Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP) - New Streams coming soon
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by Rekha McNutt
At our Canadian Bar Association meeting today, we had the pleasure of hearing from Alberta’s Minister of Labour and Immigration, Jason Copping, about changes coming soon to the AINP!
Minister Copping spoke generally about Alberta’s economy and labour market. About 80% of all new immigrants to Alberta settle in our two major cities, Calgary and Edmonton.
Although we are experiencing a fairly high unemployment rate, there are sectors experiencing shortages for skilled workers, including healthcare and IT, especially in rural areas of the Province.
The Minister spoke about the introduction of the Fair Registration Practices Act which is meant assess foreign credentials. A new office will soon open to assist with the implementation of this new legislation, and to liaise with regulators to achieve faster recognition of foreign credentials.
Over the next 6 months, we can expect to see the following programs introduced into the AINP:
Rural Entrepreneur Program - involving the purchase or creation of a business in certain approved rural communities. This stream will resemble BC’s entrepreneur pilot program
Rural Renewal Program - involving settlement of skilled individuals into communities that require such individuals. This will involve a close working relationship with local economic development agencies
International Student Entrepreneur - to allow graduates from Alberta post-secondary programs to set up and run a business, with a path to permanent residence
Foreign Grad Startup Visa - to allow foreign grads from STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) programs to start up companies in Alberta
All these business streams will likely involve first granting the applicant a work permit in order to fulfill whatever elements will be incorporated into these programs.
There was very brief mention of an investor class but it didn’t sound promising.
Finally, the current Alberta Opportunities Stream (AOS) will be looked at, but we are not expecting any significant changes. There was a suggestion made to nominate more applicants via Express Entry to take advantage of significantly faster processing times, which the Minister took note of and promised to explore further.
It’s an exciting time for Alberta as we are one of the few Provinces (maybe the only one) with no business program to speak of. Minister Copping promised to return once these new streams rolled to discuss them further. Until then, stay tuned for an update once these proposed streams become reality!