The Comprehend Ranking System (CRS) score is of immutable importance when applying for the Canadian Federal Express Entry, regardless of the program.
In order to be given an Invitation To Apply (ITA), your CRS score must meet the threshold eligibility requirement for that particular pool. The total points are 1,200.
The general rule of thumb is that a score of 470 is a good score, however this varies depending on the score distribution of the applicants of a given pool.
Thus, your safest bet as an applicant is to leverage on all options to boost your score.
As a prospective Express Entry candidate, it is important to note that time is of the essence. An Express Entry Profile has a validity of just 1 year and as such you must leverage on the fastest steps to improve your CRS score within that time frame.
The three fastest ways to do this are:
√ Improving your IELTS score
√ Getting a Job Offer in Canada
√ Getting a Provincial Nomination
Other options outside this bracket are likely to take time and may not yield palpable returns before the expiration of the validity period of the Express Entry profile.
This article focuses on the use of IELTS to boost your CRS score.
The official languages of Canada are English and French. Language Proficiency is inextricably important as a factor in your CRS score.
It is the most valued of all human capital factors, more than age, work experience, educational background and adaptability.
Language Proficiency is worth up to 260 points for a single applicant and 270 points for a couple.
Incremental gains in your language pints could make a huge difference to your CRS score. A Bilingual candidate who demonstrates proficiency in English and French could get up to 24 bonus points, especially under the PNP.
If you fail to get a high enough score in your IELTS, it strongly advised that you re-take the test as any improvement across any of the four categories (Listening, Speaking, Writing and Reading) could have tangible impacts on your CRS ranking in view of your ITA.
It is important that you achieve the Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) level of 9 in each ability.
According to clb-osa.ca:
“The Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) describe 12 levels of ability in each of four different language skills – Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing.
The CLB are used in Canada to describe the language ability of people who are learning English. For each language skill, you receive a separate benchmark, and this benchmark indicates how well you can function in that language skill.
There are three stages in the CLB. Stage I covers basic language ability (benchmarks 1 to 4). Stage II covers intermediate language ability (benchmarks 5 to 8). Stage III covers advanced language ability (benchmarks 9 to 12).”
Click Here to Find out how to ace your IELTS and get as high as 8.5.
