British Columbia Draws: Province Issues 494 Immigration Invites, Ends NOC Exclusions

British Columbia immigration has issued invitations to 494 candidates in two new provincial draws, as it lifted its exclusion of 31 National Occupational Classification codes.

Since March 2020, the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program has excluded 31 occupations from weekly draws due to the coronavirus crisis.

For the first time in nearly a year, those occupations were included in the general draw on February 16.

At the same time, B.C. also took the unusual step of conducting a second draw targeting two NOC codes: 0621 for Retail and Wholesale Trade Managers and 0631 for Restaurant and Food Service Managers.

“Both occupations have a high number of registrants within the BC PNP Skills Immigration Registration System,” said a B.C. PNP statement.

In the general draw, the province issued 459 invitations across five streams, with minimum scores ranging from 85 to 104.

In the NOC-specific draw, 35 invites were issued through four streams, all featuring a minimum score of 120.

Latest General B.C. Immigration Draw

Date	Category	Minimum Score	Invitations Issued
16-Feb-21	SI – Skilled Worker	98	Total: 459
	SI – International Graduate	94
	SI – Entry Level and Semi-Skilled	85
	EEBC – Skilled Worker	104
	EEBC – International Graduate	94

Source: www.welcomebc.ca

B.C. Draw Targeting NOCs 0621, 0631

Date	Category	Minimum Score	Invitations Issued
16-Feb-21	SI – Skilled Worker	120	Total: 35
	SI – International Graduate	120
	EEBC – Skilled Worker	120
	EEBC – International Graduate	120

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Colin Singer

Colin Singer is an international acclaimed Canadian immigration lawyer and founder of immigration.ca featured on Wikipedia. Colin Singer is also founding director of the Canadian Citizenship & Immigration Resource Center (CCIRC) Inc. He served as an Associate Editor of ‘Immigration Law Reporter’, the pre-eminent immigration law publication in Canada. He previously served as an executive member of the Canadian Bar Association’s Quebec and National Immigration Law Sections and is currently a member of the Canadian Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Colin has twice appeared as an expert witness before Canada’s House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. He is frequently recognized as a recommended authority at national conferences sponsored by government and non-government organizations on matters affecting Canada’s immigration and human resource industries. Since 2009, Colin has been a Governor of the Quebec Bar Foundation a non-profit organization committed to the advancement of the profession, and became a lifetime member in 2018.