Priority Skills Newfoundland and Labrador: New PNP Stream Launches

Newfoundland and Labrador Draw
  • December 8, 2020

Newfoundland and Labrador will be launching a New Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) stream in January 2021 called Priority Skills Newfoundland and Labrador. It provides an immigration pathway for highly skilled, highly educated individuals who have experience in priority sectors for the province.

The new stream is created in order to fulfil the growing demand for the highly skilled employees in the province. The employers of the province currently do not meet the targets to fulfil the skill demand for the labours.

Province has released the general criteria and application procedure yet there will be more details available soon.

Eligibility Criteria: Priority Skills Newfoundland and Labrador

The stream has two major categories for eligibility. Candidates must have one or more advanced academic or specialized qualifications in priority sectors such as information and communications technology, oceans technology, health care, agriculture and aquaculture:

Graduates of Memorial University who have completed a Masters or PhD program within the three years prior to applying.

Exceptionally qualified individuals those have worked in a specialized, highly skilled, and high-demand occupation for at least one year.

The following occupations are considered eligible in-demand occupations for the stream:

Engineers and Developers:

  • Software Developer
  • Biomedical Engineer
  • UI/UX Developer
  • Electrical Engineer
  • AI Developer
  • Mechanical Engineer
  • Python Developer.NET Developer
  • Infrastructure Engineer

Technical Specialists:

  • Security Specialist
  • Cloud Specialist
  • Bioinformatician
  • Computer Network Support

All candidates must take an approved English-language test showing abilities at or above the Canadian Language Benchmark of Level 5 (CLB 5).

Applicants must be at least 21 years of age at the time of application.

Application procedure for Priority Skills Newfoundland and Labrador

Candidates who meet the minimum eligibility requirements for Priority Skills Newfoundland and Labrador will be eligible to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI). Candidates will be assessed based on the merits of their EOI and certain candidates will be invited by the province to submit an official application for permanent resident status.

The assessment of EOIs will be done using a point grid, similar to the Comprehensive Ranking System used in Express Entry. Criteria and points allocations for the EOI scoring system will be released closer to the launch date in January, 2021.

According to the province’s press release announcing the new stream, those invited to submit an official application will be able to do so either through the Express Entry system or through a paper-based PNP application, whichever is better suited to their profile.

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