Invitations issued to Express Entry candidates with a provincial nomination for permanent residence are up this year, according to new data from the Government of Canada.
Of the 62,500 Express Entry candidates invited to apply for Canadian permanent residence between January and September, 12 percent — or roughly 7,500 — had a provincial nomination.
During this same period in 2017, Invitations to Apply (ITAs) issued to Express Entry candidates nominated by a Canadian province or territory stood at just over nine percent of all invitations issued.
Canada’s Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) works to spread the benefits of immigration more evenly across Canada by allowing participating provinces and territories to nominate a set number of economic immigration candidates for permanent residence each year.
Every province and territory with an immigrant nominee program now has at least one immigration stream that is linked to the federal Express Entry system, which manages the pool of candidates for Canada’s three main federal economic immigration programs — the Federal Skilled Worker Class, Federal Skilled Trades Class and the Canadian Experience Class.
Express Entry candidates who receive a provincial nomination are awarded an additional 600 points toward their Express Entry ranking score, which effectively guarantees an ITA in a subsequent Express Entry invitation round held by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Provincial Nominee is changing the settlement patterns.
The PNP’s growth is also helping alter settlement patterns away from Canada’s largest cities, which have long attracted the vast majority of newcomers to Canada.
Provinces like Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan all have Express Entry-linked nominee programs that have been active in 2018.
IRCC reported that 34 percent of economic immigrants who arrived in Canada in 2017 were destined outside Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec — the provinces where Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal are located — compared to just 10 percent in 1997.
A similar trend was identified in a new report by Statistics Canada, which also found that most economic immigrants remain where they first settle, be it a larger city or outside one.
“The initial location decision of [economic principal applicants, or EPAs] is a very strong predictor of their location years later,” the study said. “Indeed, only about 11 percent of EPAs have moved to or out of [Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver] by 10 years of landing.”
