Provincial Nominee Program

Cosmo Migration’s Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) enables Canadian provinces and territories to nominate individuals who wish to immigrate to Canada and settle in a specific region. All provinces except Quebec and the Northern Territory of Nunavut participate, as Quebec manages its own selection criteria for economic immigration.

The PNP’s primary purpose is to distribute the advantages of immigration more evenly across Canada. Before the PNP was introduced in 1998, most immigrants settled in provinces like Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia. Since then, the PNP has significantly expanded immigration throughout Canada, particularly in the Prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba) and Atlantic provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador), allowing these regions to attract and retain more newcomers.

Many PNP streams are aligned with the federal Express Entry system, called ‘enhanced nominations.’ Enhanced PNP nominations provide Express Entry candidates with an additional 600 points in the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS), virtually guaranteeing an invitation for permanent residency and ensuring a faster processing time by the federal government, typically within six months. Alternatively, individuals may apply directly to a PNP through a ‘base’ stream, and once nominated, the federal government processes the permanent residence application through that stream.