BC Provincial Nominee Program

Provincial Nominee Programs are the immigration programs administered by the provinces. In Canada, provinces have the ability to choose and nominate applicants for immigration according to the provincial economic and labour market needs. Each province sets its own immigration selection criteria. Most of the provincial programs mirror federal immigration classes, such as skilled workers, international graduates and family class, although providing a more flexible and faster alternative to immigrate.

The provincial government deals with the assessment of an applicant’s qualifications, while the federal government makes an assessment regarding medical, criminal, security admissibility to Canada after the applicant is being nominated by the province.

British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP)

Our counsels regularly assist clients with immigration under the BC PNP in the following categories:

• Skilled Workers: applicants who have min 2 years of Canadian or foreign work experience in a high skilled occupation (including BC PNP Tech Pilot);
• International Graduates and International Post-Graduates: international students who graduated from a Canadian university or college in the past 3 years and master’s or doctorate degree holders in the natural, applied or health sciences who graduated from the BC post-secondary institution;
• Entry-Level and Semi-Skilled Workers: applicants who have a minimum of 9 months of work experience in BC in Tourism and Hospitality, Long-Haul Trucking or Food Processing;
• Healthcare Professionals: applicants who are physicians, nurses, psychiatric nurses, or allied health professionals who have a job offer from a public health authority or midwives.

In addition to the above basic requirements, applicants must meet additional requirements, depending on a specific category (e.g., language, education etc.). Also, as the program is employer-driven (the applicant needs to have a job offer from a BC-based employer to apply), employers must meet certain eligibility requirements as well. For example, there is a requirement to have a minimum number of full-time employees, depending on the area the company is located.

BC PNP offers two streams:

• Regular stream where applicants must meet only eligibility requirements under one of the BC PNP categories;
• Express Entry stream where in addition to eligibility requirements under one of the BC PNP categories, applicants must also meet the eligibility criteria under one of the federal economic class programs (CEC, FSWC, FSTC) and have a valid Express Entry (EE) profile.

The difference main difference between the above two streams is the length of the application process and the number of application stages.

Contact our team for the assessment of your eligibility to apply as a provincial nominee. Our counsels will be able to provide an individualized summary of options and explain the pros and cons of applying under the regular provincial nominee stream versus immigration under the Express Entry.