Canada's immigration results for early 2022

Canada has regular selections for provincial immigration programs: some once a week, some once a month or less. I'll tell you how many invitations have been issued by each province, where immigrants are called the most, for which programs, and what is required of applicants. Perhaps this trend will continue throughout the year, and one of these programs will work for you and you can immigrate through it.

The year 2022 started out for immigrants in a generally positive way, with provinces immediately launching large selections, sometimes even record-breaking ones. All in order to meet the target set for this year by the Ministry of Immigration to issue about 432,000 permanent residence permits.

Let me explain right away what a permanent residence is. It is a permanent place of residence. With this status, you can legally stay in Canada without restrictions, work, study, receive benefits, and take out loans for cars and real estate. Statistics show that most Canadians live in homes, not apartments, and the mortgage rate as of March 2022 is less than 3% per year.

There are immigration programs for literally everyone: skilled professionals, workers, entrepreneurs, certain professions, those with both weak and fluent language, and so on.

Eighth highest number of invitations

So, Saskatchewan was the province that attracted the least candidates, with only 155 candidates. It's a province in central Canada, mostly prairie. The peculiarities include a high percentage of the rural population, few large cities and the largest Ukrainian diaspora in the country.

Saskatchewan has called entrepreneurs who want to set up on their own or buy a ready-made business in the province. The requirements are always high: They need $500,000 CAD of capital and another $200,000 to 300,000 CAD of investment, depending on what city the business will be in.

The second selection was for skilled workers who have a profile in the Express Entry system, and workers of in-demand occupations in skilled and working occupations. You don't need an offer to work in these streams, but Saskatchewan has a grading table where you need a passing score to apply. It's not easy, you'll need a college degree, several years of work experience, and a good level of language.

Seventh place

Slightly more, 255 people, were invited by Prince Edward Island. It is one of the Atlantic provinces in eastern Canada, you can immigrate there through the Atlantic Immigration Program, which is very popular, but the province also has its own separate relocation programs.

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Some of the invitations were sent to entrepreneurs who want to establish a business in the province. The requirements for businessmen are also high — a capital of $600,000 CAD is required.

The remaining invitations were sent to candidates who are registered in the Express Entry system and run on one of the federal programs and candidates in demand in the labor market. In-demand candidates fall into several categories:

• skilled workers with higher education;
• critical workers who are in short supply in the province and are now there on work visas;
• international graduates who have completed at least two years of study.

Prince Edward Island has low language requirements, but there are age restrictions — you must be under 59. Plus all streams, except the one through Express Entry, require a job offer. If you have a profile in Express Entry, you don't need one, but it's hard to get in without one because the federal programs have high requirements.

Sixth place

The next highest number of invitations was Nova Scotia, another province in Atlantic Canada. It screened on a stream of labor market priorities and called 278 people, and they were only nurses. They had to have an Express Entry profile, work experience and a high level of English or French.

If you think that every Canadian province is only calling for 100-200 people a month, that's not true, the numbers are higher.

Fifth place

The next region in terms of the number of invitations is Alberta, it borders Saskatchewan. It is already a more popular province, it has large cities and a developed oil industry. It is believed that some of the richest people in Canada live in Alberta because of the high salaries there.

Alberta called a total of exactly 1,000 people on the immigration stream for those who registered for Express Entry. The requirements there are to meet the criteria of the federal programs, they are quite high, but in Express Entry you only have to score 300 points out of 1,200, that's not much.

Fourth place

Next comes Manitoba, a province on the Canadian prairies that is not particularly popular with immigrants or locals, and it also has high crime rates compared to other regions. It is not easy to immigrate there. By all streams Manitoba requires either first to come on a work visa, or to have connections with the province, or to study at a university there. Nevertheless, the government sent out 1,021 invitations in a month and a half. Manitoba has selections in three categories:

• skilled workers in Manitoba who have already been working in the province for at least six months;
• skilled workers overseas who have a connection to the province: work experience, completed training, a relative or an invitation from the province received at an information session or during a trial visit;
• Manitoba graduates, this category includes three streams:
  • graduates with a job offer in the province;
  • graduates with a master's or doctoral degree;
  • graduates entrepreneurs.

