Where this stands
British Columbia rebuilt its programme around three priorities
On 23 April 2026 the province replaced its stream architecture with three priority categories, Care, Build and Innovate, and moved to targeted draws only. The Entry Level and Semi-Skilled stream, the International Post-Graduate stream, the International Graduate stream and the technology pilot are all finished. Three replacement student streams that had been announced were cancelled before accepting a single application.
There are no longer any general draws. Every invitation since the restructuring has gone to a candidate in a targeted category.
This is the second province to rebuild its programme this year. Ontario closed all eight of its streams in June. British Columbia has kept its registration system and its points grid but changed who it draws from, which is a quieter change and in some ways a harder one to notice.
The reason is arithmetic. Canada cut provincial nominee allocations roughly in half for 2025, and British Columbia held only three skills immigration draws in the whole of that year. A province with a fraction of its former allocation cannot run open draws, so it chooses sectors instead. British Columbia asked Ottawa for 9,000 nominations for 2026 and was given 5,254, having finished 2025 on 6,214 after mid year top ups to an initial 4,000. It continues to press for an increase.
Eligibility and invitation have come apart here more sharply than anywhere else. You can meet every published requirement, hold a genuine job offer, score respectably, and still have no route, because no draw covers your occupation. On this programme the first question is not whether you qualify. It is whether your occupation sits in a category the province is currently drawing from.
What closed
Each of these was a real route with real applicants. None of them is available now.
| Stream | Status | Last activity | Who it served |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry Level and Semi-Skilled | Permanently closed | Last draws 10 December 2024, closure confirmed 23 April 2026 | Hospitality, food processing, trucking and other lower TEER work. Nothing replaced it |
| International Post-Graduate | Permanently closed | Closed 7 January 2025 | Master's and doctoral graduates in science, technology and health, with no job offer required |
| International Graduate | Suspended, replacements cancelled | Suspended November 2025, replacements cancelled 23 April 2026 | Graduates of Canadian institutions. Three tiered replacement streams were announced then cancelled before any application was accepted |
| Technology pilot | Ended | Last dedicated draw 3 December 2024 | Technology occupations, through frequent dedicated draws. The occupations remain eligible but now compete on wage alone |
A page describing any of these as open is describing the programme as it was before 2025.
The graduate closures deserve their own sentence. Two routes that required no job offer are gone, and the province has said it will not launch new student streams. If a client moved to British Columbia to study on the strength of a post-graduation nomination route, that plan no longer exists and the replacement requires an employer.
The three priority categories
These are not streams. They are filters the province applies when it draws from the pool, and they are where the whole question of whether you have a route now sits.
| Category | Covers | Most recent minimum score |
|---|---|---|
| Care, health | Priority health care occupations, a list the province maintains and revises | 84, with 124 invitations |
| Care, childcare | Early childhood educators and assistants, one occupation only. Supporting employers must be licensed by a health authority | 102, with 183 invitations |
| Care, education | Priority French language education occupations, linked to federal francophone allocations | 68, with fewer than five invitations |
| Care, veterinary | Veterinarians, and animal health technologists holding the provincial professional designation | 72, with six invitations |
| Build, construction trades | A short list of certified priority trades. Provincial or Red Seal certification is required | 88, with 187 invitations |
| Innovate, high economic impact | Any skilled occupation, on either a wage test or a score test | Score route 132. Wage route required roughly $58 an hour and $115,000 a year |
Draw results and minimum scores are set for each round and published afterwards. The province publishes them here. The occupation lists are set out below, verified against the province's own selection of workers page on 18 August 2026, and we re check them monthly because they change.
The Innovate category is a wage test wearing the language of innovation. Its wage route has recently required somewhere around $58 to $62 an hour, which is $115,000 to $125,000 a year, and the thresholds are set fresh for each draw rather than published in advance. For most technology workers below senior level, this is not a route, and it is the reason the closure of the technology pilot matters so much.
The occupation lists
These decide whether you have a route at all, so they matter more than your score. Verified against the province's selection of workers page on 18 August 2026.
Care, health. Thirty one occupations
| Occupation | Occupation |
|---|---|
| 30010 Managers in health care | 31302 Nurse practitioners |
| 31100 Specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine | 31303 Physician assistants, midwives and allied health professionals |
| 31101 Specialists in surgery | 32101 Licensed practical nurses |
| 31102 General practitioners and family physicians | 32102 Paramedical occupations |
| 31110 Dentists | 32103 Respiratory therapists, clinical perfusionists and cardiopulmonary technologists |
| 31112 Audiologists and speech language pathologists | 32111 Dental hygienists and dental therapists |
| 31120 Pharmacists | 32112 Dental technologists and technicians |
| 31121 Dietitians and nutritionists | 32120 Medical laboratory technologists |
| 31200 Psychologists | 32121 Medical radiation technologists |
| 31201 Chiropractors | 32122 Medical sonographers |
| 31202 Physiotherapists | 32123 Cardiology technologists and electrophysiological diagnostic technologists |
| 31203 Occupational therapists | 32200 Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and acupuncturists |
| 31204 Kinesiologists and other therapy and assessment professionals | 33101 Medical laboratory assistants and related technical occupations |
| 31209 Other professional occupations in health diagnosing and treating | 33102 Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates |
| 31300 Nursing coordinators and supervisors | 41300 Social workers |
| 31301 Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses |
Nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates additionally require registration with the provincial care aide and community health worker registry to receive a targeted invitation. Note that the figure of 36 occupations the province quotes covers all four care categories together, not health alone.
