for CRS points nor to meet the job offer requirement of the Federal Skilled Worker Program and the Federal Skilled Trades Program.
- Holding an LMIA gives no extra points and no priority.
- The offer may be for a new or existing position, and with any employer.
- An officer will assess whether the offer is genuine.
That assessment is not a formality. IRCC states that the officer must be satisfied, among other things, that the employer is active in the business, can fulfil the terms of the offer, made an offer that meets a real need, and is following employment and recruitment laws; and, on the applicant's side, that they are qualified and able to perform the work and are likely to accept the offer and carry out the job.
In other words: a step owed by the employer disappears, and an evidentiary burden on the offer remains.
Is your occupation on the list, and do you have an offer?
Annette P. Campos, a regulated immigration consultant (RCIC), can review whether your offer meets the validity requirements and what score would apply to you from November 3.
What a "high-wage occupation" is
This is where most of the confusion will sit, because the name suggests something the rule does not say.
It does not depend on your salary. It depends on the occupation. IRCC takes the median wage of everyone in Canada working under the same National Occupational Classification (NOC) code and compares it with the average median wage of the Canadian workforce. If the occupation's is at least 1.3 times higher, the occupation is on the list.
Being offered a very high salary in an occupation that is not on the list does not put it on the list. And being offered a modest salary in an occupation that is on it does not take it off.
The list holds 186 occupations across three levels: 31 at the highest, 89 in the middle and 66 at entry. It was built from Job Bank, Labour Force Survey and Census data for the previous three years, 2023 to 2025, and each occupation is assigned the highest level it reached in that period.
If the list changes after an invitation is issued, IRCC keeps the level that applied on the day you were invited.
Who is on it
The government's news release gives "engineers and electricians" as an example. The list is narrower than that phrase.
It includes, among others: family physicians and specialists, nurse practitioners and registered nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, lawyers, university professors, secondary school teachers, civil, mechanical, electrical and software engineers, data scientists, cybersecurity specialists, construction managers, engineering managers, and oil and gas drilling supervisors.
The contrast with the trades category we covered in October is worth noting. Of its 25 occupations, only 7 appear on the high-wage list:
| On the list | Not on the list |
|---|---|
| Construction managers (70010) | Welders (72106) |
| Oil and gas drilling supervisors (82021) | Carpenters (72310) |
| Industrial electricians (72201) | Plumbers (72300) |
| Gas fitters (72302) | Electricians, except industrial and power system (72200) |
| Bricklayers (72320) | Machinists (72100) |
| Sheet metal workers (72102) | Heating, refrigeration and A/C mechanics (72402) |
| Heavy-duty equipment mechanics (72401) | Millwrights, roofers, painters, cabinetmakers and others |
The electricians make the point well: the industrial electrician code (72201) is on the list; the general electrician code (72200), which is the most common one, is not. They are different codes, and the difference is worth 50 points or zero.
The other half of the factor: Canadian experience
Anyone already working in Canada loses nothing, and may gain.
The points for the length of Canadian experience do not change: still up to 70 with a spouse and up to 80 without, on the usual scale, running from 35 or 40 points for one year to 70 or 80 for five years or more.
To that are now added extra points if the experience was gained in a high-wage occupation:
| Qualifying Canadian work experience | Extra points |
|---|---|
| At least 12 months in occupations with a median wage of at least twice the average | 70 |
| If not eligible for the 70: at least 12 months in occupations at 1.5 times or above | 40 |
| If not eligible for the 40: at least 12 months in occupations at 1.3 times or above | 20 |
| Less than 12 months in high-wage occupations | 0 |
Twelve months means 1,560 hours. The experience may be continuous or not, full-time or the part-time equivalent, and may be combined across several high-wage jobs. If you held two jobs at once, hours count only up to the full-time equivalent, that is 30 hours a week.
The rules for skills transferability factors do not change: there, Canadian work experience is still assessed on the usual length requirements, without the high-wage criterion.
What the system does not yet reflect
There is an operational detail that will raise reasonable doubts.
The requirements change on November 3, but the online form does not, yet. IRCC instructs that, even though an LMIA is no longer needed, the profile should still indicate that you have one, with these details:
| Profile field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Was a positive LMIA issued for the job offer in Canada? | Yes |
| LMIA Number | 00000 |
| LMIA Issuance Date | 2026-01-01 |
| LMIA Expiry Date | 2029-01-01 |
That is IRCC's own published instruction, not an interpretation. Even so, it is worth recording it in the file.
Rounds are paused
IRCC will automatically recalculate the scores of profiles already in the pool. The process may take up to two weeks, and during that time there will be no invitation rounds. They resume once it is complete.
Anyone with a job offer not yet declared in their profile should update it before November 3 so it is included in the recalculation.
What is not changing
- If holding a valid job offer is part of your program's eligibility requirements, that stays the same. It applies to the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Federal Skilled Trades Program and some provincial nominee streams.
- For that eligibility, the offer does not have to be high-wage: it may be in any TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 occupation that meets the program requirements. What also disappears there is the LMIA.
- The validity requirements for the offer remain as they were: from one employer, continuous, paid, full-time — at least 30 hours a week — non-seasonal and for at least one year from the grant of permanent residence. It must be in writing and cannot come from an embassy, high commission or consulate. A work permit on its own is not a job offer, not even an open one.
- And a warning from IRCC worth repeating: receiving additional CRS points does not guarantee an invitation to apply.
What to do before November 3
Three things, in this order:
- Identify the correct NOC code for your occupation or for the offer, and check whether it is on the list and at which level. That determines 0, 50, 70 or 100 points.
- Compare the two routes. If you have Canadian experience and also an offer, only one will count. It is worth knowing which before the system decides.
- Declare the offer in your profile if it is not there yet, so it enters the recalculation.
Anyone who left the pool in 2025 because their offer stopped earning points has reason to redo the calculation. So does anyone who had a real offer that went nowhere because the employer would not pursue an LMIA.
Let's review your case under the new rules
At Goldstone we review your NOC code, your offer and your score to determine what applies to you from November 3 and what documentation is needed to support it.
Sources: IRCC, 2026 changes to points for Canadian work experience and job offers in the Express Entry system, High-wage occupations and how we assess them, Express Entry: Job offer, and the news releases Canada refocusing Express Entry on top talent that drives economic growth and Changes to Express Entry for high-wage occupations, published and consulted on October 16, 2026. Rules and lists change: always verify on canada.ca when you apply.