5 Recent Canada Immigration Changes That Finally Favor Applicants

In one single week in the month of June, just one week, Canada issued over 9,000 invitations to apply for permanent residence. 9,000. But here's the part that most people missed completely. One of those draws had the CRS score so low, it has never been seen in the history of Canadian immigration. Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself. In today's video, we're going through every single Canada immigration update that happened in June 2026. So remove all distractions and stay tuned because June was not the month that anyone was expecting. But before I go on, I want to address one thing that is very important. The narrative that Canada is closing immigration is everywhere right now. And for sure, it might look like that because the targets came down, the rules tightened, people are nervous. But despite all of that, the people who are positioned correctly are still being invited in, in large numbers. And June just proved it. So let me show you exactly what happened, who benefited, and what you need to do about it. Let me frame June 2026 for you, because it took us by surprise and I'm calling it the fake cam event. If you have been watching from a distance, you might have thought it was a quiet month. But despite it being quiet, Canada had four express entry draws in four days. Yeah, and some awesome things happened in the provinces as well. I'm going to take you through this section by section. Express entry first, then we'll look at provinces, then processing times, then study permit and international students, and finally, the federal policy updates that are easy to miss, but they carry real consequences. Let's spill the tea. But before we spill the tea, I want to say thank you for 60,000 subscribers. Men, you guys rock. I'm very grateful. And if you are watching without subscribing, you know what to do. Now let's talk about express entry. Between June 22nd and June 25th, Canada held four express entry draws in the space of four days, with total invitations of over 9,000. 9,000 people in four days received an official invitation to apply for permanent residence. Draw number one was on June 22nd. It was 995 invitations. This was a PNP draw for provincial nominee program candidates only. CRS cutoff was 730. And if you understand how the PNP works, you know that the provincial nomination automatically adds 600 points to your CRS score. So a 730 cutoff for PNP candidates does not mean you personally needed to build a score of 730 from scratch. It means your total CRS score, your actual CRS combined with that 600 points nomination bonus needed to hit the 730 mark. If you have a provincial nomination in hand, you are in a completely different lane from everyone else. Draw number two was on June 23rd. 4,000 invitations. Canadian experience class only. CRS cutoff was 516. This draw is specifically for people who are already inside Canada working. The Canadian experience class requires Canadian work experience. Draw number three, and this is the one that stopped the entire immigration community in its tracks. It happened on June 24th. 271 invitations for physicians with Canadian experience. CRS cutoff 223. It is the lowest CRS cutoff score ever recorded in a physician-specific draw. In the history of Canadian immigration, it means if you're a licensed physician and you have any degree of Canadian experience, even limited exposure through clinical assessments, observations, or short-term placements, Canada is calling your name loudly. They are standing at the door with a floodlight pointed at doctors and saying, please come in. And honestly, I think that Canada is finally realizing that the healthcare crisis in this country is real. The shortage of doctors, particularly in rural communities in smaller provinces like New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, is a national emergency. And Canada is using its immigration system as the emergency response. Draw number four was on June 25th. 4,000 invitations for healthcare workers and social service professionals. CRS cutoff was 475. And it targeted nurses, physiotherapists, lab technicians, occupational therapists, and social workers. 4,000 of them invited in one day. If you're a healthcare professional and you do not have an active express entry profile, build one today. Do not wait for more evidence that this trend is real. June has given you four pieces of evidence in four days. Express entry is only one part of what the month of June delivered because on the provincial side, one province just tore down its entire system and built something new from scratch. We're talking about Ontario. Since May 30th, Ontario's provincial nominee program had been effectively paused and people were frustrated. They were asking the same question that everyone was asking. When is Ontario coming back? And on June 26th, we got the answer. The province launched a brand new structure they called the Ontario Workforce Priority String with three entirely new pathways with new rules, new criteria, new priorities. The first pathway is for tier zero to three. This is for higher skilled occupations like engineers, nurses, IT professionals, managers, skilled tradespeople as well. The second pathway is for tiers four and five. Ontario has created a formal pathway for intermediate skilled workers, transport workers, food processing workers, even certain manufacturing