CRS – What is it and how can you improve it (Comprehensive Ranking System)

The Comprehensive Ranking System or CRS score is used by Canadian immigration authorities to analyze your abilities. From age to work experience, everything earns you points. In the Canadian Express Entry system, there are many skilled worker programs such as the Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Trades Program, and Federal Skilled Worker program. Established in 2015, the Express Entry system is a fast-track process to issue Invitations to Apply (ITAs) for permanent residence. 

In this blog post, we will discuss what exactly the CRS score is and how you can improve it if it’s not quite where you would like it to be.

What is CRS Score?

Canadian Express Entry system uses the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score to check the eligibility of candidates. It is based on your education, work experience, language ability, age, job offer, family connections, and other factors. 

CRS also takes into account your work experience in Canada or abroad over a period of at least 12 months within six years before your application date. And while language ability doesn’t play a role in gaining entry to Canada, your language ability has a major impact on determining if you will be able to support yourself once living here. 

For example: if English isn’t your first language but is needed for employment, you could have some difficulty finding work that meets both requirements — until English improves or another skill becomes more desirable (i.e., specialized training).

Which programs require CRS?

These programs include:

• Federal Skilled Trades Program (FST)
• Canadian Experience Class (CEE)
• Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSW)

Factors That Affect Your CRS Score

To calculate the CRS score, you need to have a few specific details about the candidate. From age to experience, everything plays a role in determining your CRS score. Here are the major factors that impact your overall score. 

Age

Firstly, your age is extremely important. A young individual gets more points that an older person. You can get a maximum of 110 points without a spouse and 100 points with a spouse. Depending on your age, you will get the following points. 

If you have a spouse, you can get: 

• Under 18 years of age – 0 points
• 18 years old – 90 points
• 19 years old – 95 points
• 20 to 29 years old – 100 points
• 30 years old – 95 points
• 31 years old – 90 points
• 32 years old – 85 points
• 33 years old – 80 points
• 34 years old – 75 points
• 35 years old – 70 points
• 36 years old – 65 points
• 37 years old – 60 points
• 38 years old – 55 points
• 39 years old – 50 points
• 40 years old – 45 points
• 41 years old – 35 points
• 42 years old – 25 points
• 43 years old – 15 points
• 44 years old – 5 points
• 45+ years of age – 0 point

If you don’t have a spouse, you will get: 

• 0 points for people under 18 years of age 
• 99 points for 18 years old
• 105 points for 19 years old 
• 110 points for 20 to 29 years old – 
• 105 points for 30 years old
• 99 points for 31 years old
• 94 points for 32 years old
• 88 points for 33 years old
• 83 points for 34 years old
• 77 points for 35 years old
• 72 points for 36 years old
• 66 points for 37 years old
• 61 points for 38 years old
• 55 points for 39 years old
• 50 points for 40 years old
• 39 points for 41 years old
• 28 points for 42 years old
• 17 points for 43 years old
• 6 points for 44 years old
• 0 points for 45+ years of age

Education

Canada is looking for skilled people. Hence, your education will play a role as well. You can score a maximum of 150 points without spouse and 140 points with a spouse. 

Education Points Without Spouse

• Less than high school – 0 points
• High school diploma – 30 points
• One year diploma – 90 points
• Two-year diploma – 98 points
• Bachelor’s degree – 120 points
• Two or more bachelor’s degrees – 128 points
• Master’s degree – 135 points
• Professional degree – 135 points
• Doctorate – 150 points

Education Points With Spouse

• Less than high school – 0 points
• High school diploma – 28 points
• One year diploma – 84 points
• Two-year diploma – 91 points
• Bachelor’s degree – 112 points
• Two or more bachelor’s degrees – 119 points
• Master’s degree – 126 points
• Professional degree – 126 points
• Doctorate – 140 points

Official language proficiency 

When you move to Canada, you must know how to speak the official language. Otherwise, you won’t be able to communicate with your employer and other people. Depending on your language proficiency, you can score a maximum of 160 without a spouse and 150 with a spouse. 

