British Columbia held a new round of entrepreneur immigration invitations on July 28, 2026, issuing 10 invitations to apply through the Base Stream of the BC Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) Entrepreneur Immigration category, with a minimum score of 117; those invited may apply for a provincial nomination and, in turn, for Canadian permanent residence at the federal level. It was the province's eighth Base Stream round of 2026 and one of only three rounds this year to invite Base candidates exclusively, bringing the year's entrepreneur invitations to at least 88 and the province's combined total with Skills Immigration to at least 3,824. Notably, through a period of federal tightening — BC's nomination allocation was cut from 8,000 in 2024 to 4,000 at the start of 2025, and set at 5,254 for 2026 — the entrepreneur category has kept a steady cadence of roughly one round per month, in sharp contrast to Skills Immigration, which was paused and then restructured around three pillars, Care, Build and Innovate. With the federal Start-up Visa (SUV) having stopped accepting new applications at the end of 2025 and details of the replacement pilot still unpublished, provincial business immigration routes such as the BC PNP are becoming one of the few stable options for foreign nationals who want to start a business in Canada. The draw also came days after the province launched its first Temporary Rural / Remote Health Support Initiative round on July 23, illustrating how BC is rationing a limited allocation across competing priority groups.

British Columbia returned to its Entrepreneur Immigration (EI) category on June 30, inviting candidates who plan to launch a new business or acquire and grow an existing one in the province, in what was the province's seventh entrepreneur selection of 2026 and its second EI round of the month—a break from the earlier once-a-month cadence; the round issued invitations across both permanent residence (PR) pathways while clearly favouring the Base Stream, which handed out 14 invitations to apply (ITAs) at a minimum score of 118, versus fewer than five for the Regional Stream at 113, and—apart from the February 10 round—it simultaneously set both the highest Base cut-off and the lowest Regional cut-off seen so far this year; across 2026 the province has now held 12 EI draws (seven Base, five Regional) for at least 78 provincial-nomination ITAs, an intensifying pace that comes as Ottawa sharply raises provincial nomination allocations and British Columbia's own share expands in step.

The Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration (MIFI) has announced that it will reopen intake for family sponsorship applications on July 2, 2026, after the previous round reached its limit, setting a new two-year cap of up to 15,700 sponsorship undertakings, of which 13,300 are reserved for the spousal category and 2,400 for parents and grandparents. Compared with the first round of 13,000 places opened in 2024, the new total is roughly 20% higher, and for the first time adult dependent children aged 18 and older are excluded from the cap. MIFI says it will prioritize earlier-filed applications once intake reopens, and any applications received beyond the limit will not be processed, will be returned as submitted, and will have their fees refunded. Because family reunification for those settling in Quebec follows a process distinct from the rest of Canada, applicants intending to settle in the province must first apply to MIFI for a Quebec Selection Certificate (CSQ) before they can apply to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for permanent residence.

The latest figures from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) show that, as of June 8, 2026, the estimated processing time for new permanent residence (PR) applications under the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) stands at 26 months, a full 12 months below the 38 months posted on May 12 and the lowest reading since processing times surged in the fall of 2025. In October 2025, the AIP estimate jumped from 13 months in September to 37 months, a month-over-month increase of 184.6%, and it then hovered between 33 and 40 months for an extended period, far above IRCC's 11-month service standard. Because the dedicated work permits held by AIP applicants are capped at two years and these applicants are ineligible for bridging open work permits (BOWPs), many in-Canada applicants faced losing their authorization to work before a decision could be reached, prompting Atlantic provinces, led by New Brunswick, to step in with letters of support enabling applicants to obtain C18 closed work permits as an emergency stopgap. Despite the sharp improvement, 26 months is still roughly 2.4 times the service standard, and IRCC's inventory holds 12,900 pending AIP applications, about three times the 4,000 admissions targeted for 2026, meaning the backlog pressure is unlikely to ease fundamentally in the near term.

