Canada’s Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) issued nearly 3,000 invitations to apply for provincial nomination during the month of November.

Since its launch in 1998, the PNP has become the second main route to permanent residence in Canada.  Between now and 2023, PNPs alone are expected to result in more than 80,000 immigrants per year being admitted as permanent residents.

What are PNPs?

They allow Canadian provinces and territories to nominate individuals for permanent immigration.

There are two types – base and enhanced.

Base nomination streams – work outside of the Express system, as they are managed by the provinces themselves. These types of nominations are subject to the processing standards of the specific PNP stream.

To go from a successful base nomination to permanent residency, candidates will generally have to go through a two-step process. First, candidates determine that they meet the criteria for a PNP stream, apply, and if successful, receive a nomination certificate. Once they have this certificate, they can apply for permanent resident status with the federal government.

Enhanced nomination streams – on the other hand, are linked with the Express Entry system. They allow provincial immigration officials to search the Express Entry pool of candidates for applicants who match specific criteria. The provinces then invite these candidates to apply for a provincial nomination.

Nearly every Canadian province and territory, except for Nunavut and Quebec which operates its own immigration programmes and has its own Provincial Nominee Program. This allows provincial governments to select immigration candidates who meet their local labour market needs and to manage the regional settlement of the immigrant population within their jurisdiction.

The following is a summary of draws by province, listed in order from most to least invitations in November:

Alberta

So far in November, the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP) held one invitation round. The AINP held the draw on November and invited 200 candidates with CRS scores of at least 343. 

British Columbia

Over the past month, British Columbia held a total of six draws and invited 861 candidates to apply for a provincial nomination through the Express Entry British Columbia and Skills Immigration streams closely matching the number of invitations issued every month since the beginning of the year.

Nova Scotia

On November 18 Nova Scotia added three new eligible occupations listed under the Occupations In-Demand stream, including food & beverage servers (NOC 6513), food counter attendants (NOC 6711) and light-duty cleaners (NOC 6731).

Manitoba

The province of Manitoba held two draws through the following three streams: Skilled Workers in Manitoba, International Education Stream and Skilled Workers Overseas this past month. The drawers were held on November 1 and November 18 with a total of 849 Letters of Advice to Apply issued of which 143 were issued to candidates who declared a valid Express Entry profile. 

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island held a large pre-scheduled draw on November 18 and issued a combined 188 invitations to immigration candidates. Most of the invitations, 172, were issued to Express Entry and Labour candidates. The remaining 16 invitations went to Business Impact candidates who had a minimum point threshold of 67. PEI held 11 draws so far this year, bringing the total number of invitations issued to 1,729.