What counts as "Canadian education" for Express Entry points — the five conditions, quoted from the instrument that sets them

A Canadian post-secondary credential is worth 15 or 30 additional CRS points. Which of the two you get, and whether you get either, is decided by section 30 of the Ministerial Instructions respecting the Express Entry system — a published legal instrument, not by anything a college says in its recruitment material. That section contains three requirements you must meet and three categories of credential it excludes outright.

This page quotes the instrument. It summarises publicly available rules; it is not an assessment, it does not predict any outcome, and it is not immigration advice. Paid immigration advice in Canada is a licensed activity.

The point values

From IRCC’s Comprehensive Ranking System criteria page (Date modified 22 June 2026), in the “Additional points” breakdown:

Factor	Points
Post-secondary education in Canada — credential of one or two years	15
Post-secondary education in Canada — credential three years or longer	30
Provincial or territorial nomination	600

The instrument states the same scale with the master’s and doctoral cases spelled out. Section 30(1):

“(a) 0 points, if the foreign national has a secondary school educational credential; (b) 15 points, if the foreign national has an eligible credential from a one-year or two-year post-secondary program; and (c) 30 points, if the foreign national has (i) an eligible credential from a post-secondary program of three years or more, (ii) an eligible credential from a university-level program at the master’s level or an entry-to-practice professional degree for an occupation listed in TEER Category 1 of the National Occupational Classification for which licensing by a provincial regulatory body is required, (iii) an eligible credential from a university-level program at the doctoral level.”

Note the ceiling. There is no separate 30-point bonus for a Canadian secondary school credential, and a master’s and a three-year bachelor’s earned in Canada attract the same 30 points under this factor. The instrument also limits the count to one credential — section 30(2): “Points are to be assigned under subsection (1) only for the eligible credential corresponding to the highest level of education for which the foreign national meets the requirements of subsection (3).”

The three requirements

Section 30(3), in full:

“Points are only assigned under subsection (1) if, for the purpose of obtaining the credential, the foreign national (a) studied or trained at a Canadian educational institution that is located in Canada; (b) completed at least eight months of that study or training on a full-time basis; and (c) was physically present in Canada for at least eight months of that study or training.”

Three separate tests, and they are cumulative.

There is a time-limited carve-out from two of them. Section 30(3.1):

“Paragraphs (3)(b) and (c) do not apply to foreign nationals in respect of credentials obtained in a study or training program that was undertaken, in whole or in part, during the period beginning on March 1, 2020 and ending on August 31, 2022.”

That window is closed. A programme begun after 31 August 2022 is governed by the full text of subsection (3).

What is an “eligible credential”

Section 30(4) lists exactly three things:

“(a) a degree, diploma, certificate or trade or apprenticeship credential from a Canadian public post-secondary institution or from a Canadian private post-secondary institution that operated under the same rules and regulations as a Canadian public post-secondary institution; (b) a diplôme d’études professionnelles (DEP) or an attestation de spécialisation professionnelle (ASP) earned through a program of study of at least 900 hours from a private secondary or post-secondary institution in Quebec; or (c) a Bachelor’s, Master’s or doctoral degree from a Canadian private post-secondary institution, if a provincial statute authorizes that institution to confer that credential.”

Read paragraph (a) closely. A private institution qualifies under it only if it “operated under the same rules and regulations as a Canadian public post-secondary institution”. Paragraph (c) is a narrower private-institution route, limited to degrees and conditioned on a provincial statute authorising that specific institution to confer that specific credential.

Underneath all of this sits a definition that comes from the Regulations. The instructions state that “Canadian educational credential” has the same meaning as in subsection 73(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, which reads:

“Canadian educational credential means any secondary school diploma or any post-secondary diploma, certificate or credential that is issued on the completion of a Canadian program of study or training at an educational or training institution that is recognized by the provincial authorities responsible for registering, accrediting, supervising and regulating such institutions.”