Your language ability is determined by four abilities including reading, writing, speaking, and listening. CLB 10+ gives you a maximum of 34 points without a spouse and 32 points with a spouse. 

First Language Proficiency Points Grid (no spouse):

• 0 points for CLB 1 to 3
• 6 points for CLB 4
• 6 points for CLB 5
• 9 points for CLB 6
• 17 points for CLB 7
• 23 points for CLB 8
• 31 points for CLB 9
• 34 points for CLB 10+ 

First Language Proficiency Points Grid (with a spouse):

• 0 points for CLB 1 to 3
• 6 points for CLB 4
• 6 points for CLB 5
• 8 points for CLB 6
• 16 points for CLB 7
• 22 points for CLB 8
• 29 points for CLB 9
• 32 points for CLB 10+

Second Language Proficiency Points Grid:

• 0 points for CLB 1 to 3
• 0 points for CLB 4
• 1 point for CLB 5
• 1 point for CLB 6
• 3 points for CLB 7
• 3 points for CLB 8
• 6 points for CLB 9
• 6 points for CLB 10+

Work Experience

An experienced individual is worth more than a fresh graduate. If you have enough experience, you can get a maximum of 80 scores without a spouse and 70 scores with a spouse. Here is important to mention that if you have foreign work experience, you will get fewer points. 

Canada Work Experience Points Grid (no spouse):

• 0 points for less than one year 
• 40 points for one year
• 53 points for two years
• 64 points for three years
• 72 points for four years
• 80 points for five years

Canada Work Experience Points Grid (with a spouse):

• 0 points for less than one year
• 35 points for one year
• 46 points for two years
• 56 points for three years
• 63 points for four years
• 70 points for five years

Foreign Work Experience Points

• If you have CLB 7 or higher in all first language abilities and 12 to 24 months of foreign work experience, you will get 13 points. 
• If you have CLB 9 or higher in all first language abilities and 12 to 24 months of foreign work experience, you will get 25 points. 
• Having a CLB 7 in all first language abilities along with three years of foreign work experience will get you 25 points. 
• Having a CLB 9 in all first language abilities along with three years of foreign work experience will get you 50 points. 

Spouse or common-law partner

Apart from the main applicant, the spouse also gets some points depending on their education, language proficiency, and Canadian work experience. 

Language Proficiency 

In each ability, your spouse can get a maximum of 5 points. Overall, they can get a maximum of 20 points in four abilities. Here is the breakdown: 

• 0 points for CLB 1 to 3
• 9 points for CLB 4
• 1 point for CLB 5
• 1 point for CLB 6
• 3 points for CLB 7
• 3 points for CLB 8
• 5 points for CLB 9
• 5 points for CLB 10+ 

Education

A spouse’s educational qualification can get some points and strengthen the immigration application. Depending on their qualification, they can get a maximum of 10 points. Here is the breakdown: 

• Less than high school – 0 points
• High school diploma – 2 points
• One year diploma – 6 points
• Two-year diploma – 7 points
• Bachelor’s degree – 8 points
• Two or more bachelor’s degrees – 9 points
• Master’s degree – 10 points
• Professional degree – 10 points
• Doctorate – 10 points

Canada Work Experience 

A spouse with eligible Canadian work experience can gain up to 10 points. Here is the breakdown: 

• 0 points for less than one year
• 5 points for one year
• 7 points for two years
• 8 points for three years
• 9 points for four years
• 10 points for five years

Other Factors

In addition to the above factors, there are a few other things that impact your CRS score. 

• French language proficiency (30 points)
• Post-secondary education in Canada (30 points)
• Brother or sister living in Canada (15 points)
• Provincial nomination (600 points)
• Arranged employment (200 points)

How to Improve your CRS score

A CRS score takes into account your education, language ability, work experience, and other factors to reflect how well-suited you are for Canada. To achieve a high score of 740 or more, focus on developing one skill set with strong points in three or four areas by taking advantage of educational programs in Canada. 

When applying for permanent residence through Express Entry, your individual CRS score will be used to determine if you qualify for one of 60 Express Entry streams. Depending on which stream you are eligible for, applicants must meet varying criteria from a minimum CRS score to high scores under certain categories to be invited to apply as an immigrant to Canada.

