What is Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot Program?

The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot is a community-driven program. It’s designed to spread the benefits of economic immigration to smaller communities by creating a path to permanent residence for skilled foreign workers who want to work and live in one of the participating communities.

This program is designed to help small communities with labour shortage, struggle to attract and maintain new immigrants.

Under this program applicant can receive permanent residence with recommendation from the community.

Applicant will need permanent job offers in the same NOC skill level in participating rural communities.

Applicant will be working and living in rural participating communities.

Are you Qualified?

Work/Study Experience:

Work Experience:

• 1 year of continuous work in the past of 3 years (1,560 hours minimum)
  • Hours must be in the same occupation, can be with different employers
  • Hours must be over 12 months period
  • Can be Canadian or Foreign work experience
    • Canadian work experience must be legal
• Hours worked in Part and Full time will be accepted
• Unpaid work will not be accepted (volunteering or unpaid internship are not accepted)
• Self-employed hours will not be accepted
• Your work experience must include:
  1. Most of the main duties and all the essential duties listed in your National Occupational Classification (NOC)
  2. The activities listed in the lead statement of your NOC

International Students (exempt from work experience requirement):

Are exempt from the work experience criteria above if you’re an international student who graduated with:

Credential: degree, diploma, certificate, or trade or apprenticeship from a Canadian publicly funded institution.

• A credential from a post-secondary program of length 2 years or longer and:
  • Studied as a full-time student during the full duration of the program
  • received the credential no more than 18 months before your application for permanent residence
  • Were in the community for at least 16 out of the 24+ months of the study period for the credential/program

Or

• A master’s degree or higher and
  • Were studying full-time for the duration of the degree
  • Received the degree 18 months before application for permanent residence
  • Were in the community for the entire duration of the study.

You cannot apply as international study if:

• Studying English or French made up more than half of the program
• Distance/Remote learning made up more than half of the program
• A scholarship or fellowship was awarded that requires you to return to your home country to apply what you learned

Language Requirements:

Levels: CLB/NCLC

NOC Types

IELTS to CLB Score Calculator

CLB requirements:

NOC 0 and A: CLB/NCLC 6

NOC B: CLB/NCLC 5

NOC C and D: CLB/NCLC 4

Education Requirements:

Satisfy one of the following:

• Canadian secondary school (high school) diploma
• Canadian post-secondary certificate, diploma or degree
• an educational credential assessment (ECA) report, from a designated organization or professional body, showing that you completed a foreign credential that’s equal to a Canadian secondary school (high school) or post-secondary certificate, diploma or degree (your ECA report must be less than 5 years old on the date of your application).

Settlement Fund Requirements:

Unless you’re already working legally in Canada when you apply, you must prove you have enough money to support yourself and any family members while you get settled in your community.

You must prove you have enough money to support any family members you may have, even if they’re not coming to Canada with you.

Community Requirements:

You must plan to live in the community to participate in the program.

You will also need to satisfy additional community requirements. Each community will have additional requirement for the applicant, varies by communities.