To coincide with the launch of a new National Occupational Classification system for Canada immigration, British Columbia has introduced a comprehensive overhaul of the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program.
As well as updating codes in line with NOC 2021, the province has made wholesale changes to its points scoring system for Skills Immigration, removing points for job skill level and adding points for language skills, education and experience, which increase if they are outside Metro Vancouver.
The top wage for maximum points has also increased by nearly 50 percent, from $100,000 to more than $145,000.
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Further changes announced on Wednesday include:
Under the changes, the whole structure of the scoring system is overhauled, with the weighting split between human capital factors, which score a maximum of 120 points, and economic factors which score 80.
Sub-categories for under human capital include work experience, education and language proficiency in English or French, each scoring a maximum of 40 points.
Sub-categories for under-economic are hourly wage, scoring up to 55 points, and area within British Columbia, with a maximum score of 25 points.
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Maximum points: 40
Candidates with five or more years of work experience directly related to their job offer score 20 points, dropping to zero points for those with no work experience. This experience may be from work within Canada or abroad. The work experience must be in the last 10 years.
An additional 10 points are available if at least one year of the work experience was in Canada, while 10 further points can be scored for working full-time in British Columbia on the job and for the employers who are supporting the application.
Maximum points: 40
A candidate with a doctoral degree as their highest level of education scores 27 points, down to zero for a candidate with a high school education or lower.
A further eight points are available for a post-secondary education completed in British Columbia, and six points for elsewhere in Canada.
Lastly, a further five points are available for an eligible professional designation in British Columbia.
Professional designations can be for:
Maximum points: 40
Candidates scoring a Canadian Language Benchmark of nine or better in the four competencies of listening, speaking, reading, and writing score 30 points under the new system.
The available points drop to zero for candidates with a score of below four, or who failed to submit test results.
Candidates with a score of CLB four or higher in all four proficiencies in both English and French score an extra 10 points.
Maximum points: 55
Candidates score 55 points if the hourly wage of their job offer in British Columbia is $70 or more.
For a 40 hourly week, this equates to an annual salary of $140,600.
The points for hourly wage cascade down to zero for a job offer of $16 an hour or less.
Previously, the top points were available for an hourly wage equating to $100,000. This represents one of the biggest changes in the whole of the British Columbia overhaul.
Maximum points: 25
In a move to increase immigration to lower populated areas, the points system overhaul allows candidates to score more for a job offer outside the Metro Vancouver area.
Metro Vancouver jobs offers score zero points under this factor.
Five points are available for jobs offer in any one of Squamish, Abbotsford, Agassiz, Mission, or Chilliwack.
The points rise to 15 if the job offer is in none of the above-mentioned areas.
A further 10 points are available in this category if the candidates has at least one year of work experience outside Metro Vancouver, or graduated from a public B.C. postsecondary institution within the last three years outside the Metro Vancouver area.
As part of the update, British Columbia has also increased the number of occupations that qualify for its successful BC PNP Tech stream.
BC PNP Tech allows British Columbia immigration officials to expedite the processing of immigration candidates in key in-demand technology occupations.
Weekly invitations are issued to candidates in one of the occupations in the B.C. technology sector.
Technology employers get access to a concierge service that includes a guaranteed next-business-day assignment of applications in one of the outlined occupations.
BC PNP Tech prioritizes technology sector applications for existing B.C. categories. This means candidates still need to meet the basic requirements of each British Columbia immigration category, including a minimum one-year job offer from a B.C. employer.
The program mainly draws from BC’s streams for Skilled Workers and International Graduates.
Other Priority Occupations
Meanwhile, the latest update also introduced a slew of other occupations, mainly health care, identified by British Columbia as being in short supply in the province.
These are set to be given priority in regular British Columbia immigration draws.
The new priority occupations are listed below:
*For the purposes of the BC PNP, only health care assistants/health care aides are eligible under NOC 33102.
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