Provincial Nomination Programs

Provincial nominee programs (PNPs) offer a pathway to permanent residency for individuals who are interested in immigrating to a specific Canadian province or territory. 

These streams are designed by the provinces to help meet their unique immigration goals, so the eligibility criteria and application procedures vary. 

All decisions regarding Canadian permanent residence must be approved at the national level by the federal government, so Canada’s provinces cannot approve permanent resident status on their own. This is why the provincial programs are considered “nominee” programs.

A successful applicant to a PNP will be nominated by the province to apply to the federal government for permanent residence. This means that immigrating to Canada through a PNP is always step one in a two-part process. First, an interested immigrant is approved at the provincial level and then they must apply to the federal level.

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Provincial Nomination Programs constantly change. We've listed the provinces and territories below and linked them directly to the respective site for each province or territory.