The Alberta Provincial Nominee Program (AINP) is Changing

Alberta, as all provinces now, maintains a Provincial Nominee Program, whereby people can be nominated for permanent residence based on criteria set by the province (rather than under the federal programs).

Alberta has announced that effective January 2, 2018, all of its economic class Provincial Nominee categories will be streamlined. Other than a separate category for self-employed farmers, the only category available for the AINP will be the “Alberta Opportunity Stream”. Applications filed prior to January 1, 2018 will still be eligible for the currently-available streams including the Employer-Driven Stream and the Strategic Recruitment Stream.

The Alberta Opportunity Stream’s essential tenet is that it allows for people already working in Alberta (or in some cases, elsewhere in Canada) to seek permanent residence, unless their occupation is on a list of ineligible occupations.

Though full information is not yet available, and there are certainly futher complexities, eligibility for the program generally will have aspects of:

  • language qualification,
  • minimum education and/or occupational certification
  • minimum Alberta/Canada work experience, and
  • minimum gross income based on family size

General information about the program can be found at http://www.albertacanada.com/opportunity/programs-and-forms/ainp-alberta-opportunity-stream.aspx, and the current list of ineligible occupations can be found at http://www.albertacanada.com/opportunity/programs-and-forms/ainp-aos-ineligible-occupations.aspx.

There will be a quota for the number of applications each year, and there may be sub-quotas set based on sector or occupation.

The Alberta government has indicated that it will publish more information about the program and its details in or around the beginning of the new year.

The information in this article is for general purposes only, and not intended as legal advice for any particular situation.