What are Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP)?
Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) grant individual provinces/territories the power to choose from the candidates wishing to settle in Canada.
Each province/territory in Canada has its own PNP (except for Nunavut). Participating provinces and territories have signed an agreement with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to select their own immigrants to meet their needs for labour or business, ensuring the success of their establishment.
With the entry into force of the federal Express Entry immigration system in 2015, almost all PNPs created minimum one Express Entry aligned immigration stream. Nominations received under the Express Entry aligned streams allow candidates to benefit from an “Express” processing time by the federal government of less than 6 months, compared to longer processing times for other non-aligned streams.
There are mainly 3 reasons why candidates would look into Provincial Nominee Programs to obtain Permanent Residence:
- They are in the Express Entry pool, and do not have enough CRS points to get an Invitation to Apply (ITA). With a provincial nomination, they will get 600 additional points, which will automatically get them an ITA,
- They received a job offer from an employer in the province, or
- They are already in a province, either finished studies or working temporarily, and are thus eligible to one of that province’s nomination streams.
