Canada · Work authorisation

Provincial Nominee Program

Issued by The province or territory that nominates you, and then IRCC. It is checked against conditions rather than scored, so the question is whether you meet each one, not how many points you gather.

Basis
Checklist
Steps
5
Possible outcomes
3
Last checked
2026-09-01

Conditions

What this permit
asks of you.

Which desk decides

The authority, exactly

Two decisions by two authorities, in that order. A province or territory decides the nomination against its own streams, its own requirements and its own annual cap; IRCC then decides permanent residence. Quebec and Nunavut run no nominee program at all — Quebec selects its own economic immigrants through a separate system. If you are nominated, you commit to settling in the province or territory that nominated you.

Qualification

What it wants from your degree

Set by each province or territory, not federally. Streams commonly target skilled workers, semi-skilled workers, graduates or business applicants, and many require a job offer in that province.

The procedure

5 steps,
in the order they happen.

Prepare your documents

  1. Choose the province or territory you actually intend to live in and read its streams. Requirements, caps and open windows differ in every one of them, and a nomination binds you to settling there.
  2. Establish which of the two processes your stream uses. The province or territory tells you: an Express Entry stream requires you to also qualify for one of the three federal programs, while a non-Express Entry stream does not and is decided on paper.

Get your qualification assessed

  1. Apply to the province or territory for the nomination. On the Express Entry route you can also create a federal profile first and signal the provinces you are interested in, then apply when one sends you a notification of interest.

Close any gaps

  1. If you are nominated through an Express Entry stream, add the nomination to your profile. IRCC awards 600 additional points, which in practice puts you above the cut-off of the rounds that include nominees.

Register and start working

  1. Apply to IRCC for permanent residence — online after an invitation on the Express Entry route, or directly on the non-Express Entry route.IRCC warns that processing times may increase when applications exceed the spaces set by the Immigration Levels Plan.

Cost and time

What it costs,
and how long the authority says it takes.

Fees

Federal application, including the right of permanent residence fee
CAD1,590.00
Federal application, without the right of permanent residence fee
CAD990.00
Include a dependent child
CAD270.00 per child
Biometrics
CAD85.00 per person, CAD170.00 maximum per family applying together
Provincial or territorial nomination fee
Set by each province or territory and charged separately from the federal fees — several charge nothing, others over CAD1,000

Timeframes

Processing time
Two stages, and only the federal one is published centrally: the nomination is decided on the province's own timeline, IRCC's stage appears in its processing-time tool

Published processing times, not a prediction about your case.

Both halves together

Guides that use this permit.

Each one takes a profession into Canada and runs the recognition branch and the authorisation branch side by side, including what your country of qualification adds.

Evidence

Every claim on this page, and where it came from.

3 official pages, each with the jurisdiction it speaks for and the date a human last opened it. The oldest is 2026-09-01, and that is the date this page is only as fresh as.

Is this the right permit for you?

That depends on where you qualified.

The planner compares every route Canada opens to your country of qualification, and adds the recognition branch when your profession has one.

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