Over 350,000 Haitian nationals residing legally in the US may be facing deportation come February 2026.

Immigrating to Canada through the points-based Express Entry system may be a viable option for many US Haitian residents who possess skilled work experience.

With the Canadian government prioritizing Francophone immigration, French-speaking Haitians have an added advantage under Express Entry—wherein those with the highest number of points are given precedence.

Why Haitians may be good candidates for Canadian economic immigration streams

As per Canada’s latest Immigration Levels Plan, the country aims to reach a French-speaking permanent resident (PR) admission target of 10.5% by 2028 (outside Quebec).

Canada assesses how competitive a candidate is through the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS), which scores Express Entry candidate profiles, taking into account age, education, language, and (Canadian and foreign) work experience.

Haitian nationals who are proficient in both English and French have an advantage under Express Entry, as they can gain up to 210 points for just their language abilities under the Core Human Capital and Additional factors section of the CRS.

Further, a candidate can gain up to 100 additional points for their language proficiency, depending on their level of education or how many years of foreign work experience they have, through the Skills Transferability section of the CRS.

The Canadian government regularly holds Express Entry draws, in which they invite high-scoring candidates to apply for Canadian permanent residence.

But even lower-scoring candidates have a chance of being invited through category-based selection draws, which typically see lower CRS cut-off scores than other draw types.

One of these categories is “French-language proficiency,” which requires candidates to meet a Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens (NCLC) level 7 across all four language abilities (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).

This year, CRS cut-off scores for French draws have ranged from 379–481—the lowest of all the category-based selection draws.

Of the 94,476 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) issued this year through Express Entry, 42,000 have been through French draws.

To compare, here are the CRS cut-off scores for other draw types, as well as the number of ITAs issued through each:

Draw type	Number of draws	<st