roles. Canada has historically been very cautious about creating mainstream permanent respite pathways for these same people but Ontario did it and that is really significant. The third pathway is the self-employed physicians eligible for O-HIP billing. Ontario wants doctors who are ready to practice and build the provincial health insurance system. They built a dedicated pathway just for them. Ontario's expression of interest portal, the online system where you submit your profile, is temporarily closed to allow the new system to be designed and built. It is expected to reopen later in the summer. I made a dedicated video about this that I will link in the description. You can check it out after you watch this one. I do want to say something about these new streams though. They are entirely employer dependent and honestly a lot of employers in Ontario either are not aware of these streams or they are not willing to even support their employees for a variety of reasons that I won't get into right now and this is where most people get stuck. If only Ontario gave some kind of incentive to the employers or even created a couple of streams that don't depend on employers, it would be a blessing for the many people who are stuck in this loop. Now British Columbia. BC held two draws in June. The first one on June 2nd sent 357 invitations for care workers and construction trades and that included health, education, veterinary professionals and skill builders. These are the sectors that BC returns to consistently because the need is permanent and real. The second draw on June 18th was what they call their innovate draw. 279 invitations but this one had one specific criteria. It was for those in tier 0-3 occupations earning $62 or more per hour or they had a pool score of 136 and above. Now this is BC saying if you are exceptional, if you are in a high impact, high wage role, we are specifically looking for you. But the most time sensitive thing that BC did in June is that they launched a healthcare support initiative. A dedicated fast tracking project for care workers that runs from June 15th through August 31st. It is not a new stream, they just gave it a priority processing window. So if you're a care worker with a British Columbia employer right now, this opportunity is currently open for you and it will close August 31st. That is not far away. So if it applies to you or someone you know, act now. Moving on to Alberta. Let us be honest about Alberta for a second because I think people underestimate this province significantly. Between May 28th and June 2nd alone, Alberta issued approximately 1,550 invitations across 7 separate draws. 64% of those went through the Alberta opportunity stream. They also ran dedicated draws for healthcare workers, nurses and rural communities. Note that as of June 3rd, Alberta had only used 2,587 of its 6,403 available nomination slots for 2026. That means over 3,800 slots are still available. More than half of Alberta's annual relocation for the entire year has not been used. Alberta is active, Alberta is open. If you're eligible particularly through the opportunity stream or through healthcare pathways, Alberta should absolutely be in your immigration strategy. Do not write Alberta off. Now give me a second to If this video is helping you see June 2026 clearly, if this is giving you information you genuinely needed, hit that like button right now. It helps more people find this video. And those people need this information just as much as you do. And of course subscribe if you have not already done so. I post these updates so that your immigration journey is never derailed by information you did not have access to. Now let's get back to it. Let us talk about processing times. The picture for processing times is mixed and I want to be honest with you about both sides. Canada's overall immigration backlog as of April 30th stood at approximately 922,700 applications. That's almost a million. Now that is still a large number but here's the context. That is the lowest it has been since Surprised right? The trend line is moving in the right direction. 93% of the TRS-BR application backlog has already been cleared. The system is absolutely processing but not as fast as we would like it to. For in Canada work permits, this is genuinely good news. Processing time is now down to 144 days and that is the lowest it has been on record for a long time. If you are inside Canada waiting for a work permit extension or a renewal, the queue is moving faster than it ever has. Now the Atlantic immigration program, they also gave some surprises in June. Between mid-May and June 8th, AIP processing times dropped from 38 months to 26 months. 12 months faster in a matter of weeks. Well done AIP but can you make it faster? 