Nunavut is not listed because it does not run a nominee program. Quebec has its own system.
A province or territory selects a person for its own labour market or business, then asks the federal government for permanent residence. The nomination is the provincial half. Permanent residence is the federal half.
Two shapes
- Base stream. The province nominates. You then file permanent residence outside Express Entry.
- Enhanced stream. You are already in the Express Entry pool. The nomination adds 600 points. The next step is a federal invitation from that pool.
What clients usually have to choose
- A stream for people already working in the province. This is often the more realistic door, because the province can see the job.
- A stream for people still abroad, usually limited to occupations the province cannot fill, and often capped.
- A graduate stream, tied to a credential from that province.
- An entrepreneur or farm stream. Those are active businesses, not a passive investment. Dollar amounts and whether intake is open belong on the province’s site the week you file.
Streams open and close inside a year. This page says what each program is for. It does not say which stream is accepting files this week.
How we can help, for any province
- Match the job, the permit, and the place you will live to one stream, and say if that stream is the enhanced kind or the base kind.
- Check whether a draw is open before anyone resigns a job or moves money.
- Prepare the expression of interest or the employer file, then the federal application after a nomination.
- Keep the Atlantic Immigration Program separate when the province is New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, or Newfoundland and Labrador. That program is under Other Program.
Alberta
The Alberta Advantage Immigration Program nominates workers and entrepreneurs.
Streams people ask about
- Alberta Opportunity Stream — already working in Alberta on a valid permit. Usually a job offer in an eligible occupation, recent Alberta work, language, education, and a minimum income.
- Express Entry stream — does not always need a job offer. Alberta invites from the federal pool when the profile matches a priority, sometimes with an Alberta connection and sometimes from an occupation list.
- Rural renewal, tied to a designated community; tourism and hospitality; dedicated health-care pathways.
- Entrepreneur streams, including a rural entrepreneur option, for people who will own and run a business.
How we can help
- Start with the Opportunity Stream if you already work in Alberta, and with the Express Entry stream only if the current draw actually fits.
- Check the occupation and the wage against the stream that is open that week.
British Columbia
Skills Immigration, Express Entry British Columbia, and entrepreneur streams.
Streams people ask about
- Skilled worker with a job offer; health-authority worker; international graduate of a B.C. school; international post-graduate; entry-level or semi-skilled work in specific sectors.
- Express Entry versions of those streams, for people who are also in the federal pool.
- B.C. scores the wage, the location, the occupation, language, and experience. A job outside the Lower Mainland has often scored more.
- You register an expression of interest. Invitations go to the highest scores. A draw can be limited to health care, technology, or another group.
- Entrepreneur streams, including a regional path. Some worker streams have been paused when the nomination allocation was tight. A paused stream is not receiving new registrations.
How we can help
- Score the job the way B.C. scores it, including location, before you register.
- Tell you if the stream you want is paused, and which registration is actually open.
Manitoba
An expression-of-interest system.
Streams people ask about
- Skilled Workers in Manitoba — already working for a Manitoba employer. Usually a long-term full-time job, a period with that employer, language, and settlement funds.
- Skilled Workers Overseas — a Manitoba connection: a close relative, previous study or work, or an invitation from the province. Demand for the occupation alone does not invite you.
- International Education Stream — graduates of Manitoba schools, including a career-employment path and an internship path.
- Business streams for entrepreneurs and farm investors.
Draws publish the lowest-ranked candidate invited. That number is not a future promise.
How we can help
- Name the connection, if there is one, before an overseas profile is built.
- Prepare the in-Manitoba file around the real employer and the real length of the job.
New Brunswick
A provincial nominee program, and also one of the four Atlantic Immigration Program provinces. Those are different files.
What you can use
- Nominee streams have used expressions of interest for skilled workers with a job offer, for people already working or studying in the province, and for entrepreneurs.
- A worker usually starts with a genuine, full-time job offer in an occupation the province is willing to nominate, plus language and settlement funds.
- The province has prioritized occupations and has, at times, paused employer designation or limited sectors.
- The Atlantic program uses a provincial endorsement of a designated employer. It is described under Other Program. The employer’s designation has to match the application that is actually filed.
How we can help
- Choose the nominee file or the Atlantic file, and keep the employer’s designation on the same program.
- Check whether employer designation is open before the job offer is treated as a plan.
Newfoundland and Labrador
A nominee program, and also a participant in the Atlantic Immigration Program.
What you can use
- Skilled workers with a job offer, international graduates, and priority skills. The province uses invitations. It is not a permanently open door.
- A worker stream typically needs a full-time job from a provincial employer, experience that matches, language, and an intention to settle in the province.
- Graduate streams look at a local credential and a job, sometimes with less work experience than the skilled-worker stream.
- Entrepreneur and international-entrepreneur options look at ownership, investment, and a business you will actively manage.
- An employer designated for the Atlantic program is not automatically designated for the nominee program.
