Canadian permanent residence pathways for international student graduates

Not always, but sometimes. Not all student-specific streams require you to have a job offer in order to qualify.

About half of all the streams currently targeting international graduate students are job-offer oriented, leaving nine that are not.

Streams that do not require a job offer focus on other qualifications, such as education, work experience, provincial connections, and more.

Work experience requirements vary by stream. Some streams don’t require any work experience, while others typically ask for at least six months to one year of experience.

Additionally, some provinces may grant extra points for work experience that exceeds their minimum requirements when evaluating your profile through their points-based selection system.

To prove your eligibility, carefully review the stream’s requirements and provide documented evidence pertaining to each requirement, where necessary. Examples of common documentation expected for different stream requirements can be found below.

For employment-driven streams, you can provide your job offer/contract letter and a detailed employer letter specifying the role’s permanence, salary, and how it addresses provincial labour leads.

To prove you meet educational requirements, certified transcripts, credentials, and credential assessments (if applicable) will be necessary.

Proof of language proficiency will typically require submitting a language test taken through an approved language test provider

To showcase your work experience, proof can be provided in the form of documents like pay stubs and tax filings.

If settlement funds are a requirement, you may want to include an official letter from your financial institution, as well as copies of recent bank statements, copies of securities and other investments, and proof of ownership of real estate and other assets.

Quebec does not have a PNP because it has a separate immigration system under the Canada-Quebec Accord, a special agreement with the federal government that gives Quebec more control over its immigration policies.

The province of Quebec sets its own immigration targets, has its own immigration programs, and heavily emphasizes French language proficiency.

Quebec offers various programs for individuals wanting to permanently settle in this French-speaking region of Canada, including:

• The Skilled Worker Selection Program;
• The Regular Skilled Worker Program; and
• The Quebec Experience Program.

The province also offers numerous pilot programs which target workers in the food processing sector, orderlies, and workers in the following high-demand sectors: artificial intelligence, information technologies, and visual effects.

Generally, no. In the majority of cases, PNPs only consider candidates individuals who have completed their studies, not those that are currently enrolled.

A province, however, may have exceptions—meaning you may be considered while still enrolled in your program under specific conditions, though this is not common.

Ontario’s Master’s Graduate Stream, for example, allows you to be currently enrolled as a student at the time you submit an application under two conditions, including:

• Studying to fulfill Ontario occupational licensing requirements; and
• Working full-time in the province while you complete your studies.

It’s advisable to thoroughly read the application guide for the stream you’re interested in to see if the province offers any such exceptions.

If your PGWP expires and you have not submitted an application for another work permit prior to its expiry, you will lose legal authorization to work in Canada.

You must cease working, and must leave Canada, unless you have legal status to remain in the country, such as by having applied for an been issued a visitor record or temporary resident permit (TRP).

You will need to update your EOI or your application with the province to reflect your current situation.

In some cases, the expiry of your work status will render you ineligible for the program, preventing you from moving forward with the application process.

For example, take Newfoundland and Labrador’s EOI-based International Graduate Category. This stream requires you to have a PGWP that has at least four months of validity remaining at the time of application. If by the time you receive an ITA for provincial nomination your PGWP only has three months of validity remaining, you will not be able to accept that ITA as you no longer meet the four-month validity requirement.

In other cases, if your change in status has not rendered you ineligible, it’s possible for you to move forward with the process and ultimately to receive a nomination while outside Canada—but note that receiving the nomination will not automatically grant you work authorization. You will gain permanent work authorization only after you receive permanent residency.

If you applied for a new work permit or work permit extension prior to the expiry of your PGWP, and have remained in Canada, you may benefit from maintained status, meaning that you retain your legal authorization to work in Canada under the conditions of your existing permit from the date that IRCC receives your application until the date that IRCC renders a decision on your application.

You should still update your EOI or your application to reflect your having transitioned to maintained status.

No. Having obtained permanent residence through a provincial nomination does not legally prevent you from moving to another province down the line, as Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees mobility rights for permanent residents. Once you are a permanent resident, you are legally allowed to relocate and to settle anywhere in Canada.

But this doesn’t mean you can simply apply to a PNP with the intention of later relocating elsewhere—this would be misrepresentation, and can lead to a 5-year ban on immigration applications, or even to the revocation of your permanent residency or citizenship.

PNPs always require a genuine intent to reside in the nominating province or territory. You should only apply to a PNP if you have a genuine intent to settle in that province.

No, but you can submit EOIs to more than one PNP.

To be eligible as a PNP applicant, you must demonstrate a genuine intent to reside in that province. If you apply to more than one PNP at the same time, you are engaging in misrepresentation—a serious immigration offence that can lead to a 5-year ban on Canadian immigration or even to revocation of your permanent residence or citizenship down the road.

But you can submit EOIs in more than one PNP pool—there is nothing inconsistent about having an interest to settle in a number of provinces, and being considered as a PNP candidate by more than one province.

Once you move to the application stage, however, you must have an intent to reside in the province or territory to which you are applying.

Yes, you can submit EOIs to multiple PNP pools simultaneously as long as you meet each province’s eligibility criteria.

Be prepared to justify your plans if questioned about your intent to reside. It’s recommended to prioritize provinces where you have the strongest ties (e.g. job offer, education, or family) to avoid credibility issues.

This will depend entirely on the stream you are applying under. While many streams do not expect applicants to demonstrate sufficient settlement funds in order to qualify, some do—especially if a job offer is not required.