26 months is still not acceptable. The published target for AIP processing is 11 months and they are not meeting the standard at all. But for the approximately 12,900 people with AIP applications in the queue who have been unsure and unsure, I guess this is good news. Boy, I can't imagine waiting 36 weeks just to hear back. For international applicants, Indian study permits dropped by one week and now sits at four weeks. Nigerian study permits also dropped by one week and now sits at five weeks. Small improvements, yes, but consistent movement is a good signal. For my Nigerian brothers and sisters, especially five weeks to a study permit decision is real progress from where we were before. On the study permit side, a few important things to note. Canada's 2026 study permit target is 408,000. It's down from 437,000 in 2025. That means Canada is accepting fewer international studies overall than it did two years ago. If you are in the planning stages of a Canadian education journey, please apply early and apply correctly. You don't want to waste that chance. If you need help understanding how to optimize the admission and study in Canada process, I've got a masterclass called the Canada-Japa system that has helped hundreds of people just like you to come study in Canada successfully. If you're in the study in Canada journey and you don't have the Canada-Japa system, you are on a wrong thing. The details are in the description. Grab it now. Now let me walk you through the federal policy updates. These are the ones that do not always get the spotlight but they carry real consequences. Number one, family reunification for Quebec skilled worker applicants. As of June 5th, 2026, if you're a principal applicant under the Quebec skilled worker program and your spouse or common law partner is already in Canada as a temporary foreign worker, your partner can now apply for an open work permit while your permanent residency application is being processed. This measure runs through the end of 2026. And then number two is On June 23rd, IOCC issued new instructions requiring immigration officers to verify test photos and actively watch for fraud across all language test submissions. If your results are genuine, you have nothing to worry about. But I say this so that the right message goes everywhere. Shortcuts around the language requirements are a trap. The scrutiny has increased and the consequences are severe. So ask yourself, is it worth the risk? And finally, IOCC is currently in public consultation on a proposal to merge all three federal economic programs in the express entry. The federal skilled worker program, the federal skilled trace program and the Canadian experience class into one unified program. They are also considering adding a high wage occupation bonus to the CRS scoring system. Nothing is finalized. This is the consultation stage. But I want you to know that this is on the table because when structural changes happen to express entry, and this one may be significant, it may affect you if you're in the pool or you're thinking of jumping in. So keep watching, keep paying attention, subscribe so you don't miss out because we will definitely be here to spill all the tea when it happens. So June 2026 was not a quiet month. It was a busy, targeted, deliberate month. Canada issued over 9,000 invitations in four days for express entry. Ontario built an entirely new provincial program. British Columbia opened a fast track window for care workers that closes in August. Alberta still has more than half of its nomination slots for the year available. Processing times are also improving. The immigration backlog is at its lowest in nearly 12 months. The narrative that Canada has closed its doors challenges it every time you hear it. The door has not closed. The door has just changed shape. It now favours people who are already in Canada with Canadian work experience. It also favours healthcare professionals, physicians, nurses, and care workers. It favours people with provincial connections. It favours skilled street people. And now in Ontario, it favours even intermediate workers. The question to ask yourself is not, is Canada accepting people? The answer to that is yes. The question to ask is, am I positioned for the door that is actually open right now? Now here's what I want you to do this very week. Number one, if you're a healthcare worker or a physician and you do not have an active express entry profile, go and build one. Your category is being called. An express entry does not have an age barrier in that sense. Number two, if Ontario is in your plans, mark your calendar for when the new OIMP portal reopens this summer and start preparing your documents today, not the day the portal goes live. Number three, if you have an AIP application and you have been anxious, take a breath. The processing time has improved significantly. It is moving. And as always, waiting is risky. Not because the doors are closing, but because the doors are changing shape, like I said before. And the people who act on accurate, timely information have an advantage over the people who are waiting for the perfect moment to appear. That perfect moment, it really announces itself. So please like and share this video with someone who is on this journey with you, because the best thing you can do for the people you love is to make sure that they have the right information at the right time. And if you have any questions, go ahead and drop them in the comments, or you can email me at sheyi at relocatecanada.biz. And like I said before, if you are planning to study in Canada, make sure you check out the Canada Jaffa system in the description. I want to know your thoughts on this video. Now tell me, have you ever wondered about how the current state of affairs in Canada affects its positioning as a first world country, or even how it affects your own immigration journey? It's an interesting discussion, and you can join me in this video here to talk about it. My name is Sheyi Obasi, and this is the Canadian Dream. I'm going to see you in the next one. You take care now. Bye.