The government of British Columbia has revamped its Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). The PNT is accepting applications again effective July 2, 2015. The PNP has reopened after a 90-day pause that allowed the PNP to be redesigned so the Province could maximize the impact of its allocation of 5,500 nominees from the federal government for 2015.
The redesign shifts the program’s focus to high-impact workers and entrepreneurs that bring the PNP into closer alignment with B.C.’s labour market and economic development priorities.
Progress has been made during the 90-day pause in number of key areas.
These include the introduction of an online application process with an electronic-payment system to make it easier and faster for applicants.
The changes also include the initiation of the development of a new intake system that will prioritize
in-demand, skilled immigrant applications beginning in 2016, so that 95 percent of B.C.’s annual nominations will be for in-demand skilled workers.
The redesigned program also streamlined two categories – Business Skills and Regional Business – into one Entrepreneur Immigration stream to improve efficiency and outcomes.
The program likewise introduced an online Entrepreneur Registration to simplify the intake process and ensure timely processing for high-impact applications.
The redesigned program also terminated the Fast Track Option, which has been suspended since October 2012.
The PNP will continue to accept applications under the Express Entry BC, Health Care Professional and Northeast Pilot Project categories.
The PNP will continue to process applications already in the Skills Immigration inventory.
To be fair and transparent to those people already in the inventory the PNP will limit the number of newSkills Immigration applications to 200 for the rest of 2015. This limit is in place as B.C. continues to advocate for an increase to the number of PNP nominations it receives annually from the federal government.
New Entrepreneur Immigration applications will be invited from the highest-scoring registrations submitted through the new online Entrepreneur Registration process.
The PNP is the Province’s o nlydirect economic immigration tool for bringing in new British Columbians.
Since the 2001 inception of the program, more than 26, 000 workers and entrepreneurs have been attracted to the province through the PNP.
B.C. was an early adopter of the federal Express Entry priority system and the first province to introduce a new PNP stream to align with the federal Express Entry priority system.
In 2014, 80 percent of B.C.’s total immigrants came to B.C. through federal immigration streams.
Only 20 percent of B.C.’s total immigrants came through the PNP in 2014.