In this article
The short answer
If a Canadian province nominates you through its Provincial Nominee Program, and you claim that nomination in your Express Entry profile, your Comprehensive Ranking System score increases by 600 points.
There is no other factor in the entire CRS grid that comes close. Perfect language scores across all four abilities are worth 136 points. A Canadian PhD is worth 150. Three years of Canadian work experience is worth 64. A provincial nomination is worth 600, on its own, in one line.
That number is not a coincidence. It was chosen to be decisive.
Why 600 is effectively a guarantee
The CRS is scored out of a maximum of 1,200 points. Six hundred of those 1,200 points are reserved for the provincial nomination alone. The other 600 are everything else you have ever done: your age, your degrees, your language tests, your work history, your spouse, your French, your sibling in Canada.
In practice this means a nominated candidate lands somewhere between roughly 600 and 1,100 points. General Express Entry draw cut offs have historically sat far below that range. So when IRCC holds a draw, a nominated candidate is almost always above the line.
We say almost always rather than always because IRCC does not publish a guarantee, and no honest consultant will give you one. But the design intent is clear: a province has told the federal government it wants you specifically, and the CRS is built to let that decision win.
What the 600 points do NOT do
They do not skip the application. You still submit a full permanent residence application, with the same documents, the same medical exam, the same police certificates, and the same admissibility checks as everyone else. A nomination gets you invited. It does not get you approved.
They do not remove the Express Entry entry requirement. You must still be eligible for one of the three Express Entry programs, in most cases the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Canadian Experience Class, or the Federal Skilled Trades Program, before you can be in the pool at all.
They do not follow you around. The nomination is tied to the province that issued it and to the stream you applied under.
Enhanced versus base: the distinction that decides everything
Only an ENHANCED provincial nomination gives you the 600 CRS points.
An enhanced nomination is one issued through a PNP stream that is aligned with Express Entry. You must already be in, or become eligible for, the Express Entry pool. The province nominates you inside the Express Entry system, you accept the nomination in your online profile, and the 600 points attach to your CRS score.
A base nomination is issued through a PNP stream that sits entirely outside Express Entry. It has no CRS score, because CRS does not apply. There are no 600 points. Instead you submit a paper based permanent residence application directly to IRCC. It is a valid pathway. It is simply a different pathway, and it is generally slower.
This single distinction causes more confused, disappointed applicants than any other topic in Canadian immigration. Somebody reads PNP gives you 600 points, applies to a base stream because it looked easier to qualify for, receives a nomination, and then discovers there is no CRS score to boost and no Express Entry invitation coming.
Before you apply to any PNP stream, ask one question: is this stream aligned with Express Entry, yes or no. The province's own website will say. If it does not say clearly, it is worth paying for an hour of a licensed consultant's time before you spend months on the application.
The obligation you take on
A provincial nomination is not a coupon. It is a commitment. When a province nominates you, it is doing so on the understanding that you intend to live and work in that province. You sign statements to that effect.
Canadian permanent residents have mobility rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, so no province can legally force you to stay after you land. But that is a legal fact about what happens after you become a permanent resident. It is not a strategy. Applying to a province you have no intention of living in, in order to harvest 600 points and then move to Toronto, is a misrepresentation risk. Misrepresentation under Canadian immigration law can result in refusal, a five year bar, and a permanent record.
Do not treat the 600 points as a loophole. Treat them as the price a province pays for a resident it actually wants.
How the process runs, start to finish
Two routes exist.
Route one, the province finds you. You create your Express Entry profile, and while creating it you indicate interest in specific provinces. Provinces search the pool. If a province wants you, it issues a Notification of Interest to your Express Entry account. You then apply to that province's stream. If the province nominates you, the nomination appears in your Express Entry account. You accept it. Your CRS score increases by 600. You wait for the next draw.
Route two, you find the province. You apply directly to a province's enhanced PNP stream, on that province's own portal, on that province's own timeline and with that province's own fee. If nominated, the province issues you a nomination certificate and you register it against your Express Entry profile.
In both cases, after your score jumps, you wait for an invitation to apply, and then you have sixty days to submit your complete permanent residence application to IRCC.
The honest strategic advice
If your CRS score is comfortably above recent draw cut offs, a provincial nomination is a nice insurance policy but it is not urgent, and it comes with real obligations and real cost.
If your CRS score is stuck fifty to eighty points below the cut off, and you have already retaken your language test, and you have no realistic route to a large point gain, a provincial nomination is very likely the highest value move available to you. Nothing else on the grid is worth 600 points.
And if you are being told by anyone that a job offer will fix your score, stop. IRCC removed CRS points for arranged employment on 25 March 2025. A job offer is now worth zero CRS points. A provincial nomination is worth 600. Those two facts, together, explain why PNP interest has surged.
Not sure which pathway is right for you? Our RCIC-licensed consultants can advise you on the best strategy based on your immigration goals.
Prepared by Sivathri Priya, KGraph Immigration. Last updated July 2026. General information, not legal advice.
Not sure which pathway is right for you? Our RCIC-licensed consultants can advise you on the best strategy based on your immigration goals.
Check Your EligibilityPrepared by Sivathri Priya, KGraph Immigration Consultants. Last updated July 2026. This guide is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal or immigration advice.