These are the candidates Alberta is prioritizing for permanent residence in 2026

The Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP) has released its nomination allocation for 2026, mirroring its 2025 allocation post-increase.

For 2026, the federal government granted the AAIP 6,403 nomination spaces—a roughly 31% increase compared to the Program’s initial 2025 nomination allocation (4,875).

Details regarding its 2026 nomination allocation and intended distribution were published on the AAIP’s “processing information” page on January 13, 2026.

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As of the time of writing, the AAIP has already issued 111 nominations against its 2026 allocation.

Alberta is the fourth Canadian jurisdiction to release its nomination allocation for 2026, following Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and the Yukon.

How will the AAIP’s nomination allocation be distributed?

Alberta provides a great deal of transparency regarding how many nominations will be (and how many already have been) issued through each AAIP stream.

So far, the province is the only one to publish stream-by-stream distributions of nominations.

You can view the table below to see how many nominations the AAIP intends to issue through each of its respective streams—and how many have already been issued, as of January 13.

More than half (roughly 53%) of the AAIP’s 2026 nomination spaces have been allocated under its Alberta Opportunity Stream.

The above breakdown is not set in stone, as the AAIP notes that the nomination allocation distribution is subject to change without prior notice, and that nominations can be redistributed to other streams and pathways at any time.

What are the AAIP’s 2026 priorities?

In 2026, the AAIP will be prioritizing occupations in key sectors such as

• Healthcare;
• Technology;
• Construction;
• Manufacturing;
• Aviation; and
• Agriculture.

These priority sectors mostly mirror those held by the province in 2025, save for manufacturing—indicating a growing provincial labour shortage in this sector.

In addition to the above priorities, the province intends to prioritize candidates with qualifying job offers in communities designated under the Rural Renewal Stream.

The AAIP notes while these are AAIP’s highest priority sectors for 2026, they are by no means the only ones it will focus on, and it may issue invitations outside these “primary focus areas.”

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Additional nominations outside the AAIP’s 6,403 allotment

In 2026, the federal government is reserving 10,000 immigration spaces across all of Canada’s Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) to nominate the following set of individuals (in Canada or abroad):

• Licensed (practice-ready) physicians possessing job offers (5,000); and
• French-speaking foreign nationals (5,000).

Any nominations issued to physicians or francophones who meet federal criteria for these initiatives will not count towards a PNP’s established nomination allocation.

As a result, the AAIP will likely nominate more than 6,403 individuals for provincial nomination in 2026, allowing it to significantly increase its intake of foreign doctors or French-speaking residents.

To AAIP candidates to qualify under either of these initiatives, they must meet the following requirements.

• Physicians: Have a job offer in a qualifying National Occupational Classification (NOC) code (31100, 31101, or 31102) and be practice ready (meeting the province’s Dedicated Healthcare Pathway requirements).
• Francophones: Work in an AAIP-eligible NOC, and demonstrate a NCLC level 5 in all four language abilities.

These initiatives fit within AAIP’s existing program design—no new streams or pathways are being added for it.

It is currently unclear how these 10,000 federal immigration spaces will be distributed across each province and territory, and how they will translate nomination-wise. The AAIP notes that it will publish confirmed nomination totals for these initiatives once IRCC has confirmed them, for Express Entry and non-Express Entry pathways alike.

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Expressions of Interest and applications awaiting processing

Expressions of Interest

As of January 13, the province had 45,659 worker Expressions of Interest (EOIs) in its EOI pool that are eligible for selection draws. Here’s how they break down by stream and pathway:

*In early 2025, Alberta announced that effective March 17, 2025, the AAIP will no longer be inviting candidates under this pathway, but that applicants may continue to claim points for a qualifying family connection in Alberta.

Applications awaiting processing

As of January 13, the province had 1,386 applications awaiting processing across all streams, broken down as such per stream and pathway:

A brief look at the AAIP’s 2025 nomination distribution

In 2025, the AAIP conducted 77 draws—38 of these focused on Alberta Express Entry stream candidates.

Despite this, the bulk of invitations issued last year were through the Alberta Opportunity Stream.

As per recent data released by the AAIP, the province issued 6,603 nominations in 2025. This figure includes additional nominations under a small IRCC Express Entry administrative overage provided by the federal government.

More than 85% of all nominations issued in 2025 were granted to temporary foreign workers already in Alberta.

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