Moose Jaw Publishes Details of Rural & Northern Immigration Pilot Application Process

The southern Saskatchewan community of Moose Jaw community has become the latest to unveil details of its participation in the Rural & Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP).

In a statement on a new website, the community says its selection committee will start accepting employer inquiries in late 2020.

Application from immigration candidate will begin in either late 2020 or early 2021, according to the statement.

“Moose Jaw will use the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot to continue to strengthen local economy and support the development of our communinty workforce,” the statement said.

Candidates are required to have a full-time permanent job offer from an approved employer, meet federal eligibility requirements, and community requirements, to be published at a later date.

“We are very glad to be participating in an immigration program that creates a pathway to immigration for foreign skilled nationals who are able to fill local job vacancies and want to settle in Moose Jaw and the surrounding areas,” the Moose Jaw website states.

The Rural & Northern Immigration Pilot is designed to help bring new skilled worker immigrants to smaller communities.

The five-year federal immigration pilot is created to help smaller communities with aging populations and labor shortages, which struggle to attract and retain newcomers.

It is a community-driven program that aims to spread out the benefit of immigration.

To be included in the pilot program, communities must:

• Have a population of about 50,000 or less and be located at least seventy-five (75km) from the core of a Census Metropolitan Area, OR
• Have a population of up to about 200,000 people and be considered remote from other bigger cities, according to the Statistics Canada Remoteness Index.

Steps to Canadian Permanent Residence

• Candidates must ensure that they meet both the federal government eligibility criteria and community-specific requirements.
• Find an eligible job with an employer in one of the participating communities (listed below).
• Candidates with a job offer can lodge an application for recommendation to the community.
• Candidates with a community recommendation can apply for Canadian permanent residence.

Moose Jaw is one of ten (10) communities that have now kick start their RNIP application processes.

The others are Sudbury, Claresholm in Alberta, Brandon, and Altona/Rhineland in Manitoba, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay in Ontario, plus Vernon and West Kootenay in British Columbia.

North Bay in Ontario province is the only community involved in the pilot yet to release details of its application process.

RNIP Participating Communities