British Columbia has announced major changes to its Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) following a sharp reduction in federal immigration allocations. The province will accept only 1,100 new applications in 2025—limiting intake to front-line healthcare workers, entrepreneurs, and high-impact skilled workers.
General and priority occupation draws have been suspended for the year. From a pool of over 10,000 candidates, only about 100 high-impact applicants will be nominated. The province also confirmed that:
- International Post-Graduate (IPG) stream: Applications received between September 1, 2024, and January 7, 2025, will be waitlisted. Others submitted earlier in 2024 and early 2025 will still be processed.
- New student streams: The planned three streams will remain on hold until B.C.’s allocation increases.
- Health Authority stream: Now limited to front-line healthcare workers only.
- Education draws: Will now focus solely on Early Childhood Educators, excluding assistants.
Despite a large inventory of 5,200 applications at the start of 2025, the province received only 4,000 nominations from the federal government. Of these, 2,900 will be allocated to already-submitted applications. Entrepreneur stream invitations will continue as usual.
These changes reflect a broader national shift—Canada’s federal government halved the overall PNP landing allocation from 110,000 in 2024 to 55,000 in 2025, prompting many provinces to suspend streams and revise program criteria.
