Six draws in two weeks, with the Opportunity Stream taking nearly 70%

In the span of just two weeks, from June 17 to 29, 2026, the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP) held six consecutive draws, issuing a combined 1,037 invitations to apply (ITAs) for provincial nomination. Those invited spanned several in-demand sectors, including health care, aviation, technology, and tourism and hospitality, with two rounds directed specifically at health care workers.

Of all 1,037 invitations, roughly 69.4% went to applicants in the Alberta Opportunity Stream, making it the clear workhorse of this round of selections. This non-Express Entry stream is open to foreign workers already employed full-time in the province by an Alberta employer, and it has long been the AAIP's largest source of nominations.

The streams and pathways involved in the six draws, along with the number of invitations and the minimum score for each, are as follows:

Notably, the rounds held from June 19 to 29 line up with the sectors Alberta has flagged as its top priorities for 2026: health care, aviation, and technology. Among them, the June 24 draw for aviation applicants set a minimum bar of just 47 points, making it the first draw dedicated to the sector in 2026; that score was also the lowest of the six rounds, reflecting Alberta's deliberate effort to open a pathway for aviation talent. By contrast, the June 18 Tourism and Hospitality Stream draw carried the highest threshold, at 71.

Health care, aviation and tech: keeping focus on 2026's priority sectors

Alberta has made clear that in 2026 the AAIP will prioritize draws and nominations within its worker streams for occupations in key areas including health care, technology, construction, manufacturing, aviation, agriculture, and jobs in communities designated under the Rural Renewal Stream. Compared with 2025, manufacturing is a newly added priority for the year, widely read as a signal of intensifying labour shortages in the province's related industries.

The two health care draws in this round are consistent with Alberta's broader push to bring in medical talent this year. Health care workers can apply through the Dedicated Health Care Pathway, which comes in both an Express Entry and a non-Express Entry version; applicants must hold a job offer for an eligible health care position in Alberta and meet the provincial licensing or registration requirements for their occupation. Tech workers are invited mainly through the Accelerated Tech Pathway, which is aimed at candidates already employed by an Alberta tech employer in a designated in-demand tech occupation and offers expedited processing.

Federal allocations swing up and down, but Alberta's quota remains below its 2024 peak

Behind this cluster of draws lies a broader environment in which provincial nomination numbers have swung sharply at the federal level. The Immigration Levels Plan released in late 2024 slashed the national PNP allocation by roughly half from earlier levels, bringing the 2025 national target down to about 55,000. Moving into 2026, Ottawa then raised the national PNP target to about 91,500, a rebound of roughly 66% from 2025.

For Alberta specifically, the province's nomination allocation has fluctuated markedly over the past three years: it stood at 9,750 in 2024 and ultimately produced more than 9,900 nominations; in early 2025 it was cut to 4,875 before being topped up mid-year to around 6,403; and in 2026 it holds at 6,403. In other words, even with the national target recovering in 2026, Alberta's allocation is still more than 30% below its 2024 peak, making the so-called recovery only relative. Precisely because the quota is limited, Alberta has all the more reason to spend it carefully, concentrating nominations on the sectors and occupations most in demand within the province.

Among the provinces' 2026 allocations, Alberta's 6,403 spaces trail only Ontario's 14,119 and narrowly edge Manitoba's 6,239, placing the province near the front of the pack. Analysts note that provinces have responded differently to their reduced numbers: Ontario launched three new permanent residence (PR) pathways in June 2026, while British Columbia added time-limited and rural health pathways. Alberta's distinguishing feature is its high degree of transparency: it is currently the only province to publish nomination allocation data stream by stream, and it continues to direct more than 85% of its nominations to temporary foreign workers already working in the province.

More than half the allocation already used, with balances varying by stream

As of June 30, the Government of Alberta reported that it had used 3,261 of the 6,403 nomination spaces allocated to it by Ottawa, meaning more than half the quota has now been committed. The province publishes, stream by stream, the allocation, the number of nominations issued, and the remaining slots:

Beyond these regular allocations, Alberta also issues nominations through spaces set aside separately by the federal government that do not count against the standard provincial allocation, including 50 practice-ready physicians and 12 francophone candidates. This means the total number of nominations Alberta actually issues over the full year will exceed the regular 6,403 cap.

It is worth clarifying that the Express Entry streams, along with the Express Entry version of the Dedicated Health Care Pathway, are enhanced nominations linked to Express Entry: once received, they add 600 points to a candidate's Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score, all but guaranteeing a subsequent federal Express Entry invitation. The Opportunity Stream and the non-Express Entry health care route, by contrast, are base nominations that carry no such boost.

More than 37,000 waiting in the pool, most of them Opportunity Stream applicants

Beyond the invitations and nominations already issued, Alberta's inventory data reveal a large pool of applicants still waiting in the queue. As of June 30, the province's Worker Expression of Interest (WEOI) pool held 37,497 expressions of interest, about 62.8% of them from the Alberta Opportunity Stream. In addition, 1,466 provincial nomination applications were awaiting processing.

The distribution across streams in the pool and among applications awaiting processing is as follows:

The Entrepreneur streams are not counted in the Worker Expression of Interest pool, as they follow a separate, standalone processing route. Overall, the Opportunity Stream commands the largest share of both the pool and the applications awaiting processing, mirroring its leading role in this round of draws and signalling that it will remain the centre of gravity for Alberta's nominations in the draws to come.