On September 4, 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held this year's third Express Entry draw targeting healthcare and social services occupations, issuing 3,500 invitations to apply (ITAs) for permanent residence with a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 475 — unchanged from the previous healthcare round on June 25 and above the 467 recorded in the category's first round of the year on February 20. The category has now issued 11,500 invitations in 2026. The round was also IRCC's 53rd Express Entry draw of the year, pushing the 2026 total past 126,000 invitations, of which the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and the French-language proficiency category together account for more than 80 percent — a distribution that reflects Ottawa's current preference for candidates already in Canada while still steering capacity toward shortage occupations. Since IRCC refreshed its category framework on February 19, 2026 and raised the minimum work-experience requirement for renewed categories from six months to one year, healthcare cut-offs have trended higher overall, leaving eligible health and social services workers to reassess both their scores and their timing.

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Visa (SUV) having stopped accepting new applications at the end of 2025 and details of the replacement pilot still unpublished, provincial business immigration routes such as the BC PNP are becoming one of the few stable options for foreign nationals who want to start a business in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.

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) has published the scoring criteria for applicants to its Ontario Workforce Priority Stream (OWPS), posting the details on its official website on July 20, 2026 and marking a pivotal step in the province's 2026 immigration overhaul. Under the new rules, applicants who hold a job offer are ranked across 11 factors — among them work region, occupational skill level, wages, occupational category, Ontario work experience and language ability — for a maximum of 130 points, with the highest scorers first in line to receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) for a provincial nomination and, ultimately, a route to Canadian permanent residence (PR) through the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). OWPS is organized into three pathways: one for higher-skilled occupations in National Occupational Classification (NOC) TEER categories 0 to 3, one for lower-skilled TEER 4 and 5 occupations held by work-permit holders, and one for self-employed physicians who can bill through the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). The grid is the latest operational detail to emerge after Ontario shut down all of its former immigration streams and, on June 26, 2026, laid out the full eligibility requirements for the three OWPS pathways — an overhaul set against Ottawa's sharp cuts to provincial nomination allocations beginning in 2025, which at one point halved Ontario's allotment from its 2024 level. The OINP's Expression of Interest (EOI) system remains closed for now and is expected to reopen later this summer, at which point the province anticipates holding draws and issuing invitations to candidates.

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.

On June 26, 2026, Ontario formally published regulatory amendments introducing the new Ontario Workforce Priority Stream, marking Phase One of the province's comprehensive overhaul of the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP). The new stream contains three pathways, aimed respectively at higher-skilled workers (TEER 0 to 3), lower-skilled workers (TEER 4 to 5), and self-employed physicians eligible to bill through the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). All three pathways are in effect immediately, but applicants cannot be considered until Ontario reopens its Expression of Interest (EOI) system, which officials say is "expected to open later this summer." The reform follows a plan that Ontario first proposed in December 2025 and that culminated on May 30, 2026, when the province closed all of its former permanent residence streams in a single move. It is being advanced against a backdrop of federal cuts to provincial nomination allocations, which saw Ontario's allocation fall from 21,500 in 2024 to 10,750 in 2025 before recovering to 14,119 in 2026. The goal is to ensure that every nomination is matched more precisely to Ontario's labour shortages. A planned Phase Two would add three further pathways for priority healthcare, entrepreneurs and exceptional talent, none of which yet has a confirmed opening date.

On June 2, 2026, the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BCPNP) held its 12th selection round of the year, issuing no fewer than 357 invitations to apply (ITAs) across its Skills Immigration (SI) and Entrepreneur Immigration (EI) categories. The SI draw accounted for 342 invitations targeting early childhood educators, healthcare and veterinary professionals, and construction trades workers under the province's Care and Build priorities announced on April 23, with minimum scores falling by 4 to 10 points across all four categories compared with the May 6 draw. On the entrepreneur side, the EI Base Stream issued 15 invitations—the largest single Base Stream round of 2026. As of June 2, British Columbia has issued 2,485 ITAs through the SI category and no fewer than 64 through the EI category this year.

On May 30, 2026, all nine nomination categories under the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) will simultaneously lose their legal basis — the largest single change to the program since it began. Under amendments to Ontario Regulation 421/17, the foreign worker, international student with a job offer, in-demand skills, master's graduate, Ph.D. graduate, human capital priorities, French-speaking skilled worker, skilled trades and entrepreneur categories will all be revoked, eliminating every existing pathway to provincial nomination in Ontario; after that date, candidates who currently meet the eligibility criteria will no longer qualify under existing rules. Taking effect the same day are regulations enabling targeted draws across all new Expression of Interest (EOI) streams and a formal employer-verification requirement that bars candidates from applying unless their employer is registered. Ontario has not yet published what will replace the categories, nor what will happen to candidates already in the EOI systems — and the overhaul lands against a federal backdrop in which PNP allocations were cut by half in 2025 before a partial 2026 rebound.

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.

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) ran two targeted Employer Job Offer draws on April 30, 2026, issuing a combined 997 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) to candidates already living in Canada on a valid work or study permit and holding a job offer in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), with 720 invitations going to the Foreign Worker stream at a minimum score of 57 and 277 going to the International Student stream at a minimum score of 81; this is only the OINP's second GTA-focused round of 2026, comes 566 ITAs higher than the March 25 GTA draw and at noticeably lower cutoff scores in both streams, and arrives against the backdrop of a 14,119-nomination 2026 allocation from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) that the province must work through before sweeping amendments to the Ontario Immigration Act take effect on May 30, 2026 and abolish all current nomination categories, while invited candidates and their employers face tight 14-day and 17-day windows to file their respective parts of the application before any nomination can be advanced to IRCC for permanent residence.

The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) held its second draw of 2026 targeting international student graduates on April 22, issuing a total of 918 invitations to apply (ITAs) to candidates who completed a master's or doctoral degree at an Ontario university — 674 under the Master's Graduate Stream at a minimum score of 61, and 244 under the PhD Graduate Stream at a minimum score of 56. Compared with the program's March 18 draw, cut-off scores climbed sharply in both streams (up 31 points for master's and 7 points for PhD), a jump industry observers attribute not to a policy tightening but to a surge of high-scoring candidates entering the pool after the previous round. The April 22 draw was also notably broader in scope: unlike the NOC-targeted March 18 round, it imposed no specific National Occupational Classification experience requirement. All of this is unfolding against the backdrop of the deepest restructuring of the OINP in over a decade — the nine existing application categories are scheduled to be formally revoked on May 30, 2026, and replaced by four consolidated pathways (Employer: Job Offer, Priority Healthcare, Entrepreneur, and Exceptional Talent), giving eligible graduates a narrow closing window in which to act on an ITA.