Government looking to give boost to high-wage workers in express entry system

OTTAWA — Ottawa is looking at overhauling the express entry system to make it easier for people with high-paying job offers to apply for permanent residency.

A public consultation survey and discussion paper outline the proposed changes to the express entry system.

Express entry evaluates economic immigration applicants based on a point system that takes factors like age, education and Canadian work experience into account.

Applicants in the express entry pool with the most points are invited to apply for permanent residency. People who score the highest tend to be younger and highly educated, to possess specialized skills and to be fluent in one or both of Canada’s official languages.

The government is looking to add a new category that gives additional points to workers with domestic experience or job offers that pay above the national median wage, such as doctors, engineers and heavy duty equipment operators.

This is meant to complement the International Talent Attraction Strategy first announced in the November budget, the discussion paper says. The government is focusing on bringing in doctors, researchers, senior managers, transportation professionals and skilled military recruits through this strategy.

The Canadian Armed Forces only accepts foreign skilled military recruits from NATO allies, Australia and New Zealand, according to a document tabled in Parliament on Feb. 25, 2026.

The discussion paper says the government is looking at reintroducing express entry points for job offers only in high-wage occupations because the need for specialized skills and experience associated with those jobs is easier to verify, reducing the risk of fraud.

The government eliminated the previous point system for job offers in March 2025.

Ronalee Carey, an Ottawa-based immigration lawyer, said the original points system for job offers was dropped because of fraud — and that concern extends to the new plan to reserve job offer points for high-wage positions.

“People were manufacturing these job offers and they were paying extraordinary sums of money to Canadian employers to give them this job offer. So now the concern is that it will simply happen again,” she said.

Carey also said she often represents physicians looking to come to Canada who are older and don’t score as highly on French tests — factors which reduce their express entry scores.

“So do you really want Canada to not be able to bring in a highly skilled cardiologist because they’re in their 50s?” she said. “Even though they’re still going to be practising for another 15 years, but they don’t have enough points to beat out someone who has a business degree but they speak French and English?”

The government is also considering combining the three express entry streams into one pathway that requires at least a Canadian high school-level education, the ability to communicate in one official language and one year of skilled work experience.

Currently, express entry applicants apply through the Canadian Experience Class, the Federal Skilled Worker Program or the Federal Skilled Trades Program.

The discussion paper says the 2023 changes to express entry — which allowed the Immigration Department to invite people with specific skills tied to economic needs to apply for permanent residency — makes the three streams redundant.

Carey said this change is “long overdue” because the multiple streams can overcomplicate the express entry process when applications are weighted on point totals in the end.

Zool Suleman, a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer, said these proposed changes likely will push high-wage earners to the front of the permanent residency line.

“So this is a way to take several lanes of traffic and put them into one lane of traffic, but there is an overflow lane. And that overflow lane is for skilled workers, or to be more specific, high-wage earning immigrants,” Suleman told The Canadian Press.

“This is their way to skim off the doctors, the scientists, the executives, the computer professionals, so that we don’t lose high-earning immigrants, but for the rest of them, they will all merge into one queue and that’s an issue. I don’t know if that’s going to fix anything.”

More than 110,000 people are now waiting to have their permanent residency applications processed through the existing express entry streams.

While the government’s target is to process these applications within six months, the Immigration Department’s processing time portal says people applying now should expect a wait of about seven months.

“We have too many people in the system already under a variety of very specific criteria programs. And now, sanding the edges off the programs and trying to merge them into one feels like an attempt to recognize that they were too specific in their original program streams,” Suleman said.

“This is exactly what immigration lawyers and immigration community services had told the minister. But a few years ago the minister at that time did not wish to listen, so in a way it’s a course correction but it’s unclear if the ship is still going to be on path.”

Immigration Minister Lena Diab’s office said she is not available for an interview this week to talk about these proposed reforms due to scheduling.

Responding to the proposed changes on social media, Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel-Garner said those “high-paying jobs” should be offered “to Canadians.” A Conservative spokesperson directed The Canadian Press to her post on X in response to an interview request.

Carey argued that with declining birthrates in many nations, Canada will reach a point where it will have to compete for specialized global talent, so it’s prudent to have a policy that makes it easier for these people to come to Canada.

“Immigrants have come to Canada, but they’re leaving in greater and greater numbers because they’re not getting the jobs that they thought they were going to get,” she said.

“Canada is starting to wake up to the fact that we aren’t going to have necessarily the pick of the litter like we did before, and we have to become more competitive.”

The 30-day consultation period on these reforms closes on Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2026.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press