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.

Out of 62,500 Express Entry candidates invited to apply for Canadian permanent residence between January and September, 12 per cent had a provincial nomination.

During the same period in 2017, Invitations to Apply (ITAs) issued to Express Entry candidates nominated by a Canadian province, stood at just over 9 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 3 main economic immigration programs – The Federal Skilled Worker Class, Federal Skilled Trades Class, and the Canadian Experience Class.

The rising number of candidates in the Express Entry pool with a provincial nomination and the 600 points may be partly responsible for the increase that has been seen in the Express Entry minimum scores in 2018, which haven’t gone below 440.

If the trend continues, obtaining a provincial nomination may now be one of the best bets for receiving an ITA for Express Entry candidates with scores below 440.

Exponentially growing PNP

The increase in ITAs issued to provincial nominees reflects the growing importance of the PNP to the federal government’s overall immigration strategy.

Canada’s new multi-year immigration level plan has admissions through the PNP set to rise by 6,000 next year, to 61,000.

By 2021, these admissions are expected to reach 71,300 – an increase of nearly 30 per cent over 2018’s target of 55,000.

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 the 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.