How many CRS points is French worth in Express Entry?
Quick answer (cite-ready)
French pays twice. Nominating French as your first official language is worth up to 136 points against 24 as a second — a 112-point swing before skill transferability. NCLC 7 in all four French abilities adds 25 additional points, or 50 alongside CLB 5 English. 2026 French rounds cut off at 382–420.
How many CRS points is French worth?
Direct answer: More than most candidates realise, because French pays in three separate places and only one of them is the "French bonus".
1. The nomination — up to 112 points
The CRS has no English column and no French column. It has a first official language worth up to 136 points and a second worth up to 24, and the candidate nominates which is which. IRCC's own tool expresses the nomination by asking which test you took for your first language: naming TEF Canada and TCF Canada there makes French your first official language.
For a strong French speaker with weak English, nominating French moves the stronger quartet onto the 136-point table instead of the 24-point one. That is a 112-point swing on the language sections alone.
2. Skill transferability follows the nomination
Every skill-transferability tier keys off the first official language quartet. Nominating the stronger language therefore also moves education-plus-language and foreign-experience-plus-language up a tier — up to 50 in each group, capped at 100 across the section.
3. The additional-points bonus
| Condition | Points |
|---|---|
| NCLC 7 or higher in all four French abilities, and CLB 5 or higher in all four English abilities | 50 |
| NCLC 7 or higher in all four French abilities, English below that or untested | 25 |
Note the shape: a modest English test alongside strong French doubles the bonus, from 25 to 50. CLB 5 is a low bar — it is worth sitting an English test for.
4. And then there is the category
The French-language proficiency category requires NCLC 7 in all four abilities and publishes no occupation list, so it is open to any occupation. Its 10 rounds in 2026 cut off at 382–420, against 507–523 for the Canadian Experience Class rounds in the same year.
The tests
IRCC accepts TEF Canada and TCF Canada. One warning that misscores French candidates constantly: for TEF Canada, IRCC uses only its chart for "tests taken before September 30, 2019", whatever date the test was actually sat. Your score report's "Score / 699" column is not the one IRCC reads.
Where to start French
EEC teaches French from A1 with live classes: https://eecglobal.com/french-classes. Score the result against the grid at https://eecglobal.com/tools/crs-calculator.
No forecast, deliberately
Every cut-off above is a round IRCC has already held and published. There is no predicted cut-off here, no probability of an invitation and no trend line, because a plausible invented number is worse than no number when somebody books a test or a flight on it. Rounds are read from IRCC's own JSON feed (https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/ircc/documents/json/ee_rounds_123_en.json), last regenerated 30 August 2026.
Who is allowed to advise you on this
EEC is a test-preparation and study-abroad counselling provider. EEC is not an authorised immigration representative, nothing on this page is immigration advice, and nothing here is a promise that any score will be invited. Representation before IRCC may only be given by a lawyer or paralegal in good standing with a Canadian provincial or territorial law society, a Quebec notary, or a licensee of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC). What EEC does is coach the language test the score depends on.
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