The Canadian government has decided to increase PNP allocations for Canadian immigration. Furthermore, the Provincial Nominee Programs in Canada have overpowered the Express Entry system. PNPs are the prominent pathway for economic-class individuals seeking Canadian Permanent Residence.
The timing is absolute as the number of immigrants arriving in Canada through the PNP will surpass the figure of 105,000 in the following three years. The Immigration Levels Plan (2023-2025) claims that PNP will encourage Canadian immigration, with at least 105,000 immigrants landing in Canada in 2023. Meanwhile, the figure is likely to increase to 117,500 by 2025.
IRCC introduced PNP as long ago as 1998; the following year, there were only 400 Canadian immigrants.
The Canadian government has decided to increase PNP allocations
PNP immigrants underwent a significant rise, primarily due to the needs of the provincial and territorial governments. They require skilled immigrants to bridge the existing acute labor shortage gap. Moreover, PNP works with the aim of solidifying the economic, social, and cultural benefits of Canadian immigration across the nation. Therefore, Canada is making ends meet by raising the bar for PNP immigrants.
PNP enables each provincial and territorial participant to provide PR to specially selected candidates who seek to settle in this country for a lifetime.
Notably, except Quebec and Nunavut, all the remaining eleven Canadian provinces have separate PNPs. Contrarily, Quebec has an agreement with the federal government and functions through its separate economic class immigration programs.
What about the latest PNP developments?
Last year in July, all the federal, provincial, and territorial immigration ministers had a meeting with their objective to enhance the number of skilled immigrants in Canada. Consequently, they agreed to introduce a multi-year immigration plan which is PNP-specific. This specific plan turned out to be helpful toward the government levels offering them the potential to attract more immigrants and increase settlement in Canada.
This month also, the provincial and territorial immigration ministers with federal authorities met each other. They sat together and re-planned the multi-year PNP plan under the bi-annual FMRI.
Post the meeting held on March 10 this year, provinces are gradually revealing their new set of PNP allocations. To begin with, Ontario took the lead.
Ontario’s immigration minister has further made it more evident that it desires more authority over the economic class immigration programs. The minister reiterated that the province only got to select below 5 percent of 211,000 immigrants in 2022. He even talked about the two primary requests to the federal government. The first one revolved around gaining more power over Ontario’s economic immigration. Meanwhile, the second request was to increase the PNP allocation for the province at least twice, to around 18,000.
The previous Saturday, the federal government declared that the province would have its desire come true. Currently, Ontario will be accessing an increased PNP allocation of up to 18,000 each year in 2025.
Moreover, even several other provinces have discussed their PNP distributions. Likewise, Alberta will witness an increase to 10,849 in 2025; meanwhile, Saskatchewan’s PNP allocation will increase to 8,500 by 2025. On the other hand, Manitoba will experience a rise in its PNP allocation up to 9,500 this year.
Yukon also declared that it received a PNP allocation of 430 PNP spaces for this year, indicating an increase of 300 compared to 2022.
PNP application process
Skilled immigrants often get the opportunity for Canadian immigration with the help of enhanced and base nominations. The major difference between enhanced and base PNP is that enhanced PNP nominations have faster processing than base PNP nominations. Currently, the processing time per IRCC for base nominations is an average of 20 months. Conversely, the processing time for base nominations is eleven months.
Base PNP nominations
Base PNP nominations are a part of the regular PNP streams besides the Express Entry system. Candidates seeking to apply for a base PNP successfully must ensure they fulfill all essential eligibility conditions of the province or territory. Accordingly, if a candidate satisfies the criteria and proceeds to apply for a Provincial Nomination, they will acquire a nomination certificate.
Once they acquire this nomination certificate, candidates will apply for a PR under the Canadian federal government.
The application process for a Base PNP includes the following three chief steps:
- Post receiving a Provincial Nomination, start with a digital account creation with IRCC. Next, fill out the application form.
- Application fee payment will be the second step.
- Online application submission.
Enhanced Nominations
Several Canadian provinces and territories get to nominate a higher number of PR candidates through Express Entry. This kind of partial PNPs is the enhanced nominations. Express Entry pool candidates with a PNP nomination get extra 600 points under the Comprehensive Ranking System. These points derive from a total of 1,200.
When a candidate receives these 600 additional points, he gets a guaranteed chance to obtain an ITA in the forthcoming Express Entry draw.
Moreover, PNP candidates with Express Entry eligibility must take their time to put their Express Entry profile as this will enhance their chances of acquiring Permanent Residence.
Doing so will instead increase their chances of receiving an invitation for Canadian PR. This way, the provincial, territorial, and federal governments will also be able to fulfill their immigration targets.
Candidates must ensure they’re already present in the Express Entry pool before applying for an enhanced PNP certificate.
Enhanced PNPs usually opt for either of the two methods mentioned below:
- The Provincial or Territorial governments will conduct a periodic verification under the Express Entry pool. Subsequently, they will invite candidates interested in applying for PR.
- Provinces such as Saskatchewan will instruct the candidates in the pool (who show interest in moving there) to connect with them via email. This way, they will be able to review their profile.
The application procedure for enhanced PNP includes the four primary steps:
- IRCC account creation and Express Entry profile submission.
- Obtain an Express Entry nomination (from its stream) or display a prior provincial or territorial nomination.
- Acquire an ITA after the acceptance of the Express Entry nomination.
- Filling out the online application form with IRCC.
