Alberta Advantage Immigration Program – Processing times and inventory

Date: 16 April, 2024

How to estimate processing times for applications and determine which streams are accepting applications.

Nomination certificate limits

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) sets the limits for nomination certificates. The AAIP issued 10,029 nomination certificates in 2023, which includes 279 nomination certificates issued under a federally authorized administrative buffer for Express Entry nomination certificates. AAIP’s 2024 allocation has not yet been confirmed. Notional increases to more than 10,000 nomination allocations per year are expected in 2024 and 2025. Additional information about the 2024 allocation and the projected split between Express Entry and non-Express Entry pathways will be provided when available.

Summary of 2023 nomination certificates by AAIP stream or pathway

Stream / Pathway	Nomination certificates issued
Non-Express Entry Streams – Allocations 5,850
Alberta Opportunity Stream	4,971
Rural Renewal Stream	875
All (4) Entrepreneur streams	4
Express Entry Stream and Pathways – Allocations 4,179
Family Connection and Occupation in Demand	1,220
Accelerated Tech Pathway	1,996
Dedicated Healthcare Pathway	122
Sector Priorities (that is, construction, agriculture, hospitality and tourism)	805
General (applications received prior to 2023)	36
Total nomination certificates:	10,029

Application volumes and processing

Information on average processing times and dates and application volumes is available to help you determine how long it takes for AAIP to process a complete application for each AAIP stream or pathway.

Approximate volumes, processing times and assessment dates for each AAIP stream or pathway are provided below.

‘Assessing’ means an AAIP officer was assigned an application to assess and decide if an application is eligible.

The most common factors considered in AAIP application processing include:

• application quality (completeness, eligibility, outdated information or documents)
• volume of applications received
• the date the application was received
• strategic priorities, informed by labor market and economic development information
• the number of nomination certificates remaining for the year

Streams for workers

Streams for workers: number of applications, allocations, processing time.

AAIP Stream	Number of applications in the queue (approximate)	Processing time (estimated average) – from when a complete application is submitted until a final decision is issued	The AAIP is assessing applications received before… (approximate)
Alberta Opportunity Stream	Approximately 4,358	Approximately 7 months	October 12, 2023
Alberta Express Entry Stream – All pathways	Approximately 969	Dedicated Healthcare Pathway – Approximately 2 weeks	April 10, 2024
		Priority Sectors – approximately 5 months	December 2, 2023
		Accelerated Tech Pathway – approximately 6 months	January 1, 2024
		Family Connection and In-Demand Occupation – approximately 4 months	December 17, 2023
Rural Renewal Stream	Approximately 1,728	Approximately 6 months	November 14, 2023
Tourism and Hospitality Stream	Approximately 300	Approximately 1 month or less	March 1, 2024

Streams for entrepreneurs

Table 3. Streams for entrepreneurs: processing times for EOI scoring, business application, and final report or decision.

AAIP Stream	Expression of Interest (EOI) scoring (estimated) – from when EOI is submitted to scoring completed	Business Application decision (estimated) – from when a complete business application is received until a support letter is issued	Final report and nomination (estimated) – from when final report is submitted until a final nomination decision is issued
Graduate Entrepreneur Stream	1 month	3 months	4 months
Foreign Graduate Entrepreneur Stream	1 month	3 months	4 months
Rural Entrepreneur Stream	1 month	3 months	4 months

AAIP Stream	Processing time (estimated average) – from when a complete application is submitted until a final decision is issued
Farm Stream	4 months

Applications by occupation

The AAIP has a high volume of applications in worker streams in the following occupations. When the volume of these applications exceeds the ability to issue nominations, these submissions may take longer to process or may be occupations excluded from Express Entry draws regardless of occupational demand.

• 62020 – Food service supervisors
• 63200 – Cooks
• 62010 – Retail sales supervisors
• 65201 – Food counter attendants, kitchen helpers and related support occupations
• 13110 – Administrative assistants
• 73300 – Transport truck drivers
• 12200 – Accounting technicians and bookkeepers
• 13100 – Administrative officers
• 42202 – Early childhood educators and assistants
• 21231 – Software engineers and designers

Express Entry draws

The AAIP regularly reviews available candidates in the federal Express Entry pool. Based on available profile information in the portal, the AAIP draws to select candidates from the pool, inviting them to submit a completed application to the AAIP. Information on Alberta Express Entry Stream Notification of Interest factors is included on the Eligibility page. Accelerated Tech Pathway candidates are invited to apply, depending on the outcome of the review of their Accelerated Tech Pathway form.

The following parameters will apply to Alberta Express Entry Stream selection for 2023:

• an estimated 31% of nominations will be allocated to candidates in in-demand occupations who have a close family connection (parent, child, brother or sister) in Alberta. In-demand occupations include occupations with significant cumulative imbalance on Alberta’s Occupational Outlook and occupations in ‘High’ or ‘Moderately High’ demand in the Short-Term Employment Forecast.
• an estimated 23% of nominations will be allocated to candidates with a primary occupation in the health care, construction, agriculture, hospitality and tourism sectors, with priority given to candidates with an Alberta job offer
• an estimated 45% of nominations will be allocated to the Accelerated Tech Pathway