IRCC Wants to Merge All Three Express Entry Programs Into One — Here Is Everything on the Table

Separately from the category-selection consultation we covered recently, IRCC ran a second, larger consultation this spring — April 23 to May 24, 2026 — built around a detailed discussion paper proposing the most significant restructuring of Express Entry since the system launched in 2015. The core idea: stop running three separate federal programs with three separate rulebooks, and replace them with one. Alongside that, IRCC is weighing a rebalancing of the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) itself, informed by its own research into which factors actually predict an immigrant's economic success in Canada. The consultation is now closed. IRCC says it received more than 17,000 submissions, which are still being reviewed. Nothing here is decided — any actual change would need to go through the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations and be published in the Canada Gazette before it takes effect — but the direction IRCC has laid out is detailed enough to be worth understanding now, before it potentially becomes policy.

One Program Instead of Three

Today, a candidate qualifies for Express Entry by meeting the separate minimum requirements of at least one of three programs — the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Canadian Experience Class, or the Federal Skilled Trades Program — each with its own thresholds for education, language, and work experience. IRCC's proposal would replace all three with a single program, so every candidate entering the pool would be judged against the same minimum bar.

• Education: Canadian high school or a foreign equivalent — a real requirement today only under the Federal Skilled Worker Program; the Canadian Experience Class and Federal Skilled Trades Program currently have none
• Official language proficiency: CLB/NCLC 6 ("developing intermediate") in all four abilities — reading, writing, speaking, and listening — a middle point between the current spread, which runs from CLB 4 (Federal Skilled Trades, reading/writing) up to CLB 7 (Federal Skilled Worker; Canadian Experience Class TEER 0–1)
• Work experience: one year of cumulative skilled work experience at TEER 0–3, acquired in Canada or elsewhere, within the past three years — notably broader than the Canadian Experience Class, which currently requires the experience to be Canadian
• Under consideration for removal: the Federal Skilled Worker Program's 67-point selection grid, and the Federal Skilled Trades Program's requirement for a job offer or certificate of trade qualification — both flagged as duplicating what the CRS itself already measures

The practical effect, if adopted as described, is that skilled work experience gained entirely outside Canada could become enough to enter the pool on its own — something the Canadian Experience Class does not currently allow. IRCC frames this as a way to widen access for global talent and address structural labour shortages, not only for candidates already working in Canada.

Rebalancing the CRS Around What Actually Predicts Success

IRCC's own research divides current CRS factors into three tiers based on how strongly each one predicts an immigrant's actual earnings and employment outcomes after landing.

• Strongest predictors: strong official language skills (English, or both English and French), and high earnings as a temporary resident in Canada
• Moderate predictors: Canadian work experience, a Canadian job offer, university-level education, and younger age
• Weaker predictors: spousal points (a spouse's education, language, and Canadian work experience), sibling-in-Canada points, French bonus points, and Canadian-study points

IRCC states it is considering keeping the core human capital factors — age, education, language proficiency, and Canadian work experience — largely as they are, since these are the strongest and most consistent predictors. The factors flagged as weaker predictors are where changes are being actively considered, though the discussion paper is explicit about the reasoning behind each rather than proposing blanket removal. On French bonus points specifically, IRCC notes that since 2023, category-based selection has become a more direct mechanism for prioritizing French-speaking candidates — our French-language category alone drove 49.2% of all Express Entry invitations in 2025 — which is part of why the separate CRS bonus points for French may no longer be doing distinct work. On Canadian study points, IRCC's own data shows 76% of candidates who received these points between 2023 and 2025 did so for a one-to-two-year college credential specifically, a group the research shows earns slightly less on average than comparable candidates with no Canadian study at all — while candidates with a Canadian bachelor's degree or higher tend to earn slightly more.

