Editorial policy
How we source and verify the rules
A points calculator is only as good as the figures behind it, so accuracy is the standard everything else on this site serves. This page sets out where our numbers come from, how we resolve conflicts, and how we keep them current as the law changes.
Official instruments are the ground truth
For each program we work from the primary source — the legislation, ministerial instruction, or the responsible department's own published table — not from other calculators or summary articles. Those secondary pages help us see what a topic should cover, but they never decide a figure. When a widely repeated number and the official instrument disagree, the instrument wins and we flag what the common version gets wrong, with the date the change took effect.
Every figure is cited and dated
Points values, thresholds, and pass marks are stored as structured data, and each one records the instrument it came from and the date we last checked it against that instrument. On the page you see this as a source link beside the relevant table and a human-readable "rules verified" date. The calculator, the on-page tables, and that verification line all read from the same underlying data, so a figure can't be right in one place and stale in another.
Changes are versioned, not overwritten
Migration points are legislation: they change on commencement dates, not gradually. When a rule changes we update the data, increment its version, and add a dated entry to that page's changelog describing what changed — so the history stays visible rather than a number quietly shifting under you. The "Page updated" date at the foot of a page is the later of two dates: the last change to the page's own text, and the last date the rules or data it shows were verified against their sources. So it can move when a re-check finds nothing has changed; a routine redeploy never moves it. The 189 invitation rounds page and the Express Entry draws page are stricter: there the date is the day a round was last added to the page, or the day of the last change to the text or the law if that is later. Verifying the same rounds again never moves it. For rounds added before mid-October 2026 that day was not recorded, and the round's own date is used instead.
We re-check on a schedule
Because these rules move several times a year, verification is a recurring duty rather than a one-time task. At least twice a month an automated check re-reads the official sources behind most of our rules and published datasets and reports anything that differs from what the site shows. Every difference is reviewed before it is published, and a dataset's verified date is the day that review was done. Where a government site refuses automated requests the check cannot run unattended: a person saves the pages from a browser, the same comparison is run on those copies, and until then the page keeps the date of its last check. We also re-check when migration-policy news breaks. Time-sensitive context that shifts more often — such as recent invitation-round or draw cutoffs — carries its own verified date so you can see how fresh it is.
Where we draw the line
Anything we can't confirm against an official source is either left off the page or labelled plainly as commonly cited but unofficial. We're honest when a country's system isn't a genuine additive points test — a checklist of mandatory criteria is not a score, and we won't dress one up as a calculator. And because these are high-stakes decisions, our results are informational estimates, not immigration advice: your eligibility can turn on specifics a calculator never sees, so confirm against the official source and consult a registered professional before acting. This mirrors the approach we describe on the about page.
Found an error?
Reader corrections are part of how we stay current — a rule change we haven't caught yet is exactly what we want to hear about. Send it below, or use the contact page if you'd rather include more detail.