How Express Entry works
Express Entry is the online system Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) uses to manage applications for three federal economic immigration programs. You create a profile, receive a score, and wait to be invited to apply for permanent residence.
The three programs and the pool
Express Entry manages the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSW), the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FST), and the Canadian Experience Class (CEC). If you meet a program's minimum requirements, your profile enters a single pool of candidates. The FSW also has its own eligibility points grid scored out of 100, with a pass mark of 67.
Entering the pool is not an application — it is a ranked expression of interest. You stay in the pool while IRCC invites the highest-ranked candidates in regular rounds.
Your CRS score and rounds of invitations
Everyone in the pool is ranked by the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS), scored out of 1,200 on age, education, language ability, work experience, and additional factors such as a provincial nomination or a sibling in Canada. About every two weeks, IRCC holds a round of invitations and issues Invitations to Apply (ITAs) to candidates above a cut-off score.
The cut-off is not a fixed pass mark — it moves every round depending on the pool and the round type. After an ITA, you have a set window to submit your full permanent-residence application.
Category-based draws — where your NOC matters
Alongside general and program-specific rounds, IRCC runs category-based draws that invite candidates in priority occupations and in French — recent categories include healthcare and social services, STEM, trades, transport, and agriculture and agri-food. Which categories you qualify for depends on your NOC 2021 occupation code.
That makes the right NOC decisive: it sets your TEER level, your program eligibility, and the category draws you can be pulled in. A code whose duties don't match your job can be treated as misrepresentation, so confirm it before you submit.