Canada’s Express Entry system has seen a major shift in candidate scores after points for arranged employment were removed from the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS).
Thousands of candidates in the Express Entry pool have experienced a significant drop in their CRS scores by either 50 or 200 points. This reduction has a serious impact on their chances of receiving an Invitation to Apply (ITA) for Canadian permanent residency.
What Changed in the Express Entry Pool?
The biggest shift happened among candidates with CRS scores in the 501–600 range. A total of 5,740 profiles in this range disappeared after the change.
Other noticeable decreases were seen in:
- The 491–500 range: down by 1,618 profiles
- The 481–490 range: down by 984 profiles
In total, these three high-score brackets lost 8,342 profiles between March 16 and April 14, 2025. These ranges represent the top-scoring candidates in the Express Entry system.
After the removal of arranged employment points, many of these profiles (assuming they haven’t expired) were likely pushed down into lower CRS score brackets.
Note: The data used does not differentiate between natural changes in the pool (like profile expiry or new entries) and those specifically impacted by the CRS change on March 25, 2025.
Pool Still Grew Despite Score Drops
Interestingly, despite the decline in high-scoring profiles, the overall Express Entry pool grew by 7,373 profiles during the same period. This suggests that the reshuffling of scores due to the policy change played a major role in the new distribution of candidates.
Where Did Most Candidates End Up?
One of the most noticeable increases occurred in the 461–470 CRS score range, which added 2,157 new profiles. It’s likely that many of these candidates previously had higher scores due to arranged employment points but have now shifted into this lower range after those points were removed.
Here’s a summary of how the Express Entry pool changed between March 16 and April 14, 2025, across various CRS score ranges (data not shown in this rewrite, but typically would be followed by a table or chart in a full article).
| CRS score range | Change in Express Entry profiles |
| 601-1200 | +123 |
| 501-600 | -5,740 |
| 451-500 | +1,487 |
| 491-500 | -1,618 |
| 481-490 | -984 |
| 471-480 | +182 |
| 461-470 | +2,157 |
| 451-460 | +1,750 |
| 401-450 | +5,814 |
| 441-450 | +1,817 |
| 431-440 | +1,722 |
| 421-430 | +1,465 |
| 411-420 | +1,101 |
| 401-410 | -291 |
| 351-400 | +1,677 |
| 301-350 | +1,496 |
| 0-300 | +2,516 |
| Total | +7,373 |
How Are CRS Scores Currently Distributed in the Express Entry Pool After the Points Change?
Below is an updated overview of the Express Entry candidate pool as of April 14, highlighting how scores are now distributed following the recent CRS points adjustment.
| CRS score range | Number of candidates |
| 601-1200 | 816 |
| 501-600 | 19,782 |
| 451-500 | 71,542 |
| 491-500 | 12,093 |
| 481-490 | 12,359 |
| 471-480 | 16,215 |
| 461-470 | 16,189 |
| 451-460 | 14,686 |
| 401-450 | 67,301 |
| 441-450 | 14,131 |
| 431-440 | 14,740 |
| 421-430 | 13,084 |
| 411-420 | 13,020 |
| 401-410 | 12,326 |
| 351-400 | 53,479 |
| 301-350 | 22,799 |
| 0-300 | 8,563 |
| Total | 244,282 |
Although the Express Entry pool has grown rapidly throughout 2024 and into 2025 reaching its highest number of candidates in over a year, the removal of CRS points for arranged employment has led to an interesting trend.
Despite the overall increase of 25,792 candidate profiles between December 2024 and April 2025, the number of profiles in the following CRS score ranges has remained almost unchanged compared to December 2024:
- 501–600
- 490–500
- 481–490
This suggests that many candidates who once fell within these higher score ranges have been redistributed to lower brackets due to the recent policy change.