Now, you know which factors impact your CRS score. It is easy to learn how to increase your points. If you can improve your education, you can get extra points. Similarly, you can increase your work experience or language proficiency to get more points. However, these factors require some time and effort which can delay your application. 

Education

To improve your educational points, you need to provide evidence of further education. If you have a master’s degree, you will get 135 points. With a Doctorate, you can get 150 points. It is important to mention that you will get 126 points for a master’s degree and 140 points for Doctorate if you have a spouse as well. 

For a spouse, you can get up to a maximum of 10 points for a Master’s degree. Make sure that you enter their educational details to get their points. 

In short, you need to increase your education to get more points. 

Experience 

With Canadian work experience, you can get a maximum of 80 points for five or more years of experience. Let’s say that you have claimed points for only one year’s experience in Canada. If you can provide evidence for more experience in Canada, you can increase points. 

Similarly, you can increase points for foreign work experience as well. Make sure that you provide evidence of experience of up to 3 years to get maximum points. 

If you have a spouse, submitting their work experience in Canada or outside the country will also award you points. 

Official Language Proficiency 

To improve your Express Entry points, you need to improve your language abilities. Let’s say that you have scored CLB 6 in speaking ability. You will get 9 points only. Now, if you improve your language and get CLB 10+, you will get 34 points, which is a significant raise. Similarly, you can improve other abilities such as listening, reading, and writing. Each ability gives you a maximum of 34 points and you can get 136 points overall. 

Furthermore, you can get up to 24 points through second language ability (French). In the second language, you will get a maximum of 6 points (for CLB 10+) for each ability. 

For the spouse, you can claim a maximum of 20 points for CLB 10+ in each language ability. If your partner is scoring fewer points, you can ask them to reappear for the test to improve the score. 

Employment Offer or Provincial Nomination

Getting an employment offer or provincial nomination is probably the quick and easiest way to increase your points. Moreover, you get a huge number of points with these two factors, which almost guarantee your immigration. 

If you arrange employment, you can get 200 points while provincial nomination will give you 600 points. 

CRS Score Calculator

Thanks to modern technology, you don’t need to calculate your score manually. With the official CRS tool, you can calculate your CRS score within a few seconds. 

Starting from marital status, the CRS tool will ask a range of questions. Make sure that you enter every detail correctly because it impacts your overall score. Let’s say that you enter your age “30” while it is 29, you will lose 5 points. These five points could be the deciding factor whether you apply for immigration or not. Hence, it is important to use the tool perfectly.

If you are not sure that you have calculated your score accurately, you can use the services of an immigration consultant. 

What is a good CRS score?

Honestly, it is difficult to give you an exact CRS score that will help you get permanent residence. However, anything above 600 will increase your chances of getting Canadian immigration. 

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Canada put a hold on Express Entry draws. And it results in increased competition. People who scored above 470 used to get selected before the pandemic. 

In short, it depends on the score of other people and whether you will be selected or not. To give you a picture, there are 801 people in the pool with scores of 601 to 1200. Moreover, there are 6,391 people with a score of 501 to 600. And the pool contains 49,555 people with scores between 451 and 500. 

Why CRS is necessary

CRS score is required for PR applications, especially for Immigration. Anyone who wants to move to Canada needs to calculate their CRS score. Canadian immigration authorities analyze your abilities based on your CRS score. People will the highest CRS score will be invited for permanent residency applications. 

Without enough CRS scores, you can’t apply for permanent residency. 

Conclusion

Many immigrants trying to immigrate to Canada get tripped up by not knowing what CRS score they should be aiming for. An overall CRS score of 670-720 will provide an immigrant with a high chance of getting accepted into Canada. 

CRS score is used by Canadian immigration officials as one metric for evaluating whether or not an applicant has enough money to support themselves in Canada, making them a necessity for any serious immigrant looking to make their home in our beautiful country.

We’ll finish up by personally giving you a sample list of things you can do to boost your score. Fill up the form below and we will be in touch with you as soon as possible.

We wish you the best of luck!