The Government of British Columbia has announced major changes to the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BCPNP), including 2026 priorities, the cancelled launch of its student streams, and official immigration pathway closures.<\/p>\n
As part of its Program restructuring, British Columbia will be shifting its focus to the prioritization of healthcare and trades workers, with the intention of 35% of all nominations going to candidates working outside Greater Vancouver.<\/p>\n
Assess your eligibility for Express Entry-aligned PNP streams British Columbia announced these changes via a news release published on April 23, 2026.<\/p>\n The province has also confirmed that it is currently seeking an increase to its 2026 nomination allocation<\/a> (5,254) from the federal government after receiving less than initially requested (9,000), as well as for subsequent years.<\/p>\n Launch of student streams cancelled<\/p>\n The long-awaited launch<\/a> of the student streams intended to replace the International Graduate and International Post-Graduate streams (which closed in November 2025 and January 2025, respectively), has been cancelled.<\/p>\n The province previously stated that it would be replacing these streams with three new ones: a Bachelor\u2019s, Master\u2019s, and Doctorate stream; however, international student graduates are now urged to pursue alternative BCPNP<\/a> pathways.<\/p>\n The launch of these streams was announced in June of 2024, with the plan originally having been to do so in January of 2025. In April of last year, it said it would not launch the streams until “BC’s allocation levels are restored.”<\/p>\n After the April 2025 suspension of the replacement streams opening, there had been no word on what was happening with them behind the scenes until this latest move.<\/p>\n Removal of several provincial immigration pathways<\/p>\n In its April 23 announcement, British Columbia said it will be officially closing its Entry Level and Semi-Skilled Stream<\/a> (ELSS), which provided a pathway to permanent residence<\/a> for BC-based workers<\/a> in eligible occupations within the tourism\/hospitality and food processing sectors.<\/p>\n The BCPNP has not issued any invitations under this stream since December 10, 2024.<\/p>\n With this change, entry-level workers will have to seek alternative pathways for immigrating to BC, particularly those in previously ELSS-eligible occupations, which included the following:<\/p>\n 64300 Ma\u00eetres d\u2019hotel and host\/hostesses The province also stated that no more draws targeting specifically targeting workers in priority technology occupations will occur, with the last such draw having taken place on December 3, 2024.<\/p>\n British Columbia does note, however, that it will continue to invite workers in occupations that were on the BCPNP\u2019s now nixed list of priority technology occupations.<\/p>\n Targeted invitations will be sent out to those who are deemed to create \u201chigh economic impact\u201d in the province, with the intent of capturing \u201ctop talent across all sectors, including technology.\u201d<\/p>\n The BCPNP\u2019s list of priority technology occupations totalled 35, including the following:<\/p>\n 10030 Telecommunication carriers managers\u00a020012 Computer and information systems managers\u00a021100 Physicists and astronomers\u00a021210 Mathematicians, statisticians and actuaries\u00a021211 Data scientists\u00a021220 Cybersecurity specialists\u00a021221 Business systems specialists\u00a021222 Information systems specialists\u00a021223 Database analysts and data administrators\u00a021230 Computer systems developers and programmers\u00a021231 Software engineers and designers\u00a021232 Software developers and programmers\u00a021233 Web designers\u00a021234 Web developers and programmers\u00a021300 Civil engineers\u00a021301 Mechanical engineers\u00a021310 Electrical and electronics engineers\u00a021311 Computer engineers (except software engineers and designers)\u00a021320 Chemical engineers\u00a021399 Other professional engineers\u00a022110 Biological technologists and technicians\u00a022220 Computer network and web technicians\u00a022221 User support technicians\u00a022222 Information systems testing technicians\u00a022310 Electrical and electronics engineering technologists and technicians\u00a022312 Industrial instrument technicians and mechanics\u00a050011 Managers \u2013 publishing, motion pictures, broadcasting and performing arts\u00a051111 Authors and writers (except technical)\u00a051112 Technical writers\u00a051120 Producers, directors, choreographers and related occupations\u00a052119 Other technical and coordinating occupations in motion pictures, broadcasting and the performing arts\u00a052112 Broadcast technicians\u00a052113 Audio and video recording technicians\u00a052120 Graphic designers and illustrators\u00a053111 Motion pictures, broadcasting, photography and performing arts assistants and operators\u00a0<\/p>\n This list no longer appears on the BCPNP’s webpage.