The operative words are “recognized by the provincial authorities”. Recognition sits with the province, not with the school.

The three exclusions

Section 30(5):

“For the purpose of this section, the following are not eligible credentials: (a) credentials obtained in a study or training program in which the study of English or French as a second language amounted to more than half of the program; (b) credentials obtained in a study or training program in which distance learning amounted to more than half of the program; or (c) credentials obtained in a study or training program while receiving a scholarship or fellowship that stipulated that the recipient return to their home country to apply the knowledge and skills gained.”

Section 30(6) suspends only the distance-learning exclusion, and only for the same closed window: “Paragraph (5)(b) does not apply in respect of credentials obtained in a study or training program that was undertaken, in whole or in part, during the period beginning on March 1, 2020 and ending on August 31, 2022.”

So, for a programme starting now:

• A fully online Canadian programme is excluded. So is a hybrid one where distance learning is more than half. The instrument sets the threshold at “more than half of the program”, not at “any online component”.
• A language-heavy programme is excluded on the same proportional test.
• A conditional scholarship can disqualify an otherwise eligible credential — this exclusion attaches to how the study was funded, not to the credential itself, and it is the one applicants most often do not know exists.

Where this factor is not the relevant one

A Canadian credential also counts in the core education factor, and there the rules differ. Section 11 of the same instructions assigns the level-of-education points (150 down to 0, without a spouse). Section 11(3) sets the evidence requirement for those points:

“(a) their educational credentials must be Canadian educational credentials; or (b) they must have an educational credential equivalency assessment in respect of their foreign educational credentials issued by an organization or institution designated under subsection 75(4) of the Regulations.”

IRCC states the practical consequence plainly on its ECA page: “You don’t need an assessment for a Canadian degree, diploma or certificate.”

Section 11 does not contain section 30’s eight-month, physical-presence, distance-learning or scholarship conditions. Those conditions govern the additional points only. A Canadian credential can therefore be usable in one factor and not the other, and the two questions have to be asked separately.

The 8-month test is not a programme-length test. Subsection (3)(b) asks whether you “completed at least eight months of that study or training on a full-time basis” for the purpose of obtaining the credential. The 15-versus-30 split in subsection (1) is a separate question about the length of the programme.

The eligible-institution test is not the designated learning institution list. Whether a school appears on IRCC’s DLI list governs study permits — IRCC states, “You need a letter of acceptance (LOA) from a DLI to apply for a study permit.” Whether a credential is an “eligible credential” under section 30 is governed by the paragraphs quoted above and, through them, by provincial recognition under IRPR 73(1). They are separate rule sets published in separate places, and neither one substitutes for the other. Study permit eligibility is not covered on this site; read IRCC’s own study permit pages.

What to check before you enrol

Take the specific programme you are considering and put its own published page next to section 30.

1. Which paragraph of 30(4) does this institution fall under — public, private-operating-under-public-rules, Quebec DEP/ASP, or degree-granting-by-provincial-statute? If the school’s page cannot tell you, the provincial regulator’s register can.
2. What proportion of the programme is delivered at a distance? Ask for it as a proportion of the programme, because that is the test the instrument applies.
3. Is at least eight months of it full time, and will you be in Canada for those eight months? Both, not either.
4. Does any scholarship you hold carry a return-home condition? If it does, read paragraph 30(5)(c) before you accept it.
5. Is the credential three years or longer, or one-to-two years? That is the 30-versus-15 line, and it is set by the programme, not by how long you take to finish it.
6. Confirm the version. The instructions we read are dated Ottawa, 11 March 2025 and the canada.ca page reports 2025-03-25; the CRS criteria page reports a Date modified of 22 June 2026. Check both before relying on any figure here.

We do not predict how any application will be assessed, we do not tell you which programme to enrol in, and we do not give immigration advice. Every quotation above is from the official pages listed in the sources, read on 3 September 2026.