Is the Provincial Nominee Program the right immigration option for me?

February 7, 2021 Jeremie Misquitta

The Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) is a jointly administered immigration program with Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) and the provinces which provides provinces with an opportunity to address their specific economic development needs while distributing the benefits of economic immigration across all provinces and territories.

PNP provides the authority for provinces to nominate immigrants destined to their provinces by establishing their own criteria for provincial nomination. Once nominated by a province, a nominee applies to IRCC for permanent residence, at which time IRCC determines the individual’s eligibility and admissibility and holds authority over the final selection decision.

Provinces develop their own streams to meet their labour market demands and economic needs. The streams vary across provinces, the main types of stream under which applicants can apply can be grouped under the following: workers with job offers, workers without job offers, business, international student, family-assisted and community-identified.

All provinces have a stream for workers with a job offer, some have a stream for workers without job offers.

In the worker streams, eligibility requirements are different among provinces, including National Occupational Classification (NOC) level, language, education, and experience requirements. While there are similarities between the business streams across provinces, relative to criteria and application assessment, there are differences in PNP business streams as a reflection of the unique situations and needs of the provinces.

The statistics so far show that the PNP approval rate is between 94% to 97% and is due to the initial nomination process. The provinces do the initial assessment of applications, once individuals are nominated by a province, IRCC conducts an eligibility assessment. IRCC assesses the individual’s capacity to establish economically and their intention to reside in the nominating province and does not assess the individual’s university degree, language proficiency, etc. IRCC still performs a full admissibility screening. The standard processing time for PNP applications (i.e., the non-Express Entry) is 11 months.