Alberta Advantage Immigration Program – Processing information

Overview

This page provides information on nominations issued and available, applications to be processed, estimated processing times, processing order and priorities and draws.

All information about nominations issued, nomination allocation distribution, spaces remaining and applications to be processed are subject to change without notice. AAIP reserves the right to redistribute allocations to other streams or pathways at any time.

In 2026, the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP) will prioritize draws and nominations within its worker streams for occupations in key sectors such as health care, technology, construction, manufacturing, aviation, agriculture, and communities designated under the Rural Renewal Stream. While these sectors represent the program’s primary focus areas for the year, they are not an exhaustive list. This guidance is intended to help manage expectations and highlight AAIP’s highest priorities for 2026.

Last updated: January 13, 2026

The next update to this page is expected to occur in early January 2026.

Processing summary totals

2025 summary

• AAIP issued 6,603 nominations in 2025, meeting its allocation for the year.
  • This includes some additional nominations under a small IRCC Express Entry administrative overage provided by the Government of Canada.
• Over 85% of the total 2025 nominations went to temporary foreign workers in Alberta.

2026 summary

Table 1. Process summary totals for 2025.

Additional federal spaces

Additional federal immigration spaces for physicians or Francophones

Up to 10,000 federal immigration spaces are available across all provincial nominee programs for provinces and territories to nominate practice‑ready physicians or Francophones (in Canada or abroad).

Any AAIP nomination issued in 2026 for a physician or Francophone who meets the federal criteria for this initiative will not count toward Alberta’s 6,403 nomination allocation.

Eligibility

• Physicians: Must be NOC 31100, 31101, or 31102 and be practice‑ready (meeting AAIP’s Dedicated Healthcare Pathway requirements).
• Francophones: May work in any AAIP‑eligible NOC and must meet CLB/NCLC 5 in French across all four competencies.

AAIP will publish the number of nominations issued under this initiative as they are confirmed with IRCC for both Express Entry and non‑Express Entry pathways.

No new streams or pathways are being created for this initiative; existing AAIP stream designs apply. For details on how practice‑ready physicians may typically qualify for AAIP, see AAIP’s Dedicated Healthcare Pathway page.

Alberta Opportunity Stream

Table 2. Alberta Opportunity Stream nomination numbers for 2026.

Rural Renewal Stream

Processing information provided below is an estimate. The processing times for Rural Renewal Stream applications may vary based on several factors, including the consideration of application volumes from Designated Communities.

Table 3. Rural Renewal Stream nomination numbers for 2026.

Tourism and Hospitality Stream

Table 4. Tourism and Hospitality Stream nomination numbers for 2026.

Dedicated Health Care Pathways

Table 5. Dedicated Health Care Pathways (Express Entry and non-Express Entry nomination numbers for 2026.

Alberta Express Entry Stream

Table 6. Alberta Express Entry Stream nomination numbers for 2026.

Entrepreneur Streams

Table 7. Entrepreneur Streams nomination numbers for 2026.

Entrepreneur stream processing times and volumes vary due to comprehensive documentation and verification needs. On average, it takes up to four months to assess both an expression of interest and business application. Entrepreneur stream applicants have frequent contact with AAIP staff responsible for assessing eligibility for business application approval and nomination.

Worker expression of interest

The table below is broken down by the streams or pathways and includes the current number of expressions of interest that are eligible for selection draws.

Candidates may be invited to apply to a stream or pathway other than the one that they submitted their expression of interest to.

Table 8. Expression of interest pool.

Draw information

• Information will be updated as draws are conducted. AAIP draws are not regularly scheduled. They are done as needed to address sector needs and provincial priorities.
• EOI score is not the only factor AAIP uses to select candidates for invitation. AAIP considers a variety of factors provided in Worker EOIs to meet program priorities. To protect program integrity AAIP does not disclose draw parameters.
• Draw information for 2025 is provided below. AAIP draw information for 2024 is provided in the AAIP Draw History Summary 2024. This document also includes draw information for the Alberta Express Entry Stream under the former Notification of Interest system.

Table 9. Draw information.

Contact

Connect with AAIP if you have questions about the program:

Use the AAIP online contact form