A New Bonus for High-Wage Jobs — and the Return of Job-Offer Points

IRCC removed CRS points for a valid job offer entirely in March 2025, citing fraud risk. This proposal would bring job-offer points back, but only for offers in high-wage occupations — and it would also give the same bonus to Canadian work experience in a high-wage occupation, not just a job offer. The idea is to base the bonus on occupation-level median wage data from the federal Job Bank and Statistics Canada, rather than an individual's reported income, specifically to avoid rewarding candidates who work excessive hours in low-wage jobs or penalizing genuine differences in pay tied to region or gender.

• Three wage thresholds are under consideration: 2x the national median wage (example occupations given: physicians, university professors), 1.5x (engineers, teachers, transportation managers), and 1.3x (financial analysts, bricklayers, heavy-duty equipment operators)
• High-wage jobs are also seen as harder to fraudulently fabricate than lower-wage ones, since they typically require verifiable specialized skills and experience — part of why IRCC frames this as a fraud-mitigation measure, not only a talent-attraction one
• IRCC is separately assessing whether to expand the LMIA exemption for job offers from an employer a candidate has already worked for on a valid work permit — including an open work permit — for at least six months

Recognizing Canadian Licences in Regulated Occupations

For sectors facing long-term labour shortages that are also professionally regulated — health care, skilled trades, and education among them — IRCC is exploring ways to give more weight to candidates who already hold a Canadian licence, on the theory that a licensed candidate is demonstrably practice-ready rather than merely credentialed.

• For trades specifically: accepting only Red Seal-designated trade certificates going forward, and introducing new points to recognize trade apprenticeship work directly
• For other regulated occupations: potentially collecting information on candidates' specific Canadian licence, job, and province or territory, which could let IRCC or interested provinces prioritize practice-ready candidates in regulated fields
• Reducing duplicate language testing for regulated occupations, where a candidate's licensing-body language assessment and their separate IRCC-required test currently overlap — either by accepting a licensing body's own assessment for immigration purposes, or having regulators accept an IRCC-approved test for licensing

A Tighter Definition of "Canadian Work Experience"

IRCC also flagged genuine ambiguity in how "Canadian work experience" is currently defined across the Ministerial Instructions and the Regulations, and proposed a clearer standard: work performed in Canada, as a temporary resident, within the Canadian labour market, and paid by wages or commission.

• Proposed exclusions: self-employment (with a specific carve-out for physicians, given how that profession is structured in the Canadian healthcare system), work done while studying full-time, unauthorized work, work performed while an asylum claim is pending, work paid by a foreign source or foreign government, work with a multilateral international organization, and work at a foreign high commission, consulate, or embassy located in Canada

What Happens Next

The consultation closed May 24, 2026. IRCC says input from the more than 17,000 responses received will help develop specific options, and that any resulting program changes will be published in the Canada Gazette — Canada's formal process for proposed and final federal regulations — before taking effect. No timeline has been given for that step. IRCC also noted, in the same discussion paper, that further consultations on category-based selection priorities were expected later in 2026 — which is exactly the open consultation on 2027 categories we covered separately, running now through September 1, 2026.

Why This Is Worth Tracking Even Before Anything Is Decided

Nothing in this discussion paper is current policy, and the existing three-program structure with its existing CRS remains exactly what applies to any application submitted today. But the specificity of what IRCC published — exact proposed thresholds, exact predictor tiers, exact wage multiples — suggests this is further along than an early trial balloon. If you are building a long-term Express Entry strategy, a few of these proposals are worth factoring into how you think about timing, even while waiting for anything to become official: foreign work experience potentially counting on its own is meaningful if you do not yet have Canadian experience; a shift away from spousal, sibling, and Canadian-study points changes the relative value of strategies built around those factors; and a high-wage occupation bonus would meaningfully reward candidates who already work, or could work, in occupations clearing the proposed thresholds. None of this should drive a decision on its own — it is a proposal, not a rule — but understanding the direction helps you avoid building a plan entirely around a factor IRCC has already signalled it sees as a weak predictor.