Quebec's Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI) confirmed in a press release on June 10, 2026 that the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ) will reopen on July 2, 2026 for a two-year window running to July 2, 2028; the first intake period starts at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on July 2 and runs until October 31, 2026, with no cap on applications, and is open to the two groups who already qualified when the program was abolished on November 19, 2025 -- Quebec graduates and temporary foreign workers -- under the same eligibility criteria that applied at the time of the suspension and abolition. The government says that over the remainder of the planning period, it intends to issue a roughly equivalent number of Quebec Selection Certificates (CSQs) between the PEQ and the Skilled Worker Selection Program (PSTQ); until October 31, PSTQ invitations will be reduced accordingly and will mainly target candidates in TEER 4 and 5 occupations and those with less than two years of work experience. MIFI stresses that the reinstatement is temporary, expects 8,000 to 12,000 applications in the first period, and confirms that once the PEQ is finally retired, the permanent selection of skilled workers will be consolidated under the PSTQ.

Quebec held its fifth skilled-worker selection round of 2026 on June 4, issuing a total of 2,549 invitations to apply (ITAs) for permanent selection across all four streams of its Skilled Worker Selection Program (PSTQ), with every stream drawn from the Arrima pool at 6:00 a.m. on June 1. Stream 1, for highly qualified and specialized skills, led the round with 1,094 invitations—about 42.9% of the total—followed by Stream 2 (intermediate and manual skills) with 756, Stream 3 (regulated professions) with 677, and Stream 4 (exceptional talent) with 22; all streams required candidates to be currently living in Quebec and to meet specific French-language thresholds, continuing the province's recent pattern of favouring workers already established locally and prioritizing French proficiency and in-demand occupations, and marking another sign of an accelerating pace after Quebec issued 2,910 invitations across all of 2025.

On May 12, 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) released its updated official processing times for permanent residence and citizenship applications, revealing a split picture in which most economic and citizenship streams lengthened while several family sponsorship and Atlantic categories eased. Under Express Entry, the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) climbed from six to seven months and the base Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) stretched from 13 to 14 months, with the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) inventory rising by 6,300 in a single month and the base PNP backlog growing by 2,100 — a continuation of the trend that has added more than 20,000 cases to the CEC queue since February 2026. At the same time, the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) eased from 40 to 38 months, the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) shortened by one month for both inside-Quebec and outside-Quebec applicants, and citizenship renunciation dropped sharply by three months to seven; however, citizenship grants reversed several months of acceleration, climbing from 12 to 13 months as the inventory grew by 7,900 to 321,100 applications, while Quebec's Business Class, the Start-Up Visa and the federal Self-Employed Persons Program all remained stuck at "more than 10 years" or 78 months.

The British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BCPNP) issued at least 341 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) across two back-to-back draws on May 5 and 6, 2026, covering both its Skills Immigration (SI) and Entrepreneur Immigration (EI) categories, with the vast majority going to SI candidates. These were the first official selections held since British Columbia unveiled its "Look West" strategy on April 23, restructuring the entire BC PNP around three pillars — Care, Build and Innovate — while permanently closing the Entry Level and Semi-Skilled (ELSS) stream, ending technology-specific draws, and scrapping a planned dedicated pathway for international graduates. ITAs in this round were concentrated in four target areas — health, education, veterinary care and construction trades — with construction trades accounting for 121 ITAs, or 36.3 per cent of the total, in what is widely seen as the first clear signal that British Columbia's new immigration direction has now moved from policy announcement to live implementation.

British Columbia held its latest Entrepreneur Immigration (EI) selection round on April 14, 2026, issuing 14 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) through the Base stream of the BC Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) with a minimum qualifying score of 115 — two points lower than the March 10, 2026 Base-stream draw and the largest standalone EI round the province has run so far this year. With six entrepreneur draws and at least 41 ITAs now issued in 2026 under a federal 2026 allocation of 5,254 nomination spaces (up roughly 31% from BC's initial 4,000-spot allotment in 2025 but still below what the province requested), BC PNP continues to focus on business candidates expected to generate high economic impact in the province.

British Columbia recently held a new draw under the Entrepreneur Immigration (EI) program of the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP), issuing invitations to eligible candidates under both the Base and Regional streams. Those invited were mainly business applicants planning to establish a new business in British Columbia or acquire and expand an existing one. In this round, the minimum invitation score was 117 for the Base stream, with 7 invitations issued, while the minimum score for the Regional stream was 129, with fewer than 5 invitations issued. Since the start of 2026, British Columbia has completed five entrepreneur-category draws, reflecting the province’s continued steady pace in attracting business immigrants and supporting regional economic development.