Build, construction trades. Nine occupations
| Occupation | Occupation |
|---|---|
| 72106 Welders and related machine operators | 72310 Carpenters |
| 72200 Electricians, except industrial and power system | 72400 Construction millwrights and industrial mechanics |
| 72201 Industrial electricians | 72401 Heavy duty equipment mechanics |
| 72300 Plumbers | 72402 Heating, refrigeration and air conditioning mechanics |
| 72301 Steamfitters, pipefitters and sprinkler system installers |
A targeted invitation requires either a valid trade certificate issued by the provincial trades authority, or a trades apprenticeship registered with it, corresponding to the job offered. A Red Seal endorsed certificate from another province or territory also qualifies.
Care, childcare and education, and veterinary care
- Childcare, one occupation. Early childhood educators and assistants, NOC 42202. The supporting employer must be licensed by a provincial health authority.
- Education, two occupations, French speaking only. Secondary school teachers, NOC 41220, and elementary and kindergarten teachers, NOC 41221. Both must be employed in the province's public school system and hold French at CLB 5 or above. No other education occupation is included, which is why these draws invite only a handful of people at a time.
- Veterinary care. Veterinarians, NOC 31103, and animal health technologists and veterinary technicians, NOC 32104. The technologists must hold the provincial professional designation.
Read the health list carefully before assuming you are outside it. It reaches well beyond doctors and nurses, to social workers, acupuncturists, dental technologists, medical laboratory assistants and health care managers. It is one of the broadest priority lists any province publishes, and people who assume health means clinical routinely never check.
The two streams still open
- Skilled Worker. The main route, and the one the targeted categories draw from. It requires a full time indeterminate job offer in an occupation at TEER 0 to 3, and at least two years of full time skilled work experience within the last ten years in any skilled occupation. Language is CLB 4 in all four abilities where the offer is at TEER 2 to 5. At TEER 0 or 1 a test is not required at registration, though it still earns points and the province can ask for it. Certain occupations, largely academic and technology, may use a fixed term offer of at least a year rather than an indeterminate one.
- Health Authority. A genuine exception, because it does not go through the pool at all. A job offer from one of the province's eight public health authorities qualifies where the occupation is on the Health Authority-eligible list, which reaches below TEER 3, and the application goes directly to the programme rather than waiting for a draw. Physicians, nurse practitioners and midwives can also qualify with the support of a health authority or a midwife practice group without being directly employed by one. The province has said there is no cap on physician nominations.
- A temporary initiative, closing 7 October 2026. A one off intake capped at 250 nominations, open since 15 June 2026 and extended from 31 August to 7 October 2026 at 23:59 because of the wildfires. It covers three occupations only, light duty cleaners at NOC 65310, janitors, caretakers and heavy duty cleaners at NOC 65312, and security guards and related occupations at NOC 64410, and it requires nine months of full time experience in one of them with a provincial health authority before registering. Metro Vancouver, the Capital Regional District and the Central Okanagan are excluded, though several Gulf Islands within the Capital Regional District are not. Its first draw invited 60 candidates at a minimum score of 50, far below every other category, so for anyone eligible this is the most accessible route on the programme and it has a deadline.
If a public health authority will employ you, the pool does not apply to you. That is the single most useful structural fact about this programme. Every other route waits for a targeted draw at a minimum score the province sets after the fact. A health authority offer goes straight in, on an eligible occupation level. For anyone with health sector experience of any kind, that is the first thing to test.
Who is actually in the pool
The province publishes the distribution of scores in the pool, which is unusually candid and lets you see where you would sit rather than guess.
| Score | Registrations |
|---|---|
| 150 and above | 10 |
| 140 to 149 | 38 |
| 130 to 139 | 241 |
| 120 to 129 | 1,023 |
| 110 to 119 | 1,332 |
| 100 to 109 | 1,651 |
| 90 to 99 | 1,468 |
| 80 to 89 | 1,219 |
| 70 to 79 | 739 |
| 60 to 69 | 373 |
| Below 60 | 212 |
| Total | 8,306 |
Read this against the draw scores above. A score of 100 puts you above roughly 3,000 of the 8,300 people registered, and well inside the range being invited in the health, childcare, education, veterinary and trades categories. It is nowhere near the Innovate score route.
A modest score is not the obstacle people assume. The targeted categories have recently invited at scores between 68 and 102, which most candidates with a real job offer can reach. What excludes people here is occupation, not score. Fewer than 300 registrations sit above 140, and the category that demands a score like that is the one open to everybody.
Occupations barred outright
For applications after 13 June 2026
Twelve occupations became ineligible for any skills immigration stream, whatever your score and whatever your offer. This is recent enough that most published guidance does not mention it.
| Occupation | Occupation |
|---|---|
| Executive assistants | Retail sales supervisors |
| Human resources and recruitment officers | Food service supervisors |
| Accounting technicians and bookkeepers | Real estate agents and salespersons |
| Administrative officers | Religious leaders |
| Administrative assistants | Religious workers |
| Legal administrative assistants | Medical administrative assistants |
Administrative and office support has been shut out. Six of the twelve are office roles. If a client's job offer is an administrative one, British Columbia is closed to them regardless of everything else, and the correct advice is to look at another province rather than to improve the file.
The province also expanded its list of ineligible employers in the same revision, adding organisations that provide immigration services.
Registration score estimator
This implements the province's published grid in full, all 200 points of it. It returns an estimate only, not an eligibility decision, not legal advice, and not a prediction that you will be invited. Minimum scores are set by the province after each draw and are not published in advance.
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