<\/p>\n The prioritization of healthcare and trades professionals<\/p>\n British Columbia will be prioritizing healthcare (along with other care-based) and trades professionals for provincial nomination.<\/p>\n The list of priority healthcare and construction occupations that British Columbia is targeting has been amended.<\/p>\n Healthcare<\/p>\n The 31 healthcare occupations now being targeted include the following:<\/p>\n 30010 Managers in health care\u00a0\u00a031100 Specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine\u00a0\u00a031101 Specialists in surgery\u00a0\u00a031102 General practitioners and family physicians\u00a0\u00a031110 Dentists\u00a0\u00a031112 Audiologists and speech-language pathologists\u00a0\u00a031120 Pharmacists\u00a0\u00a031121 Dietitians and nutritionists\u00a0\u00a031200 Psychologists\u00a0\u00a031201 Chiropractors\u00a0\u00a031202 Physiotherapists\u00a0\u00a031203 Occupational therapists\u00a0\u00a031204 Kinesiologists and other professional occupations in therapy\u00a0\u00a031209 Other professional occupations in health diagnosing and treating\u00a0\u00a031300 Nursing coordinators and supervisors\u00a0\u00a031301 Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses\u00a0\u00a031302 Nurse practitioners\u00a0\u00a031303 Physician assists, midwives and allied health profs\u00a0\u00a032101 Licensed practical nurses\u00a0\u00a032102 Paramedical occupations\u00a0\u00a032103 Respiratory therapists, clinical perfusionists and cardiopulmonary technologists\u00a0\u00a032111 Dental hygienists and dental therapists\u00a0\u00a032112 Dental technologists and technicians\u00a0\u00a032120 Medical laboratory technologists\u00a0\u00a032121 Medical radiation technologists\u00a0\u00a032122 Medical sonographers\u00a0\u00a032123 Cardiology technologists and elect. diagnostic techs\u00a0\u00a032200 Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and acupuncturists\u00a0\u00a033101 Medical laboratory assistants and related technical occupations\u00a0\u00a033102 Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates*41300 Social workers<\/p>\n *Only registered health care assistants and aides are eligible under NOC 33102. Workers in this NOC must be registered with the BC Care Aide & Community Health Worker Registry to receive a targeted invite.<\/p>\n While the province will continue to nominate qualified healthcare workers through the BCPNP Health Authority stream, the province notes that it will also target select workers in \u201cthe broader health sector\u201d\u2014this includes skilled workers in education, childcare, and veterinary care.<\/p>\n Other care-based workers that will receive priority consideration include those in the following veterinary care and education occupations:<\/p>\n Veterinary care (2):<\/p>\n 31103 Veterinarians Education (3):<\/p>\n 41220 Secondary school teachers (French-speaking only)* The BCPNP aims to draw from the 5,000 PR spaces allotted to provinces and territories to increase francophone immigration<\/a>\u2014specifically by nominating French-speaking teachers working in the provinces across the K\u201312 school system.<\/p>\n *French-speaking educators must demonstrate a Niveaux de comp\u00e9tence linguistique canadien level 5 or higher to get a targeted invitation.<\/p>\n **Skilled workers require a one- or five-year Early Childhood Education (ECE) certificate to qualify.<\/p>\n The province is also introducing a temporary time-limited initiative<\/a> to retain over 200 workers in rural BC-based communities currently working in cleaning or security roles, which will open later this year.<\/p>\n Construction trades<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
64301 Bartenders
64314 Hotel front desk clerks\u00a064320 Tour and travel guides\u00a064321 Casino workers\u00a064322 Outdoor sport and recreational guides\u00a065200 Food and beverage servers\u00a065201 Food counter attendants, kitchen helpers and related support occupation\u00a065210 Support occupations in accommodation, travel and facilities set-up services*\u00a065310 Light duty cleaners\u00a065311 Specialized cleaners\u00a065312 Janitors, caretakers and heavy-duty cleaners\u00a065320 Dry cleaning, laundry and related occupations\u00a065329 Other service support occupations\u00a094140 Process control and machine operators, food and beverage processing\u00a094141 Industrial butchers and meat cutters, poultry preparers and related workers\u00a094142 Fish and seafood plant workers\u00a094143 Testers and graders, food and beverage processing\u00a095106 Labourers in food and beverage processing\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n32104 Animal health technologists and veterinary technicians<\/p>\n
\n41221 Elementary\/Kindergarten teachers (French-speaking only)*
\n42202 Early childhood educators and assistants**<\/p>\n