Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot Program now closed

The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) ends today, August 31.

The deadline for communities to recommend candidates to Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) was July 31, and August 31 was the last date on which recommended candidates could have submitted a permanent residence (PR) application to IRCC.

RNIP launched in August 2022 to help encourage newcomers to Canada to settle in some of Canada’s more remote regions. Each region was allowed to invite up to 125 candidates per year, yielding a total program capacity of 2,750.

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Typically, newcomers choose to settle in large urban centres such as Toronto or Vancouver where there are already established newcomer communities.

While skilled newcomers have flocked to major cities, communities in rural and northern Canada have faced a shortage of skilled workers in sectors such as healthcare and the trades. Through the pilot program, IRCC selected communities that could welcome newcomers and connect them to established members of the community and local settlement services.

IRCC did not renew the pilot. But it’s replacing the program with a different pilot, introduced earlier this year.

Rural Community Immigration Pilot Program

The Rural Community Immigration Pilot Program is a new economic immigration pathway set to serve as an economic immigration program that will benefit some of Canada’s more remote regions.

It will act similarly to the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP), which offers additional support to designated employers in the Atlantic region. These employers in turn offer more support to their employees than is typical in other provincial immigration pathways such as the Provincial Nominee Program.

The new Pilot program is set to launch this fall. IRCC has not yet announced which communities will be eligible to participate, or eligibility criteria for newcomers.

Pilot Programs

When IRCC announced RCIP, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said it was with an aim to ensure that the department “continues work toward creating a permanent rural immigration program.”

“Rural and northern communities face unique economic and demographic challenges,” he said. “However, through the RNIP, rural communities have been able to attract and retain skilled workers that they’ve needed for years to ensure their economic growth.”

Pilot programs in Canada usually last five years to allow IRCC to gather data and measure the program’s success. In some instances, such as the AIP, the program is made permanent.

IRCC also recently announced the introduction of the Francophone Community Immigration Pilot for the upcoming fall. The Pilot will target increasing the numbers of French-speaking newcomers who settle in communities outside of Quebec.

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