About the 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 1 of the participating communities.

We’re partnering with these communities to test new approaches to:

• use immigration to help meet local labour market needs and support regional economic development
• create welcoming environments to support new immigrants staying in rural communities.

This pilot will help increase long-term retention of skilled newcomers to rural areas by working with:

• community-based partners
• other federal government partners
• provincial and territorial governments

About the process

Skilled workers

As a candidate, you need to find a job with an employer in 1 of the participating communities.

If a community endorses you and you’re successful in applying for permanent residence, you’ll then move there to work and live.

The application process for eligible candidates will begin as early as fall 2019. IRCC will provide more information at that time.

Quick facts

• Throughout the summer, the government will begin working with selected communities to position them to identify candidates for permanent residence as early as the fall 2019.
• Communities will be responsible for candidate recruitment and endorsement for permanent residence.
• Newcomers are expected to begin to arrive under this pilot in 2020.
• Communities worked with local economic development organizations to submit an application which demonstrated how they met the eligibility criteria by March 11, 2019.
• The Atlantic Immigration Pilot was launched in March 2017 as part of the Atlantic Growth Strategy. The 4 Atlantic provinces are able to endorse up to 2,500 workers in 2019 under that pilot to meet labour market needs in the region.
• Rural communities employ over 4 million Canadians and account for almost 30% of the national GDP.
• Rural Canada supplies food, water, and energy for urban centres, sustaining the industries that contribute to Canada’s prosperous economy.
• Between 2001 and 2016, the number of potential workers has decreased by 23% percent, while the number of potential retirees has increased by 40%.

Please Contact Us for more information.