Atlantic Immigration Program

There is no points score to beat and no draw to win. If you hold a qualifying job offer and meet the criteria, you are eligible. In 2026 that is genuinely unusual.

The bars are also low. Language can be as little as CLB 4 for a TEER 4 job offer and CLB 5 for everything else. Education can be a high school diploma for TEER 2, 3 and 4 roles. Work experience is 1,560 hours over five years, which is one year at 30 hours a week, and graduates of Atlantic institutions are exempt from it entirely.

Your employer also does not need a labour market impact assessment, which removes the advertising, recruitment and $1,000 fee that an ordinary work permit route would involve.

IRCC currently publishes about 26 months for a permanent residence decision, last updated on 10 August 2026, with roughly 12,100 applicants waiting. That is the federal step only, and it starts once your application is filed.

Before that you need a designated employer, a job offer, a settlement plan and a provincial endorsement. Realistically the employer search is the longest and least predictable stage.

Because the wait is long, most applicants also take the optional two-year employer-specific work permit, which lets you move and start working while the permanent residence application is processed. Your spouse or partner can apply for an open work permit at the same time.

Honestly, this is the hardest part, and where most applications die. The employer must already be designated by the province, or be willing to become designated, which requires two years of continuous operation in the province, good standing under employment and safety law, and two mandatory free training courses.

Staffing agencies cannot be designated, and neither can a business you or your spouse majority own.

Be wary of anyone selling a job offer. Paying for an offer of employment is a serious problem, both for your application and for the employer. A genuine offer comes from a genuine vacancy.

Practically, we target employers who are already designated, in occupations the province is currently endorsing, which is a much shorter list than the general job market.

No, if you meet the graduate conditions. You need a credential from a programme of at least two years at a recognised institution in one of the four Atlantic provinces, obtained less than two years before you apply, having been a full-time student throughout and having lived in the province at least 16 months during the two years before graduating.

Two exclusions catch people. Programmes where English or French as a second language made up half or more of the study do not count, and neither do programmes that were half or more distance learning. A scholarship requiring you to return home also disqualifies you.

One correction worth making: being a graduate does not exempt you from settlement funds. The only funds exemption is for people already working in Canada on a valid work permit, which many graduates do meet through a post-graduation work permit, but it is a different test.

No. The IRCC criteria state the experience must be paid and cannot be self-employment. This catches out a surprising number of otherwise strong applicants, particularly consultants, freelancers and people who ran their own small business abroad.

Volunteer work and unpaid internships do not count either. The work must also be at the same skill level as your job offer or higher, and if it was done in Canada you must have held a valid work permit at the time.

There is one useful flexibility: experience as a licensed practical nurse or registered nurse can support a job offer as a nurse aide or home support worker, even though those sit at a lower skill level.

On the current picture, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador are the most realistic. Both are open to new employer designations, and Nova Scotia publishes the most detail about how it selects.

Prince Edward Island works only if your occupation falls within health care, construction or manufacturing. Outside those three sectors it is not currently a route, no matter how strong your profile.

New Brunswick is the hardest right now. New employer designations have been paused since 3 February 2026 with no published end date, the entire accommodation and food services sector is excluded from endorsement, and candidates outside Canada are limited to provincially-led recruitment in health care, education and construction.

Sector matters as much as province. Health care and skilled trades are prioritised almost everywhere in Atlantic Canada.

It is a requirement people skip past, and then it delays them. Before the province will endorse you, a designated settlement service provider must complete a needs and assets assessment and prepare a personalised settlement plan.

The part that catches families out: a plan is needed for you and for every accompanying family member, not one for the household. Missing a spouse or child plan is a routine cause of an incomplete endorsement package.

The assessment can be done in person, online or by phone, and there are designated providers in each of the four provinces plus five that work with people still overseas. You send a copy to your employer for the endorsement package and include a copy in your permanent residence application.

Yes. Your spouse or common-law partner and dependent children can be included in the permanent residence application, and each accompanying family member needs their own settlement plan.

If you take the optional two-year work permit to move sooner, your spouse or common-law partner can apply for an open work permit, which lets them work for almost any employer rather than being tied to one.

Remember that settlement funds scale with family size, from $3,815 for one person to $7,090 for four, and the count includes family members even if they are not travelling with you immediately. Whether dependent children can obtain study permits alongside the Atlantic work permit is not addressed on the IRCC page, so we confirm that case by case rather than assuming.