Ottawa gives provinces 139 days to issue tens of thousands more permanent residence nominations

OTTAWA, Nov 12 — Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said in a news release on Thursday that provinces and territories must issue tens of thousands of additional nominations for permanent residence by no later than March 31, 2027 — 139 days from Thursday. The nominations are for workers in Canada outside Quebec, and their accompanying family members, who are eligible to apply for permanent residence through the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).

The extra spaces come from a pool of up to 100,000 transition spaces

The additional nominations come from a pool of up to 100,000 economic permanent residence spaces under the 2027 temporary-resident-to-permanent-resident transition measures announced in the federal budget, aimed at transitioning up to 100,000 in-Canada workers and their families to permanent residence by the end of 2027. The spaces are on top of the 2027 annual PNP target of 95,000 spaces. IRCC has roughly nine months to process the resulting permanent residence applications before the end of 2027 to fulfil the time-limited commitment.

Provinces decide how many spaces to use

The additional allocations are optional, allowing provinces and territories to determine how many spaces to use to nominate workers already established in their communities and meeting labour market needs. The allocations can be used for nominations through both base PNP streams and Express Entry-aligned streams. Provinces and territories will also be able to identify workers in their jurisdictions who have already applied for permanent residence and are awaiting a decision, allowing those applications to be processed under the additional spaces.

Atlantic program and closed pilots also covered

In addition to provincial nominees, the measure covers workers who applied through the Atlantic Immigration Program, as well as through federal programs and pilots now closed to new applications: the Start-up Visa Program, the Self-Employed Persons Program, the Agri-Food Pilot and home care worker programs. Applicants are not required to take any steps to be considered under the additional spaces. IRCC said no details have been provided on how the spaces will be distributed among jurisdictions.

200,000 spaces in total alongside other pathways

Alongside the 100,000 spaces for in-Canada workers, the federal government has set aside up to 32,000 spaces for people who have applied under the Hong Kong permanent residence pathways, up to 18,800 for people who have applied under the Ukraine Family Reunification Pathway, up to 12,600 for people already found eligible for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, and up to 45,000 for spouses, common-law partners and dependent children of in-Canada permanent residents and Canadian citizens. These 200,000 spaces are in addition to the overall permanent residence admissions target of 380,000 for the coming year.

(Sources: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; CIC News.)