Most of Manitoba's streams have no language requirements, they give many points to applicants under 45, but it is almost impossible to get a passing score there without provincial connections. In addition, most invitations are issued to those who are already working in Manitoba on a work visa.

That leaves the three provinces that called the most candidates to immigrate.

Third place

The first of these is a province that is quite popular with immigrants — Quebec. It called for 1,357 people. There were three selections by stream of skilled workers. One called candidates who had a job offer outside Montreal, the province's largest city, and the other two called candidates who had a particular profession. There's quite a big list, and it changes from selection to selection.

Quebec is different from other Canadian provinces. First, it has its own immigration system. If you are invited under one of the federal immigration programs, you can settle in any Canadian province, but not in Quebec. Also, the region has its own selection system called Arrima, which is analogous to Express Entry.

Secondly, French is predominantly spoken in Quebec, and you need to know this language to move too. Another peculiarity is that all candidates who apply for permanent residency must pass a test on the province's democratic values, which is not available anywhere else. When my family and I immigrated to Canada, we applied under one of Quebec's programs, and the requirements were easier then, but now they are more complicated.

Second place

Another popular province is British Columbia. It is home to one of the largest cities in the country, Vancouver, and people from both Canada and abroad go there because it is warm and rarely snows, but because of that the province has high housing prices. The good thing about British Columbia is that it holds immigration raffles every week. Since the beginning of the year, 1,478 candidates in five categories have been called there:

• skilled workers who are registered with Express Entry;
• international graduates of the province's universities, also through Express Entry;
• skilled workers for whom selection is through BC's internal system;
• international graduate with internal selection;
• entry level and semi-skilled workers;
• Tech program for IT professionals.

B.C. doesn't have very high requirements for candidates, but all streams need a job offer and a lot of money. As I said before, it is expensive to live in the province.

First place

And the last province that called the most immigrants. I think it's easy to guess, because this region is the most popular in Canada. It is Ontario. It's home to Canada's capital, Ottawa, where we live, and the country's largest city, Toronto. Ontario called for 4,128 candidates in five streams:

• foreign workers;
• international students;
• in-demand workers;
• human capital priorities;
• skilled trades;
• French-speaking skilled workers.

The first three streams have low eligibility requirements, they don't even assess language level, but you need a job offer in Ontario. Our website has a splanning of the grading system that is used for these streams, it's pretty easy to score there.

For the other streams, you have to have an Express Entry profile and go through one of the three federal programs. Ontario also has regular immigration draws.

Selections in Express Entry

I named all the provinces that published the results of the selections, but if you were counting, there are fewer invitations so far. To whom have the rest been sent? Another 2,498 candidates were selected in Express Entry selections for provincial program participants. These are the candidates who applied to provincial programs working through Express Entry and were selected there.

Summary

In a month and a half, we received 12,189 invitations. That's how many people will be able to get permanent residency in Canada and move. But it is not certain that this will happen soon. There are a lot of problems in Canada right now that are delaying immigration. In Express Entry more than a million people who have already received invitations are waiting in line and cannot get an immigrant visa. The issuance of work visas, which are needed for some programs, is also delayed.

The Department of Immigration blames it on the pandemic, but says the situation will normalize within a year. Canada recently released a new immigration plan for 2022-2024, which outlines which immigrants will be invited and in what numbers. Through the Express Entry system, only 56,000 people will be accepted in 2022, almost twice as many as last year, but there is a quota of 100,000 through provincial and regional programs, and another 40,000 through temporary programs for university graduates.

Projections for 2022

Based on the selections at the beginning of the year, we can say that the pandemic is not stopping Canada from inviting candidates. Already since the beginning of the year there are a lot of selections, and most likely there will be even more, because the plan is high.

The most popular options for immigration to Canada will be provincial programs for candidates with a job offer or a Canadian education.

Ontario and British Columbia invite the most immigrants, but these provinces are expensive to live in, so it is up to you. It may be better to see if there are suitable programs in cheaper provinces first. For example, Alberta has announced two programs at once for those who want to settle in small towns.

Alex Pavlenko, founder of Immigrant.Today