You have worked in Canada, and your score keeps landing below the Express Entry cutoffs. It can feel as if the door is shut, but it is one door among several. Some routes to permanent residence never look at your score, and others can lift it or set you against a smaller group. This guide covers each one and links the official page behind every rule. What it cannot tell you is whether any of them fits you.

Who this is for

You are in Canada on a study or work permit, you have done skilled work here, and nobody has explained "CRS" or "cutoff" to you. Here are the terms in plain words.

• Permanent residence (PR) lets you live, work or study anywhere in Canada without being a citizen (IRCC: understand PR status). IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) is the federal immigration department.
• Express Entry is IRCC's online system for applications from skilled workers under three programs (IRCC: Express Entry). One of them, the Canadian Experience Class, is for people with at least one year (1,560 hours) of skilled work in Canada in the 3 years before they apply, in jobs at skill level 0, 1, 2 or 3 on Canada's TEER scale (IRCC: Canadian Experience Class).
• The CRS (Comprehensive Ranking System) is the points score, out of 1,200, that IRCC uses to rank everyone with an Express Entry profile (a group it calls the pool) on things like age, education, language and work experience (IRCC: check your score; IRCC: CRS criteria).
• The cutoff is the lowest score invited in a round, explained next.

Why the cutoff moves

IRCC invites people in rounds, often called draws. In each round it picks a round type and invites "the highest-ranking candidates from the pool who are eligible for the chosen round type" (IRCC: rounds of invitations). The cutoff is the score of the lowest-ranked person invited.

So the cutoff is not a pass mark set in advance. It is where that round's invitations ran out, and it shifts with how many people are invited and who is in the pool that day. When several people share the lowest score, IRCC decides by the date and time each one submitted their profile (IRCC: rounds of invitations), so matching a cutoff score is not the same as being invited.

A Canadian Experience Class candidate can be invited in three kinds of round: general rounds open to all three programs, program rounds for the Canadian Experience Class alone, and category rounds, for people who fit a category the Minister has set, such as a group of jobs (IRCC: rounds of invitations). Our page on Canadian Experience Class rounds lists each round of that type with its cutoff, and the Express Entry draws page shows every type. Past cutoffs are a record, not a forecast: nobody can tell you what the next one will be.

Routes that do not use your score

None of these routes ranks you by your CRS score or runs through an Express Entry round. Each has its own rules.

A provincial stream outside Express Entry

Every province and territory except Quebec and Nunavut runs a Provincial Nominee Program, which lets it nominate people for permanent residence. In IRCC's words, each one "has its own requirements" and sets how many people it can nominate each year (IRCC: Provincial Nominee Program). A stream is one route within a province's program, with its own rules.

Some streams sit outside Express Entry. You apply to the province for a nomination, and if it nominates you, you apply to IRCC for permanent residence with no Express Entry round in between (IRCC: non-Express Entry process). Each of our province and territory pages lists the streams our report checks there. Our provincial streams comparison shows which of them take graduates, which need no job offer and which need time in the province.

The Atlantic program and the community pilots

These routes start with a job offer from a designated employer: one that a province or a participating community has approved to hire through the program.

• The Atlantic Immigration Program needs a job offer from a designated employer in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island or Newfoundland and Labrador, and then an endorsement certificate from that province, which your employer applies for, before you apply for permanent residence (IRCC: Atlantic Immigration Program; IRCC: Atlantic Immigration Program, how to apply).
• The Rural Community Immigration Pilot needs a job offer from a designated employer in a participating rural community, and then that community's recommendation (IRCC: Rural Community Immigration Pilot, job offer).
• The Francophone Community Immigration Pilot works the same way, in participating French-speaking communities outside Quebec (IRCC: Francophone Community Immigration Pilot, job offer; IRCC: participating communities).

Our guide to Canada's community immigration programs explains each one, including what a community recommendation is.

Quebec's own selection

Quebec selects its own skilled workers, so the Canadian Experience Class is only for people who plan to live outside Quebec (IRCC: Canadian Experience Class).

If you want to stay in Quebec, its Skilled Worker Selection Program (PSTQ) is for skilled workers "whether they are in Québec or abroad" (Québec: Skilled Worker Selection Program). You submit an expression of interest, a profile saying you want to be selected, on Quebec's Arrima platform, and Quebec invites people from that pool using its own scoring system, which looks at things like your French, a Quebec diploma and work experience in Quebec (Québec: PSTQ invitations). Your CRS score plays no part. If Quebec selects you, you receive a Québec Selection Certificate (CSQ) (Québec: Skilled Worker Selection Program), and you then apply to IRCC for permanent residence (IRCC: Quebec-selected skilled workers). Our Quebec page covers its programs.

Routes that lift your score or shrink the field

These still run through Express Entry, but they change the arithmetic: a nomination adds points, and a category round sets you against a smaller group.

A provincial nomination through Express Entry

Other provincial streams are linked to Express Entry. If a province nominates you through one, you get 600 extra points (IRCC: how the PNP works), half of the 1,200 maximum (IRCC: CRS criteria). Our guide to the Provincial Nominee Program explains how the two kinds of stream differ, and the free CRS calculator shows your score with and without a nomination.

Category rounds where Canadian work counts

In a category round, IRCC invites only people who fit a category, and ranks them by CRS score within that smaller group (IRCC: category-based selection). Work you have done in Canada can count in two ways:

• The occupation categories, such as healthcare, trade or education jobs, ask for at least 12 months of full-time work, or the same amount part-time, in one listed occupation within the past 3 years, done in Canada or abroad.
• Some categories count only work done in Canada: those for physicians, senior managers and researchers (IRCC: category-based selection).

IRCC announced the categories for 2026 on 18 February 2026 (IRCC: 2026 Express Entry categories), and they can change from year to year, so check IRCC's category page for the list in force before you plan around one. Our pages for physician rounds and senior manager rounds list the rounds held in those categories, and our guide to category-based draws explains how IRCC decides which category you fit.

Raising your score

Your score can still change. A better language result, a second credential assessed, a partner's language test, more time working in Canada or some French can each add points under IRCC's CRS criteria. Our guide on how to raise your CRS score goes through each change and the points it is worth, and the free CRS calculator shows where your points come from.

Keeping your status meanwhile

A round, a nomination or a job offer can take time, and your permit keeps its own end date. If you hold a post-graduation work permit (PGWP), the work permit graduates of certain Canadian schools can get after they finish (IRCC: work after graduation), our guide to what to do when your PGWP is ending covers applying before it expires, the permits that can keep you working, and what to do if it has already run out.

What our report checks, and what it does not

Our report checks these routes against one set of answers: the Express Entry programs (the Canadian Experience Class among them), category-based selection, a nomination through Express Entry, the provincial streams listed on our province pages, the Atlantic Immigration Program, the community pilots, and Quebec's Skilled Worker Selection Program. Where Express Entry is part of your results, it works out your CRS score and sets it beside recent rounds. Things you would still have to go and get, such as a designated employer's job offer or a provincial nomination, show as steps ahead of you rather than as failures.

What it does not do:

• It does not check the Québec Experience Program (PEQ), Quebec's own route for temporary foreign workers and for international students who graduated in Quebec. Quebec decides when it accepts PEQ applications and from whom, so read Québec: Programme de l'expérience québécoise (PEQ), in French to see whether it is open to you.
• It does not know which employers are designated, whether a province will nominate you, or what the next cutoff will be, and it never tells you that you will be invited.

Next step

Answer the free questionnaire once, and the report checks each route it covers against those answers. The eligibility summary at the end is free too, and unlocking the full report, with the checklist behind each route, is your choice.