Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot
November 24, 2022 - Participating Communities
IRCC recently updated the eligibility requirements for permanent residence through this pilot. The requirements you need to meet depend on whether you have applied for community recommendation and the date you applied.
January 5, 2022: RINP Process Update
Due to Covid-19 you can now accumulate qualifying work experience of at least 1 year of full-time work (or an equal amount in part-time) within the last 3 years, whether that work experience is continuous or not.
There are 4 steps to applying for permanent residence under this pilot.
Check that you meet both
IRCC eligibility requirements and
the community-specific requirements.
Find an eligible job with an employer in one of the participating communities.
Once you have a job offer, submit your application for recommendation to the community.
If a community recommends you, apply for permanent residence.
If you meet all of the requirements, you can start to look for an eligible job in the community.
September 29, 2021: Thunder Bay: RURAL AND NORTHERN IMMIGRATION PILOT (RNIP)
The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) is a new community-driven immigration program. It is 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 Thunder Bay.
The RNIP allows eligible employers to make full time permanent job offers to skilled foreign workers who can help fill identified labour shortages in our city.
The Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission (CEDC) recommends people for permanent residence who have the skills and experience that the Thunder Bay economy needs, and the Government of Canada makes the final decision to approve applications for permanent residence.
The RNIP takes place over three years (November 2019 through December 2022). In Year 1 of the Pilot, 69 recommendations were made.
August 20, 2021: Vernon, Britist Columbia: RURAL AND NORTHERN IMMIGRATION PILOT (RNIP)
Vernon, British Columbia is one of 11 communities in Canada participating in the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) program. The program was designed to spread the benefits of economic immigration to communities outside of the larger metropolitan areas of the country.
The program provides communities with the opportunity to work directly with employers along with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to create a permanent residency opportunity to attract skilled workers to the region. Applicants must meet community specific eligibility, federal selection criteria and have a full-time permanent job with a local employer.
Community Futures North Okanagan is leading this program. For more information and details on the program, please visit the official Vernon RNIP website at:
https://rnip-vernon-northok.ca/
For eligible job postings:
https://www.northstarats.com/RNIP-Vernon
April 11 - Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot - Who can Apply
process
There are 4 steps to applying for permanent residence under this pilot.
Check that you meet both
Find an eligible job with an employer in one of the participating communities.
Once you have a job offer, submit your application for recommendation to the community.
If a community recommends you, apply for permanent residence.
Each community will also have its own
additional eligibility requirements
job search process
community recommendation application process
Who can apply
To be eligible for the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot Program, you must meet all IRCC eligibility requirements. You must
have qualifying work experience or have graduated from a publicly funded post-secondary institution in the recommending community
meet or exceed the language requirements
meet or exceed the educational requirements
prove you have enough money to support your transition into the community
If you meet all of the requirements, you can start to look for an eligible job in the community.
March 10 - Timmins RNIP (Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot)
Timmins is focued on attracting immigrants in the four following sectors healthcare & social work, licensed and unlicensed trades, business administration, and information technology. Also, the community allocated up to 15 spots for the open NOC applicants. As of March 9, 2021, Timmins has received the maximum number of applications for NOC 6211 Retail sales supervisors and NOC 6311 Food services supervisors.
JANUARY 18 - REGIONAL IMMIGRATION PILOT UPDATE
The Regional Immigration Pilot (RIP)is currently accepting intake forms. An additional 150 nominations will be available under the pilot for 2021. Click here for the RIP.
Do you want to submit an intake form, click intake form.
Make sure you complete the form in its entirety when submitting it. Incomplete forms will be rejected.
July 9 - Ontario Regional Immigration Pilot Intake is now Open
OINP Regional Immigration Pilot is currently accepting applications. The purpose of the pilot is to employers in the pilot communities to encourage the OINP to focus on skilled labour that is not available locally.
