Canada announces new pilot program for rural and northern immigration

Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada has announced a new pilot program called the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot program, which will complement other economic immigration programs such as the Atlantic Immigration Pilot and the Provincial Nominee Programs.

The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot program is initially set up as a five-year immigration pilot and is aimed at attracting immigrants to the rural and northern territories of Canada.

Currently, Immigration Canada is looking to attract potential communities in Ontario, Western Canada, and the Canadian territories who are interested in potential immigrants to help drive their economic growth.

Eligibility

In order for a community to be eligible for the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot program, the requirements are summed up as:

- Population of 50,000 people or less and located at least 75km away from the core of a Metropolitan Area

or

-Population of 200,000 people and considered remote from larger cities (Statistics Canada determines remoteness)

-Located in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Saskatchewan or Yukon.

-Have job opportunities

-Willing to make an economic development plan

-Willing to settle new immigrants in the community

-Have a local economic development organization that can manage the pilot for the community

-Letters of support from local government and immigrant serving organization

Timeline

The deadline for interested communities to submit an application to the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot program is March 1st, 2019

Immigration Canada will announce the selected communities in the spring of 2019.

Once the communities are selected, Immigration Canada will work with them to identify potential immigrant candidates and grant them permanent residence as soon as summer of 2019.