French bonus points in Express Entry: the maths, done properly
Up to 50 bonus CRS points, plus francophone category draws with lower cut-offs. Here is exactly what French earns you, with a worked profile and the thresholds.
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Enter your TCF Canada scores — real or target. We convert them using the official Canadian Language Benchmarks equivalence table.
CE
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Reading levelCO
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Listening levelEE
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Writing levelEO
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Speaking levelEnter at least one score: the conversion updates as you type.
How TCF Canada scores map onto the Canadian Language Benchmarks in French.
| NCLC | Reading | Listening | Writing | Speaking | Immigration use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NCLC 10 | 549 – 699 | 549 – 699 | 16 – 20 | 16 – 20 | Maximum Express Entry bonus |
| NCLC 9 | 524 – 548 | 523 – 548 | 14 – 15 | 14 – 15 | Maximum Express Entry bonus |
| NCLC 8 | 499 – 523 | 503 – 522 | 12 – 13 | 12 – 13 | Most common Express Entry points bonus |
| NCLC 7 | 453 – 498 | 458 – 502 | 10 – 11 | 10 – 11 | Most common Express Entry points bonus |
| NCLC 6 | 406 – 452 | 398 – 457 | 7 – 9 | 7 – 9 | Canadian citizenship |
| NCLC 5 | 375 – 405 | 369 – 397 | 6 – 6 | 6 – 6 | Canadian citizenship |
| NCLC 4 | 342 – 374 | 331 – 368 | 4 – 5 | 4 – 5 | Floor of the published grid |
| NCLC 3 or less | 0 – 341 | 0 – 330 | 0 – 3 | 0 – 3 | — |
NCLC 7 across the four skills is the threshold that unlocks the most common points bonus, and NCLC 9 is worth more. Those values are IRCC policy and they move: check them at the source before building a strategy.
The two comprehension papers are scored from 0 to 699 and the two production papers from 0 to 20. Each is converted into an NCLC level separately; there is no official average across the papers.
Up to 50 bonus CRS points, plus francophone category draws with lower cut-offs. Here is exactly what French earns you, with a worked profile and the thresholds.
The exact TCF Canada score for NCLC 7 in each ability, the full conversion chart, how CLB and NCLC relate, and how long it really takes to get there.