The Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP) held a new Expression of Interest draw on September 24, 2026, issuing 474 Letters of Advice to Apply (LAAs) for provincial nomination. Most of the invitations, 417 in total, went to candidates working in natural sciences, engineering, architecture and IT occupations.
Everyone who received an LAA can now submit a complete nomination application within 60 days. The round also reached a family physician, French-speaking candidates and people recruited through the province's strategic initiatives.
Details of the Draw
✅ Date of Draw: September 24, 2026
✅ EOI Draw Number: #280
✅ Total LAAs Issued: 474
✅ Natural Sciences, Engineering, Architecture and IT Workers: 417 (cutoff score of 760)
✅ Family Physician (NOC 31102): 1
✅ French-Speaking Candidates: 16
✅ Strategic Recruitment Candidates: 40
✅ Application Deadline: 60 days from the date of invitation
Overview of the Draw
The invitations were spread across two Skilled Worker pathways. Skilled Worker in Manitoba accounted for 434 of them, covering the STEM group, the single physician and the French speakers. Only the STEM category came with a published cutoff, and a score of 760 shows how competitive that group was among candidates already working in the province.
The other 40 invitations went through the Skilled Worker Stream, which covers candidates in Manitoba and overseas, and every one of them had come in through a strategic recruitment initiative. Regional Communities led with 15, Ethnocultural Communities and Employer Services took nine each, the Francophone Community received six, and one went to a candidate tied to a temporary work permit policy that has since expired. Of all 474 LAAs, 148 went to candidates who held a valid Express Entry profile number and job seeker validation code.
Purpose of the Draw
Manitoba uses these rounds to nominate people who can fill gaps in its labour market, and the size of the STEM share points to strong demand in those fields right now. The French-language, healthcare and recruitment-linked invitations serve a different goal, which is to bring in candidates from specific communities and regions rather than relying on ranking scores alone.
Impact on Immigration
For those invited, the 60-day window makes early document preparation important, since an incomplete application can cost valuable time. A successful nominee can request a work permit support letter from the MPNP and use it to apply for a work permit with the federal government. Nominees may also qualify for a bridging open work permit once the permanent residence application has been submitted, and since June 9, 2026, a temporary policy has made that permit available to base PNP applicants months earlier than before.
Candidates who were not invited still have options. Some may be among the roughly 2,700 at-risk Manitoba workers who can apply for open work permits under the Manitoba Workforce Transition Bridge policy, provided they held a provincial support letter and an active EOI profile on December 31, 2025. The province also noted that some eligible candidates may have been passed over because of a missing, invalid or expired language test number, or because a declared recruitment invitation number was not included.
With 6,883 LAAs issued across 19 rounds so far in 2026, Manitoba remains one of the more active provinces for nominations. Candidates with an active EOI profile should keep their language results and profile details up to date, because small errors can keep an otherwise eligible profile out of a draw.
Selection Criteria and Eligibility Requirements
The STEM invitations were reserved for candidates who reported current employment in Manitoba under Broad Occupational Category 2 of the National Occupational Classification system, with the highest-scoring profiles invited first. That category covers three major groups: professional occupations in natural and applied sciences (code 21), specialized middle management occupations in engineering, architecture, science and information systems (code 20), and technical occupations related to natural and applied sciences (code 22). Each code includes several individual occupations, so a wide range of technical and IT roles qualified.
The healthcare invitation followed a much narrower rule. Only candidates who had declared current employment as a general practitioner or family physician under NOC 31102 in their EOI profile could be considered, which explains why a single LAA was issued in this category.
French-speaking candidates had two conditions to meet. They needed to have selected French as their language of communication with the MPNP in their EOI, and they also had to show their French proficiency through a government-approved immigration language test.
Selection under the Skilled Worker Stream was limited to profiles showing an invitation through one of five eligible strategic recruitment missions, or through the Temporary Public Policy to Facilitate Work Permits for Prospective Provincial Nominee Candidates, which has now expired. Apart from the STEM category, no cutoff score was listed for any other group in this round.