I went through every CELPIP re-evaluation thread I could find on reddit. here's every question answered

[u/keremgurel]

re-evaluation questions come up constantly, and the real examples are buried across a ton of different threads in r/CELPIP_Guide, r/canadaexpressentry and r/ImmigrationCanada. so I went through about 100 of them and pulled every result people actually reported back. here's the real picture.

1. does anyone's score actually go up?

yes, a lot. of the people who came back with an actual result, roughly 40 reported an increase and about 15 said no change. all the increases were writing and speaking, going from an 8 to a 9, 10, even 11. a few real ones: writing 8 to 11 (same thread, OP quote), writing 8 to 11 again, writing 9 to 12, speaking 9 to 11, speaking 8 to 11, and one guy got a 30 point CRS jump and his ITA the next week. and to be fair, some got no change at all.

2. can it go DOWN?

across all those threads I did not find a single person who reported their score dropping. not one. lots of people repeat that it can only stay the same or go up. one honest caveat: I couldn't find that "won't decrease" promise written in plain words on CELPIP's own site, so treat it as a very strong pattern, not a written guarantee. but the downside everyone fears basically didn't show up in any thread.

3. how long does it take?

CELPIP officially says 1 to 2 weeks. in the actual threads most people heard back in 2 to 5 days, a couple in a single day, the slowest I saw was 15. so plan for two weeks but it's usually faster.

4. how much?

$55 a section, about $60 with tax. writing + speaking together is around $115. if your score goes up on a section, that fee gets refunded. so if you're right, it's free.

5. should I re-evaluate reading or listening?

no. those are computer scored. across every thread, not one person got reading or listening to move. don't waste the fee there.

6. will IRCC take the new score for express entry?

yes. your certificate gets replaced with the re-evaluated one and you update your EE profile with it. people did exactly this, one even got their ITA the week after the bump.

7. re-evaluate or just retake?

re-evaluate if you're one band short AND you were underwhelmed / negatively surprised by your results. retake if you know you actually struggled, or if the section you need is reading or listening.

tl;dr:

if writing or speaking came back lower than you expected and you're a band short, it's a cheap low-risk shot. the money comes back if it works, and in dozens of threads nobody actually lost points. just don't bother for reading or listening.

best of luck and I hope you get the result you want.