On November 1, 2017 the British Columbia Provincial Nomination Program (the “BC PNP”) clarified and/or modified several aspects of its programs. Skilled Immigration The more significant revisions that applicants and practitioners should be aware of are: The International Graduates and International Post-Graduate programs have long excluded graduates from distance education programs from being eligible. As well, a person’s education has not been eligible for Skills Immigration Registration System (“SIRS”) ranking points if it was obtained through distance education. The BC PNP has now defined “distance education.” It means “a program of […]
Read more ›As of writing, there have now been two published judicial reviews of British Columbia Provincial Nomination Program (“BC PNP“) refusals. In each case the judicial review was dismissed. While both cases were very fact specific, some of the key passages were as follows. Chaudan v. British Columbia (Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training), 2016 BCSC 2142 This case essentially stands for the proposition that officers can look beyond an offer of employment to determine whether a proposed job offer meets BC PNP program requirements. Justice Bowden wrote: In determining […]
Read more ›The first reported British Columbia Supreme Court decision involving the British Columbia Provincial Nomination Program has gone to the BC PNP.
Read more ›On September 1, 2016, the British Columbia Provincial Nomination Program (“BC PNP“) published changes to its program guide. Here is a summary of the changes. Topic Original Change Representatives If you are invited to apply and your employer is using a representative, your employer must also complete their own use of representative form, even if your employer is appointing the same representative. If you are invited to apply and you are using a representative, your employer must also complete their own use of representative form, even if your employer is appointing […]
Read more ›On January 27, 2016, the British Columbia Provincial Nomination Program (“BC PNP“) re-opened its Skills Immigration and Express Entry BC programs, and introduced the Skills Immigration Registration System. The Skills Immigration Registration System is an expression of interest system to manage BC PNP Skills Immigration application intake. It is similar to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (“IRCC”, previously “CIC”) Express Entry system, as only registrants who are invited by the BC PNP to submit full nomination applications can actually apply for nomination certificates. Simply meeting program requirements does not guarantee an […]
Read more ›With four months remaining in the year, both British Columbia’s and Alberta’s provincial nomination programs have announced that they are full. The ability of both provinces to meet the demands of their employers to retain foreign national employees on a permanent basis is clearly being cut off at the knees by federal quotas that appear to bare no resemblance to what is needed.
Read more ›On July 2, 2015, the British Columbia Provincial Nomination Program (“BC PNP“) re-launched with new program requirements and processes. The BC PNP remains divided into the Skills Immigration stream and the Entrepreneur Immigration stream. The most significant changes to the BC PNP include: Introducing an online application process with an electronic payment system; Streamlining the Business Skills and Regional Business programs into one Entrepreneur Immigration stream based on an expression of interest model similar to Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s (“CIC”) Express Entry program; Capping the intake in the Skills Immigration program to […]
Read more ›On February 17, 2015, the Province of British Columbia published the results of the following FOI request: Specific fields of data, tabulated by year for the past four years, within the Performance Agreements for Business Immigration including: the number of agreements signed, investment amount committed and number of jobs committed as well as the agreements fulfilled, the actual investment amounts and actual number of jobs. Timeframe is 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2014. The FOI results are embedded below. There are many things that one can conclude from the data. […]
Read more ›After the work experience requirement for the Canadian Experience Class went from two-years to one, many people have been asking whether they should apply for the BC PNP – Strategic Occupations – Skilled Workers program or the Canadian Experience Class. The following table shows some of the issues that applicants should be aware with each application. It was part of a larger table comparing the BC PNP to many federal economic immigration programs which I wrote in a paper for the 2013 Canadian Bar Association – British Columbia Branch Annual Immigration […]
Read more ›Demonstrating once again why it is important for representatives to contain “change of law” clauses in their retainer agreements, the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (“BC PNP“) has effective immediately suspended the Fast Track nomination option in the business immigration stream. The suspension will affect applications in processing. Applicants with applications in processing who as of November 15, 2012, had not signed performance agreements with the Province of British Columbia (the “Province“) will not be eligible for the Fast Track option. Such applicants can either (1) continue under the regular nomination process, or (2) […]
Read more ›Social Media
