Over 3000 invitations were sent to apply for permanent residence in the previous month through Canada’s Provincial Nominee Program. The federal, provincial, and territorial governments jointly administer the Provincial Nominee Program, an immigration program. PNP allows the provinces and territories to operate their separate immigration streams to meet the labor market requirements and objectives related to economic development.
PNP came into existence in 1998 to equally spread the immigration benefits among provinces and also to motivate more individuals to move to smaller provinces and even sparsely populated areas.
Most economic immigration in Canadian provinces and territories results from Provincial Nominee Program. PNP is responsible for the smaller Canadian provinces such as Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, News Brunswick, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, and Saskatchewan, to make them meet their demographic and labor force requirements.
In 2024, PNPs might bring in 93,000 individuals immigrating annually and becoming permanent residents.
PNPs aligning with Express Entry
Provinces and territories that actively participate comprise of minimum one PNP stream that closely aligns with the Federal Express Entry system, a leading online system for the management of applications, the three economic immigration pathways- the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), Federal Skilled Trade Program (FSTP), and Canadian Experience Class (CEC).
There are PNP streams that are linked to the Express Entry called Enhanced PNPs. Provinces through the Enhanced PNP can select candidates from the Express Entry pool and send them invitations to apply for provincial nomination. Candidates who receive a PNP nomination are subject to receiving an additional 600 points based on the Comprehensive Ranking System.
Two specific PNP Express Entry draws took place on June 1 wherein 1,568 candidates received ITA. The Express Entry backlog has grown considerably, and to reduce the backlog, caused due to administrative complexities, FSWP and CEC invitations paused.
However, as per official reports, the immigration minister declared that IRCC would resume FSWP and CEC on July 6. He even committed to improving the application process. The maximum applications under the new Express Entry would be processed within six months.
Alberta
The Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP) was conducted in June, and Alberta invited 150 candidates to apply for a provincial nomination via Alberta Express Entry Stream. Those candidates who were invited needed a minimum CRS score of 306.
British Columbia
BC PNP holds regular weekly draws to send invitations to candidates with superior ranks and higher scores to apply for provincial nominations. They can apply for nomination based on streams such as Express Entry British Columbia, Skills Immigration, Entrepreneur Regional Pilot and the Tech Streams.
British Columbia also conducts special draws for those candidates who are part of occupations that are on priority.
The province sent 600 invitations to immigration candidates in June.
Manitoba
There are three main streams under which Manitoba issues invitations. They include Skilled Workers Overseas, Skilled Workers in Manitoba, and International Educational Stream. 146 Letters of Advice were issued under the previous month’s draw and 34 out of them were sent to those with a valid Express Entry profile. Skilled Workers in Manitoba Stream were not a part of this draw.
Manitoba also introduced a special measure for Ukrainian nationals through which occasionally conducted Expression of Interest Draw. This was a perfect measure for candidates who fulfilled the MPNP eligibility requirements and those who were currently victims of the Ukrainian situation. EOI draw was held on June 21, when the province issued 14 invitations.
Ontario
There were nine draw results that were declared in June under the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program.
Two draws were conducted under the French-Speaking Skilled Worker (FSSW) stream under Ontario’s Express Entry system. The first one conducted on June 9 issued invitations to 153 candidates with a score equal to or above 481. The second, held on June 21, had the province send invitations to 356 candidates with a score equal to or above 440 and a target occupation. Ontario even sent 1,751 invitations to candidates through the various streams of Employer Job Offer. The streams were: the Foreign Worker, In-Demand Skills, Masters Graduate Stream, and Ph.D. Graduate Stream, and International Stream. The Ontario draws were held on June 1 and June 29, 2022.
OINP also received its allocation for nomination from the Federal government in 2022. The allocation accounts for 9,750 nominations for 2022.
Prince Edward Island
PEI Provincial Nomination Programs are held monthly and are always scheduled in advance. The PEI PNP draw took place on June 16 with 127 candidates receiving invitations from streams including Labor Impact and Express Entry and 9 invitations were issued through the Business Impact Stream.
