British Columbia selects 714 cream-of-the-crop workers for provincial immigration

On September 24, the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BCPNP) invited a total of 714 high-earning and high-scoring candidates to apply for provincial nomination for Canadian permanent residence.

The BCPNP selected 426 skilled workers with jobs paying at least $105,000 per year, and 288 workers who scored at least 131 points under the province’s ranking system.

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Those invited have 30 days to submit a complete application for provincial nomination, and if nominated, can apply to the federal government for permanent residence (PR).

Applicants residing in Canada may be eligible for a bridging open work permit (BOWP) after filing their PR application.

As of June 9, 2026, under a temporary federal measure, nominees applying for PR through a base PNP stream can apply for a BOWP months faster, without the need to have first received an Acknowledgement of Receipt (AOR) for their PR application.

Draw details

British Columbia’s 25th selection round of the year saw candidates invited based on their wage/salary tied to a TEER 0–3 job offer, or their profile registration score.

Selection criteria	Details	Invitations issued
Wage/salary + job offer	TEER 0–3 job offer, with an offered wage of at least $52/hour and $105,000/year.	426
Registration score	Minimum of 131 points	288

Invitations issued fell under British Columbia’s “innovate” objective, which is geared toward skilled workers in a variety of sectors and occupations.

This was British Columbia’s eighth round of 2026 aligned with its “innovate” objective.

Of the province’s “innovate”-aligned selection rounds held this year, this draw issued the highest number of invitations.

British Columbia does not publish the occupations or sectors of candidates invited under this objective.

As of September 24, the BCPNP has issued a total of 3,974 invitations to apply based on wage/salary + job offer and registration score in 2026.

Across all worker and entrepreneur streams and selection criteria, the BCPNP has invited no fewer than 6,128 candidates to apply for provincial nomination over the course of the year.

Future high-economic-impact selections

British Columbia notes that not all high-economic-impact invitations are based on wage/salary or registration score, and that future invitations may be based on one or more of the following selection factors:

Education, including level, field of study, and where it was completed.
Professional designation in the province.
Length and skill level of work experience.
Language proficiency.
Occupation.
Wage and/or skill level of the job offer.
Intention to live and work in a specific region of the province.
Strategic priorities that support provincial labour market needs, projects, or initiatives.

Once a BCPNP candidate receives an invitation, they can apply for provincial nomination, and if successful, apply for PR.

British Columbia’s 2026 allocation stands at 6,254 nomination spaces.

Makeup of the Skills Immigration pool

Foreign nationals must first register an EOI profile to be considered for selection under the BCPNP’s Skills Immigration (SI) category.

Each registrant is assigned a score using the information in their profile and placed in the applicable registration pool(s).

British Columbia conducts periodic draws from these pools, issuing invitations to candidates with competitive scores who also meet the selection criteria established for a given round.

The SI registration pool stood at 8,013 profiles as of September 1, according to the latest available update.