Invitations to Express Entry candidates with a provincial nomination on the rise

According to new data from the Government of Canada, invitations issued to Express Entry candidates with a provincial nomination for permanent residence are up this year.   Of the 62,500 Express Entry candidates invited to apply for Canadian permanent residence between January and September, 12 per cent — 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 per cent 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).

The increase in ITAs issued to provincial nominees reflects the growing importance of the PNP to the federal government’s overall immigration strategy. In its 2018 report to Parliament, IRCC noted that the PNP has grown “exponentially” since its implementation in 1996 — from 233 admissions in 1996 to 49,724 in 2017.

Of these nearly 50,000 new permanent residents admitted through the PNP in 2017, 13,531 were Express Entry candidates and their family members. IRCC said this was an increase of 73 per cent over Express Entry admissions in 2016.