Working in Canada And Maximizing your Skills

By: Karen Lam

Each province in Canada has their own Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) where applicants may qualify based on their skills, education and work experience. Successful applicants receive a Provincial Nomination Certificate, which will speed-up the Canada Immigration (Permanent Resident) Visa application process.

To apply under the Provincial Nominee Program, applicants must be nominated by a Canadian province or territory. Consulting the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website for the most up-to-date information will help you in providing the correct information for submitting your application.

If you choose to immigrate to Canada as a provincial nominee, you must first apply to the province where you wish to settle and complete its provincial nomination process. The province will consider your application based on its immigration needs and your intentions to settle there.

In addition, some provinces also offer opportunities to help new immigrants to get their credentials recognized in Canada. For example, in Saskatchewan and Alberta, there is a new Immigrant Access Fund (IAF) which provides internationally trained professionals with small loans called “microloans”.

IAF micro loans are available to people who have immigrated to Saskatchewan or Alberta and may be a nominee under the Provincial Nominee Program. The IAF micro loan is not designed to help immigrants to Canada learn new careers, but is to help them return to a field they are skilled in, in their home country. To find out more on your eligibility for IAF and how to apply, visit the IAF website: http://www.iafcanada.org.