British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (PNP)
The British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) was introduced in 2001 to attract skilled workers to the province.
The program was expanded in 2002 to allow business immigrants seeking to invest and start businesses in B.C. to apply to the PNP.
Skilled and business immigrants approved under the PNP, together with their spouse and dependents, obtain expedited processing of their application for permanent residence.
Administered the expansion of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), to help 14,500 skilled and business immigrants obtain expedited permanent residence between 2008 and 2012
Since March 2001, over 7,670 skilled and business immigrants have been attracted to the province through the B.C. Provincial Nominee Program. Last fiscal year alone, we attracted 2,629 skilled workers and entrepreneurs more than 6,200 new immigrants if we include their family members.
Recognizing the importance of this program, were looking to help at least 2,400 skilled and business immigrants, plus their dependents, call B.C. home via the PNP for 2009/10.
It is important to note that the nominee numbers, unless stated, do not include dependents; this means the actual number of individuals coming to B.C. under the PNP is significantly higher than just the number of principal applicants who are approved.
Strategic Occupations (Skilled Workers)
Total nominations since the beginning of the program in March 2001 to February 2009: 6,901 (excluding dependents: note that each Provincial Nominee has an average of 1.85 dependents).
Total actual nominations processed for skilled workers alone in 2008/09: 2,245 (excluding dependents)
It is 23 per cent more nominees than were approved in the previous year (1,820)
Of those approved, almost 25 per cent are destined to areas outside of the Greater Vancouver Regional District.
The top employment sectors for our provincial nominees are:
health care 1,248 nominees (mostly registered nurses and physicians)
skilled trades 1,158 (construction)
high tech/IT 858
post-secondary education 560 (professors).
The top 5 countries where these skilled workers are coming from (Country of Citizenship) are in the order of: U.K. 1,375, U.S.A. 755, China 755, Germany 418 and Korea 392.
Business Categories
From the time this category was introduced in 2002, we have approved 440 nominee candidates. These approved applicants have committed to $540 million in new investment and the creation of 2,073 new jobs.
Over half of these applicants are destined to areas outside Greater Vancouver Regional District.
The top source countries for business categories applicants are the People's Republic of China, Korea and United Kingdom, in that order.
The by-sector distribution for business categories are:
Retail & Service 40%
Tourism & Hospitality 21%
Manufacturing & Processing 20%
Wholesale & Distribution 9%
Education 5%
Technology 4%
Others 1%
