Home > Permanent Residence > Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) > British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BCPNP) > BCPNP - Entry Level and Semi-Skilled (ELSS) Stream
The guide below takes a deep look into one of the streams of the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BCPNP), the Entry Level and Semi-Skilled (ELSS) stream. The guide will go through an overview of the stream, its eligibility requirements, how it works, the documentation needed, its cost and processing times.
Overview of the Entry Level and Semi-Skilled (ELSS) stream
The Entry Level and Semi-Skilled (ELSS) stream under British Columbia's Skills Immigration category is not aligned with Express Entry, meaning that the candidate cannot enjoy the faster processing times of Express Entry.
When receiving the provincial nomination, the candidate has to apply for permanent residence on paper to the federal government, and it usually takes at least a year for the application to be processed. |
The ELSS stream have minimum eligibility requirements, however, British Columbia does not send Invitations to Apply to every candidate that meets these minimum criteria. In fact, BCPNP conducts periodic ELSS draws, and each draw has its own minimum threshold score (out of 200, details in section below).
More information is available in the Draw History section of this guide.
More information is available in the Draw History section of this guide.
Eligibility Requirements
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There are 5 categories of general eligibility requirements under the Entry Level and Semi-Skilled (ELSS) stream, summarized below:
1. Job Offer
You must hold an offer of indeterminate, full-time employment from an eligible BC employer. The Job Offer must be in an eligible National Occupational Classification (NOC) code TEER Category 4 or 5.
If the location of employment is inside the Northeast Development Region of BC, all occupations at TEER Category 4 or 5 in the National Occupational Classification (NOC) are eligible, excluding live-in caregivers (NOC 44100).
If the location of employment is outside the Northeast Development Region of BC, eligible occupations are the following:
The wage stated on your Job Offer must be at market rate and comparable to the rate paid to workers with a similar level of experience and training for equivalent jobs in BC (bonuses, commissions, tips, housing allowance, etc. are not considered part of your wage).
Depending on the NOC code of the job offer, additional qualification requirements may apply.
2. Work Experience
You need to be employed and working full-time (at least an average of 30 hours a week, year round) with the BC employer supporting your BCPNP application in any ELSS-eligible occupation for at least 9 consecutive months immediately prior to registering to the BCPNP.
3. Education
At a minimum, you must have successfully completed secondary education (graduated from high school) either within or outside of Canada.
If the offered position requires mandatory certification, licensing or registration, you need to provide documentation showing that you meet these requirements, or how these requirements will shortly be met.
4. Language
You will need to have a Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) score of at least 4 in English or French to be eligible.
More information about language proficiency is available in the SIRS section below.
5. Minimum income requirements
You must demonstrate that you meet minimum income requirements according to your (i) gross annual wage in the Job Offer, (ii) location of residence in BC, and (iii) number of dependants.
You can include your spouse/partner's gross annual wage if they work in BC.
Bonuses, commissions, tips, housing allowance, etc. are not included when calculating your wage.
The annual wage is calculated as: (hourly rate) x (hours worked per week (max 40h)) x (52 weeks a year).
The minimum income requirements as set by BCPNP are presented in the table below:
1. Job Offer
You must hold an offer of indeterminate, full-time employment from an eligible BC employer. The Job Offer must be in an eligible National Occupational Classification (NOC) code TEER Category 4 or 5.
If the location of employment is inside the Northeast Development Region of BC, all occupations at TEER Category 4 or 5 in the National Occupational Classification (NOC) are eligible, excluding live-in caregivers (NOC 44100).
If the location of employment is outside the Northeast Development Region of BC, eligible occupations are the following:
- Occupations in travel and accommodation
- NOC 64314 - Hotel front desk clerks
- Tour and recreational guides and casino occupations
- NOC 64320 - Tour and travel guides
- NOC 64322 - Outdoor sport and recreational guides
- NOC 64321 - Casino workers
- Occupations in food and beverage service
- NOC 64300 - Maîtres d’hotel and hosts/hostesses
- NOC 64301 - Bartenders
- NOC 65200 - Food and beverage servers
- NOC 65201 - Food counter attendants, kitchen helpers and related support occupations
- Cleaners (employed directly by hotels/resorts)
- NOC 65310 - Light duty cleaners
- NOC 65311 - Specialized cleaners
- NOC 65312 - Janitors, caretakers and heavy-duty cleaners
- NOC 65210 - Support occupations in accommodation, travel and facilities set-up services
- Other service occupations (employed directly by hotels/resorts)
- NOC 65320 - Dry cleaning, laundry and related occupations
- NOC 65329 - Other service support occupations
- Food processing
- NOC 94140 - Process control and machine operators, food and beverage processing
- NOC 94141 - Industrial butchers and meat cutters, poultry preparers and related workers
- NOC 94142 - Fish and seafood plant workers
- NOC 94143 - Testers and graders, food and beverage processing
- NOC 95106 - Labourers in food and beverage processing
The wage stated on your Job Offer must be at market rate and comparable to the rate paid to workers with a similar level of experience and training for equivalent jobs in BC (bonuses, commissions, tips, housing allowance, etc. are not considered part of your wage).
Depending on the NOC code of the job offer, additional qualification requirements may apply.
2. Work Experience
You need to be employed and working full-time (at least an average of 30 hours a week, year round) with the BC employer supporting your BCPNP application in any ELSS-eligible occupation for at least 9 consecutive months immediately prior to registering to the BCPNP.
3. Education
At a minimum, you must have successfully completed secondary education (graduated from high school) either within or outside of Canada.
If the offered position requires mandatory certification, licensing or registration, you need to provide documentation showing that you meet these requirements, or how these requirements will shortly be met.
4. Language
You will need to have a Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) score of at least 4 in English or French to be eligible.
More information about language proficiency is available in the SIRS section below.
5. Minimum income requirements
You must demonstrate that you meet minimum income requirements according to your (i) gross annual wage in the Job Offer, (ii) location of residence in BC, and (iii) number of dependants.
You can include your spouse/partner's gross annual wage if they work in BC.
Bonuses, commissions, tips, housing allowance, etc. are not included when calculating your wage.
The annual wage is calculated as: (hourly rate) x (hours worked per week (max 40h)) x (52 weeks a year).
The minimum income requirements as set by BCPNP are presented in the table below:
# of dependants | Metro Vancouver Regional District | Rest of British Columbia |
---|---|---|
1 | 26,620 CAD | 22,186 CAD |
2 | 33,141 CAD | 27,619 CAD |
3 | 40,743 CAD | 33,954 CAD |
4 | 49,467 CAD | 41,226 CAD |
5 | 56,105 CAD | 46,757 CAD |
6 | 63,276 CAD | 52,735 CAD |
7 or more | 70,449 CAD | 58,713 CAD |