For example, two of Manitoba’s student-specific streams—the Graduate Internship Pathway and the International Student Entrepreneur Pilot—require you to be in good financial standing.

Generally, yes, but for most streams, you’ll have to have lived in Canada while completing those online studies. If you earned an educational credential from a Canadian institution, most provinces typically accept online/distance learning provided the school is a Designated Learning Institution, and provided that you resided in Canada/the province while completing those studies.

In some cases, however, PNPs explicitly state that you must have completed your education in-person. For example, this is the case for Newfoundland and Labrador’s International Graduate Entrepreneur pathways.

If your education was completed outside Canada, some provinces may not count purely online/distance programs unless there were in-person components (hybrid learning) or the credential you received is recognized and equivalent to a Canadian credential—as verified by an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA).

If you are still unsure after reading a stream’s application guide, it can be beneficial to get in touch with the immigration office of the province or territory you are interested in settling in to get confirmation.

Generally, no. Some PNPs have streams requiring you to obtain a job offer from an employer in that province which is not necessarily in your exact field of study, but related to your field of study. This is the case with streams such as Nova Scotia’s International Graduates in Demand Stream and New Brunswick’s Private Career College Graduate Pilot Program.

In many cases, however, your job offer does not have to be related to your field of study, but does have to fall under a specific NOC TEER or NOC code.

Certain streams aren’t job-offer oriented at all, focusing instead on factors such as education and work experience.

In most cases, no, but in some cases, yes. For certain streams, you are required to have completed a study program of a certain length in order to be considered, typically one to two years.

Certificate programs usually only span several months to a year at most, meaning you wouldn’t qualify for certain streams (such as those requiring study programs of two years) with a certificate alone.

Some streams outright allow certificates, while others do so on a conditional basis. Conditions can vary, but two examples are included below.

Ontario’s Employer Job Offer: International Student Stream: Individuals who completed their studies in Ontario may qualify with just a college or university graduate certificate. Those who completed their studies in a different province or territory must have either a graduate (taking at least one year) or undergraduate (taking at least two years) degree or diploma.

Nova Scotia’s International Graduates in Demand Stream: Individuals must have an occupation falling under one of four NOC codes and require individuals to have a diploma or degree unless they belong to one particular NOC.

For some streams, you can apply directly for nomination. Others, however, require you to indicate your interest through a province’s EOI system, which is an application management system.

Foreign nationals interested in immigrating to a province through a particular stream must submit an EOI to the PNP—or profile—which highlights their skills, work experience, education, and other factors (for example, your age, or your relatives living in the province).

Profiles are entered into a candidate pool and ranked. The PNP will typically send invitations to its top-ranking candidates in periodic draws throughout the year, until reaching its program cap(s).

Typically, yes. For some PNP streams, it is free to submit an EOI. For others, a province may require individuals to pay a fee in order to enter the candidate pool. Ultimately, whether a stream is free or requires a fee is at the province or territory’s discretion.

For example, to submit an EOI for Ontario’s Masters Graduate Stream, you are not required to pay a fee.

Alberta’s Foreign Graduate Entrepreneur Stream, on the other hand, has a $200 EOI submission fee.

Note that an EOI fee is different than an application fee.

Nearly every PNP charges application fees if you are invited and choose to respond by submitting a complete application.

Once you receive an ITA to a province’s PNP, you will be expected to submit an application for provincial nomination within a set number of days outlined by the PNP.

The exact number of days can vary considerably, ranging anywhere from 14 to 90 days.

If you do not respond by the PNPs outlined timeline, your ITA will expire.

For steams that do not require an EOI, however, you do not have to wait to receive an ITA in order to apply for provincial nomination—you can submit an application directly to the province any time you wish, provided that the stream is open.

To be eligible for economic immigration through the PNP, you must meet both general eligibility requirements for entry into Canada as well as stream-specific requirements set out by the province or territory.

For any given stream, a PNP will have eligibility criteria outlined on their official website. While eligibility varies stream to stream, you can expect to meet requirements relating to age, education, work experience, pre-arranged employment, and more.

Most PNPs also have application guides you can reference for detailed eligibility criteria, conditions, exceptions, implications, and more.

PNPs also clearly indicate scenarios that will deem someone automatically ineligible for a stream, such as

• Being a refugee claimant;
• Residing in Canada as part of the Live-In Caregiver Program;
• Being the recipient of a scholarship or award requiring you to return to your home country;
• Having unresolved custody or child support disputes; or
• Having an active application under another stream.

In most cases, yes, but not always. Whether you are required to have graduated from a school in the province you’re applying to depends entirely on not only the PNP you’re applying to, but also the stream.

However, in most cases, PNPs do require candidates to have completed their studies in that province in order to be eligible.

In some cases, only those who have graduated from specific educational institutions within a province can qualify—Newfoundland and Labrador’s International Graduate Entrepreneur streams both require you to have graduated from either Memorial University or College of the North Atlantic.

Further, some streams only consider candidates who have graduated from a college or university either within the province or an institution outside Canada but will not consider those who completed their studies in another province.

In some cases, yes, but in others, no. Some provinces do require you to have work experience as well as study experience to qualify for their student-specific streams. The minimum amount of work experience most PNPs expect is typically at least six months or a year, such as Saskatchewan’s Worker with Saskatchewan Work Experience student stream, which expects six months.

There are many provinces that require no experience at all and focus on other factors.

Note: Student entrepreneur streams will almost always require work experience.