How we can help
- Match a graduate to the graduate stream, and a job-offer worker to the skilled stream, instead of filing the stricter one by habit.
- Keep the Atlantic endorsement off a nominee application.
Northwest Territories
Small, and employer-driven. The employer usually applies first. The worker is nominated after that approval.
- Streams have included entry-level or semi-skilled workers, skilled workers, Express Entry–aligned skilled workers, and a business stream.
- The employer has to show a real effort to hire locally. The job has to meet wage and duration rules.
- Language can be lower in some semi-skilled streams than in a federal skilled program. It is not zero.
- The employer, the work, and the residence are in the Northwest Territories. A job in another province is not a territory nomination.
- After nomination you still apply to IRCC. A small office, then IRCC, can be slower than the size of the program suggests.
How we can help
- Start with the employer’s approval, not with a worker form that the territory will not accept first.
- Check wage, recruitment, and location before the employer files.
Nova Scotia
Some streams you can start. Some only the province can start.
- Nova Scotia Experience — already working in the province.
- International Graduates and Skilled Workers — a job offer, and in the graduate stream a local credential.
- Occupations in Demand and Labour Market Priorities — draw-based. In a Labour Market Priorities draw the province searches Express Entry and may invite an occupation with no job offer. You cannot file that stream because you like the list. You have to already be in the pool and match the draw.
- Physicians, trades, and other groups have been targeted in different draws.
- Entrepreneur streams, including one for international graduates who start a business.
- The Atlantic Immigration Program is a second route, under Other Program.
How we can help
- Put you in Express Entry first if the realistic door is a Labour Market Priorities draw.
- Use the Experience stream when you already work in the province, instead of waiting for a draw you cannot start.
Ontario
One of the largest nominee programs: employer job-offer streams, human-capital streams, and business.
- Employer streams — foreign workers, international students, and in-demand skills. The employer must be approved to make the offer, in an eligible occupation, at or above the required wage.
- Human capital — not always a job offer. French-speaking skilled workers linked to Express Entry; Human Capital Priorities drawn from the Express Entry pool; master’s and PhD graduates of Ontario universities.
- Those graduate streams have their own intake windows. They are not a study permit.
- Many streams use an expression of interest. Ontario’s grid looks at language, education, work, and the wage or the field.
- A master’s window can open briefly and fill. A tech or health draw can ignore every code that is not listed.
- You must intend to live in Ontario. Naming Ontario in an Express Entry profile is not a nomination.
How we can help
- Choose the employer door or the human-capital door, and register only in a stream whose window is actually open.
- Read a tech or health draw against your occupation code before treating a cutoff as relevant.
Prince Edward Island
A small expression-of-interest system and regular draws. The island nominates few people.
- Labour and Express Entry invitations go mostly to people already working in the province, often in a priority sector, or to a job offer whose score the draw reaches.
- International graduates of the island’s institutions are a distinct group.
- A critical-worker path covers intermediate jobs the province cannot fill.
- Entrepreneur streams are for people who will own and operate a business on the island.
- Points consider age, language, education, work, and the job. A profile with no island job and no island graduate connection rarely moves.
- The Atlantic Immigration Program is a different endorsement. A draw’s Express Entry line is often smaller than the in-province group. Read both.
How we can help
- Build the file around an island job or an island credential, and say early if neither exists.
- Read each draw by stream, including who was already living in the province.
Saskatchewan
International Skilled Worker, Saskatchewan Experience, plus entrepreneur and farm streams.
- Employment offer — a Saskatchewan job.
- Occupation in Demand — people abroad in listed occupations. No job offer has been required, but the occupation must be listed, with language, education, settlement funds, and enough points on Saskatchewan’s grid. Intake has often been capped and has closed within minutes. The list changes.
- Express Entry stream — for people already in the federal pool.
- Saskatchewan Experience — already working in the province on a valid permit: skilled, semi-skilled, health professionals, and students. Study or work in the province is usually stronger than applying from abroad to a capped list.
- The farm stream is for people who will buy and operate a farm. It is not Occupation in Demand under another name.
How we can help
- Watch the occupation list and the intake cap before an overseas file is treated as ready.
- Use the Experience category when you already work in the province.
Yukon
Employer-driven, in the same spirit as the Northwest Territories.
- The employer applies to nominate a foreign worker. Streams have included skilled workers, critical-impact workers for intermediate jobs, Express Entry–aligned workers, and a business nominee.
- The employer is a Yukon business, the job is in Yukon, and the recruitment effort is real.
- A critical-impact job is for specific intermediate occupations the territory has agreed to consider. It is not a general unskilled route.
- After nomination you apply to IRCC.
- Yukon is not part of the Atlantic Immigration Program.
How we can help
- Prepare the employer application first, with recruitment and wage evidence.
- Keep an Atlantic plan off a Yukon file. The Atlantic route needs a designated employer in one of the four Atlantic provinces.