Candidates who apply to the Regional Immigration Pilot require to:
• Have a full-time and permanent job offer from an employer located in one of the pilot communities (Chatham-Kent, Cornwall or Quinte West/Belleville), and
• Meet the criteria for one of the streams under the OINP’s Employer Job Offer category
To apply for the pilot candidates, need to complete an intake form and submit the form by email to regionalimmigration@ontario.ca. If all the information in your completed form is confirmed as accurate, they will receive further notification on how to submit an application to the OINP Employer Job Offer category.
For additional information about the pilot, please contact JM Immigration.
February 25 - Alberta town of Claresholm joins Rural & Northern Immigration Pilot
The town of Claresholm is one of the latest communities to join the three year Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP). Claresholm has been facing a labour shortage and not been able to attract people to fill entry-level positions, now has had a flood of people applying from around the world.
The Town of Claresholm is in Southern Alberta and is less than a 2-hour drive from the city of Calgary. It includes Stavely, Granum, and parts of the MD of Willow Creek for this pilot. Claresholm is one of eleven communities in Canada approved for the program, and the only community in Alberta. The Claresholm Economic Development Committee will select 20 candidates and their families for permanent residency.
To be eligible for selection candidates need to create an online profile in the Claresholm RNIP Portal upload their resume, cover letter, and supporting documents. Once a candidate has created a profile, they can apply for jobs that will be posted on the Claresholm RNIP Employment Portal.
If a candidate received a job offer, Claresholm will support their application for permanent residence. The candidate can then apply for a work permit to come to Canada.
December 20 - Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot - Brandon, Manitoba
The latest community in the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) is Brandon in Manitoba to start accepting applications in the five-year pilot.
The aim of the RNIP is to match foreign workers or temporary foreign workers (TFW) who are in Canada with job vacancies in the community. A candidate that receives a full-time offer of permanent employment and the community recommendation through the RNIP can apply for permanent residence (PR). It is estimated that on an annual basis 2,750 applicant and their families could be approved for PR. During the pilot’s first year Brandon can recommend 100 candidates.
Brandon is the third community that is now accepting applications. The other two communities are Sault St. Marie in Ontario and Altona/Rhineland in Manitoba.
To apply, candidates require to create a user profile and then apply for eligible jobs that are listed on Brandon’s RNIP website.
November 24 - Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot: Currently Accepting Applications
The communities of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and Altona/Rhineland, Manitoba, have now started accepting applications from candidates who have an offer for permanent employment from an employer in the local community. Candidates who are endorsed by a participating community will be able to apply to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for Canadian permanent residence. Candidates must also meet the community requires as well as the federal requirements.
Effective December 1, 2019, Brandon, Manitoba will begin accepting applications from candidates, and Thunder Bay, Ontario will start accepting applications from candidates in January, 2020.
It is anticipated that there will be similar announcement from other communities in the coming weeks and months ahead.
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 1 of 11 participating communities.
Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot
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.
There are 4 steps to applying for permanent residence under this pilot.
1. Check that you meet both
• IRCC eligibility requirements and
• community-specific requirements
2. Find an eligible job with an employer in 1 of the participating communities
3. Once you have a job offer, submit your application for recommendation to the community
4. If a community recommends you, apply for permanent residence
Each community will also have their own
• additional eligibility requirements
• job search process
• community recommendation application process
This information will be available on their websites.
Participating communities
The pilot will launch in participating communities at different times.
North Bay, ON
Sudbury ON
Timmins, ON
Sault Ste. Marie, ON
Thunder Bay, ON
Brandon, MB
Altona/Rhineland, MB
Moose Jaw, SK
Claresholm, AB
Vernon, BC
West Kootenay (Trail, Castlegar, Rossland, Nelson), BC
This pilot is community-driven and the communities will:
• assess prospective candidates who
o best fit the economic needs of the community
o have a genuine employment opportunity that meets their community requirements
o have the intention of staying in the community
• recommend candidates for permanent residence to IRCC for a final decision
• connect newcomers with settlement services and mentoring opportunities with established members of the community
