Alberta AAIP Issues 1,037 Invitations Across Six Draws — First Aviation Round of 2026

Alberta spent the back half of June working through its pool one sector at a time. Between June 17 and June 29, 2026, the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP) ran six draws and issued 1,037 invitations to apply (ITAs) for a provincial nomination — most of them to Alberta Opportunity Stream candidates, but with dedicated rounds for healthcare, tech, tourism, and, for the first time this year, aviation. If you're in Alberta's worker pool, this batch is a clear signal of what the province is prioritizing heading into the second half of 2026.

What happened

The AAIP publishes its draw results through the Government of Alberta's processing pages, and CIC News compiled the six rounds. Here's the full run, newest first:

Six rounds, six different targets, 1,037 ITAs. The one that carried the volume was the June 17 Alberta Opportunity Stream draw — 720 invitations, about 69% of everything issued in the batch. Everything else was small and surgical: two healthcare rounds, one tech round, one tourism round, and the aviation debut.

These are Alberta scores, not your CRS

Before you compare the "minimum score" column to anything federal — don't. Those numbers (47 to 71) are Alberta's own Expression of Interest (EOI) scores, the points Alberta assigns inside its provincial pool. They are not your Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score, which runs on a 1,200-point federal scale.

The two systems connect at the end, not the start. If Alberta nominates you through one of its Express Entry–aligned pathways, that nomination adds 600 points to your federal CRS — effectively a guaranteed invitation at the next Express Entry round. But to get there, you first have to clear Alberta's line on Alberta's scale. A score of 58 in the Opportunity Stream and a CRS of 458 are two different measurements of two different pools.

Aviation is the new lane

The June 24 Priority Sectors round is the story worth flagging — it's the first AAIP draw of 2026 to target the aviation sector, bundled with skilled trades. It was tiny (35 ITAs) and cleared at the lowest score in the batch (47), but the signal matters more than the size: Alberta has added aviation to the short list of sectors it will carve out dedicated rounds for, alongside healthcare and tech.

That fits the pattern across the whole batch. Alberta's June selections tracked the priority sectors it named for 2026 — health care, technology, and now aviation — plus the tourism and hospitality workers who keep the province's service economy running. Two separate healthcare rounds (one Express Entry, one non–Express Entry, 121 ITAs combined) confirm health workers remain a standing priority, the same way they are in federal healthcare draws.

The Accelerated Tech Pathway round (100 ITAs at 59 on June 19) is the other one to watch if you work in technology — it's Alberta's fast lane for tech talent already in the federal Express Entry pool.

Where Alberta stands for the rest of 2026

Alberta has been busy. As of June 30, the province had run 56 selection rounds in 2026 and invited at least 9,599 candidates across all of them. Against a federal allocation of 6,403 nomination spaces for the year, Alberta reports it had used roughly 3,261 by the end of June — a little over half, with the second half of the year still to run. (Alberta's own stream-by-stream tally doesn't perfectly reconcile with that headline figure, and the province has said it's reviewing the numbers, so treat the "about half used" read as directional rather than exact.)

The takeaway for candidates: there's still room. More than 2,000 nomination spaces remain, the pool held 37,497 worker Expressions of Interest at the end of June, and Alberta is clearly willing to reach deep — the aviation round cleared at 47. Volume plus low cutoffs in targeted streams is the combination that rewards being in the pool with a complete, current profile.

What this batch means for you

You're in an Opportunity Stream–eligible job (most Alberta workers): This is your lane, and it's the highest-volume one by far — 720 invitations in a single June round at a score of 58. If you have an eligible Alberta job offer and 12 months of work in your current occupation, your EOI score and your job's alignment with Alberta's criteria are what move you. Make sure your profile is submitted and accurate; you can't be picked from outside the pool.

You work in healthcare, tech, or aviation: Alberta is running dedicated rounds for you at lower cutoffs than the general pool. The healthcare rounds cleared at 63–64, tech at 59, aviation at 47. A strong, sector-matched profile is worth more here than a high raw score — being in the right targeted stream is the advantage.

You're weighing Alberta against a federal draw: A provincial nomination is the single biggest lever in Canadian immigration — +600 CRS. If your federal score is stuck below recent Canadian Experience Class cutoffs (which have held above 507 all year), an Alberta nomination is often the faster route to permanent residence than waiting for your CRS to climb on its own. See the PNP guide for how the nomination-to-PR path works.

Where to go next

Alberta PNP 2026 Guide | PNP Guide | CRS Calculator | All Express Entry Draws | Healthcare Workers Immigration Guide | Skilled Trades Immigration

Sources

• CIC News — Alberta invites over 1,000 candidates across six selection rounds
• Government of Alberta — Alberta Advantage Immigration Program processing information