The British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BCPNP) held a general and targeted draw on November 28.

The province issued 253 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) to general candidates, and at least 75 ITAs to targeted occupations.

All provinces (with the exception of Quebec and Nunavut) organize their own Provincial Nominee Program (PNP); An economic immigration route by which provincial governments can enroll foreign skilled talent to migrate to their province, and meet labor needs.

PNP has become a substantial addition to Canada’s immigration programs, and is expected to overtake Express Entry managed programs by 2024; As the main economic immigration route for foreign workers in Canada.

Provincial nomination draw results: November 28 – December 2

Only British Columbia held a PNP draw this week, issuing a total of over 300 ITAs with separate CRS cut-offs for each stream. BCPNP attracted all streams of BCPNP, including:

• skilled worker;
• Skilled worker-EEBC option;
• International graduate;
• International Graduate-EEBC Option; And
• Entry level and semi-skilled worker stream.

In addition, British Columbia also conducts a targeted draw under these sections for specific occupations the province wishes to fill. These are:

The complete draw breakdown including minimum CRS scores for each stream can be found below:

Effect of NOC change

Last two weeks saw only one PNP draw. While there is a slowdown in activity towards the end of the year, one important policy change greatly affected economic immigration to Canada: the updating of the National Occupation Classification (NOC) code.

On November 16, Canada switched from the 2016 NOC to the new 2021 NOC code. While these changes are largely for classification purposes, it is important to note that 16 new occupations have also been added to the Express Entry eligibility list.

Since NOCs are the main way of classifying jobs for economic immigration, they affect both the Express Entry managed system and PNP (e.g. British Columbia recently updated its scoring system according to new NOCs).

In fact, only three draws (including the aforementioned 28 November draw) have taken place since the change took effect on 16 November. It is likely that as provinces continue to adjust their programs to the new classifications and added job titles, PNPs will begin to operate more regularly.

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