Major changes to British Columbia’s Provincial Nominee Program

The British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) has announced significant changes for 2025, including stream closures, paused draws, and a cap on new applications. This year, the program will accept only 1,100 new applications, focusing strictly on front-line healthcare workers, entrepreneurs, and skilled workers who can make a high economic impact in the province.

As part of these changes, the province has declared a moratorium on both general and priority occupation draws throughout 2025. From a registration pool of over 10,000 candidates, BC will nominate only about 100 high-impact individuals.

The province also shared updates on the International Post-Graduate (IPG) stream. IPG applications submitted between September 1, 2024, and January 7, 2025, will not be processed immediately and will instead be placed on a waitlist. However, other IPG applications submitted in 2024 and early 2025 will still be processed during the year.

• BC has also delayed the launch of three new student-focused immigration streams, stating these will only move forward once nomination allocation levels are restored.
• The Entrepreneur stream remains active, and the province will continue issuing Invitations to Apply (ITAs) under this category.
• Changes have also been made to the Health Authority stream, which will now be limited solely to front-line healthcare workers. Previously, this stream was open to Health Authority employees in a wider range of occupations.
• Additionally, Early Childhood Educator Assistants are no longer eligible for targeted education draws. These draws will now focus exclusively on fully qualified Early Childhood Educators.
• At the start of 2025, BC had a backlog of 5,200 applications. With only 4,000 nomination spots available this year, the province plans to allocate approximately 2,900 of those to applications already in the system.