British Columbia has conducted a new immigration draw, wherein it has issued invitations to apply to 284 immigration aspirants through its British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program. The January 31, 2020 draw saw the minimum score requirements ranging between 85 to110 under a number of PNP categories operated by the government of British Columbia.
The invitations have been awarded to candidates who applied for Canada immigration under Express Entry and Skilled Immigration categories.
The Skilled Immigration category is aimed at attracting skilled and semi-skilled overseas workers whose skills are in-demand in British Columbia. Both categories require applicants to submit their profile via Skills Immigration Registration System (SIRS), which is an online points-based system allowing the provincial government of British Columbia to prioritize applicants who want to immigrate to Canada and award them scores based on their education, age, experience, language ability, job offer by a B.C employer, etc.
The government of British Columbia conducts immigration draws in every two weeks. Till date in 2020, the province has been able to roll out 585 invitations to immigration aspirants under both Express Entry as well as Skills Immigration category.
Candidates with the highest scores in each category are then allowed to apply to the BC Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP). Based on that, successful applicants are nominated to apply for a permanent residency status in Canada.
Key Changes to BC PNP Entrepreneur Category
As of January 29, 2020, the minimum language requirement for the Entrepreneur Immigration Base Category is CLB 4 or higher. The change does not affect applicants whose profiles are already in the pool.
The government cleared the same by stating, “The level of language we are introducing is CLB level 4 and is quite basic, ensuring the ability to communicate basic needs, follow simple conversations or read simple instructions”.
For future candidates under BC PNP Entrepreneur Immigration Program, meeting the language requirements is a condition to receive nomination. The objective behind this move is to help new entrepreneurs to better integrate into Canada by booting their networking capabilities and connections.
As British Columbia makes language proficiency one of the key requirements to get the nomination, the only provinces that do not consider language as eligibility criteria are- Alberta Self-Employed Farmer Stream, Yukon Business Nominee Program, and Saskatchewan Entrepreneur Program.
Also, from January 29, 2020, prospective business candidates will no longer be able to add key staff members in their application. Earlier entrepreneurs were allowed to include key staff members who will help them to establish and conduct the business.
Low inclusion of key staff members in the entrepreneur application between July 2015 and November 2019 pushed the provincial government to take this decision and scrap the requirement completely.
