Canada · Atlantic Immigration Program
Permanent residence that starts with a real Atlantic employer
An employer-driven permanent route into Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. No Labour Market Impact Assessment is required — which is precisely why it is mis-sold. Here is how it actually works.
The route, plainly
What the Atlantic Immigration Program is
The Atlantic Immigration Program is a permanent federal programme, run in partnership with the four Atlantic provinces, that leads directly to permanent residence rather than to a temporary permit. It exists because employers in Atlantic Canada have persistent difficulty filling roles locally, and because the region wants newcomers who stay.
It works differently from most employer-led routes. Instead of testing each vacancy through a Labour Market Impact Assessment, the programme approves the employer once, in advance. A business applies to its province to become a designated employer. Designation says the province has looked at that business — its standing with labour and occupational health and safety authorities, its record, and its willingness to support newcomers — and is prepared to let it hire through the programme.
After that, each hire is assessed as a pair: the job and the person. The province issues an endorsement, and the endorsement is what allows a federal permanent residence application to be filed. Alongside it sits a settlement plan, prepared with an approved settlement organisation, covering you and any family coming with you.
The programme is one of several routes that do not run through Express Entry. If you are weighing it against others, our overview of Canadian immigration programmes sets out where each one fits.
Four parties
Who does what, and in what order
Only one of these four decisions is yours to make, and it is not the first one.
The employer
Must be designated first
The province
Endorses the job offer
A settlement organisation
Writes the settlement plan
IRCC
Decides permanent residence
No LMIA does not mean no employer
This is the single most exploited sentence in the programme. Because no Labour Market Impact Assessment is required, agents describe the route as open, or as something you can enter with an application and sort out the job later. You cannot. The programme replaced the labour market test with employer designation — it did not replace the employer.
Every step after the job offer depends on the offer existing. If you have no designated Atlantic employer, you have no file. If someone offers to supply one for a fee, that is the point at which to stop, not to negotiate. See how the equivalent misconception plays out on the LMIA route, where the same money is lost every week.
The sequence
How the process runs, start to finish
Steps one and two belong to the employer. You have no application of your own until an endorsement exists.
- 1
An employer obtains designation
A business in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island or Newfoundland and Labrador applies to its provincial immigration office. It must be in good standing with labour and occupational health and safety authorities and commit to supporting newcomers.
- 2
The employer makes a job offer
The offer must be non-seasonal, at a skill level the programme recognises, and for a duration the programme specifies. It is made directly to you. There is no Labour Market Impact Assessment step.
- 3
You complete a settlement plan
The employer refers you to an approved settlement service provider — a pre-arrival provider if you are outside Canada. The plan covers you and any accompanying family, and is a mandatory part of the file.
- 4
The employer applies for endorsement
Employer and candidate each complete their part of a provincial endorsement application. The province reviews the vacancy, your credentials and the settlement plan together.
- 5
You apply to IRCC for permanent residence
With the endorsement in hand you file the federal permanent-residence application: language results, an educational credential assessment where required, proof of work experience, funds, and the usual medical and police requirements.
- 6
Optional temporary work permit
An endorsed candidate may be able to apply for a temporary work permit to start the job while permanent residence is processed. It is a bridge, not a substitute, and it is conditional.
What you need
The candidate requirements, in kind
A job offer from a designated employer
Not any employer — one that already holds designation from the province in which the job sits.
Qualifying work experience
Paid experience in an occupation the programme accepts, matched to the offer. Certain graduates of recognised Atlantic post-secondary institutions may be exempt from the experience requirement.
Education and credential assessment
A qualifying credential. Where it was earned outside Canada, an educational credential assessment is normally required.
Language ability
A test result from an approved English or French test, at the level the programme sets for the occupation.
Settlement funds
Proof you can support yourself and your family on arrival, unless you are already working in Canada on a valid permit.
A completed settlement plan
Prepared with an approved settlement service provider — a document, not a formality, and a condition of processing.
Where it applies
The four Atlantic provinces
Each province runs its own designation and endorsement process, with its own forms, contacts and priorities. The federal requirements are shared; the provincial administration is not.
The programme covers Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Your employer’s province determines which office designates it, which office endorses you, and which settlement organisations you are referred to.
That provincial administration is not static, and this matters more than most pages admit. Provinces periodically pause new employer designations, close the programme to particular occupations or sectors, restrict endorsement of candidates who are outside Canada, or change how endorsement applications are selected. A route that was open to your occupation last year may not be open to it now. Before you act on anything here, check the current notices published by the province your employer is in — the links below go to those offices.
Each of those provinces also runs a separate provincial nominee stream, which is a different route with different rules — worth understanding if the Atlantic Immigration Program does not fit but the region still appeals to you:
What commonly goes wrong
The failure patterns we see from Pakistan
Paying for a job offer. The most common and the most damaging. Sometimes the employer does not exist. Sometimes it exists but is not designated. Sometimes it is designated and the arrangement destroys its designation along with your application.
An employer that is not designated. A genuine Atlantic employer with a genuine vacancy is still not enough on its own. Designation is a separate approval the business must already hold. Confirm it with the provincial office before you build plans around an offer.
Experience that does not match the offer. Endorsement assesses the pairing. A general work history that does not clearly evidence the specific occupation on the offer is a routine reason a file stalls, and experience letters written by someone else are worse than useless.
Treating the settlement plan as paperwork. An endorsement application without a completed settlement plan is not processed. It is prepared with an approved settlement organisation, and the employer has a commitment to help you access those services.
Intending to leave immediately. The programme is about staying. Applying for an Atlantic endorsement while planning to relocate on landing is a misrepresentation risk, and it is one people talk themselves into casually.
Confusing the temporary permit with the outcome. The optional work permit lets you start earlier. It does not decide your permanent residence, and it comes with conditions. If the permanent application is refused, the permit does not save it.
Being honest about fit
Who this route does not suit
If you have no designated Atlantic employer, this is not your route
There is no candidate-first entry here. Without a job offer from an employer that already holds designation in one of the four provinces, there is no step you can take to begin, and no fee that creates one. That is the honest answer, and it is the one most often withheld from people who have already paid.
It also tends not to suit people whose occupation sits outside the skill categories the programme recognises — and provinces additionally close the route to particular occupations and sectors from time to time, so an occupation that qualifies federally may still not be endorsed where your employer is. It does not suit people whose documented experience does not match the job title on the offer, and people who intend to settle elsewhere in Canada — the programme is designed around remaining in the Atlantic region, and applying otherwise carries real risk.
If you have strong language results and skilled experience but no Canadian employer, Express Entry or a provincial nominee programme is usually the more useful conversation. If you have an employer but outside Atlantic Canada, the work permit routes are the place to start. We would rather say so on the first call than take a fee for a file that was never going to work — which is why we publish a no-guarantee policy.
Where the current details live
Fees, thresholds and provincial forms
Language thresholds, education requirements, settlement fund levels, fees and processing times all change. We deliberately do not publish those figures here, because a number that is right today becomes a liability on a page you might read next year.
IRCC publishes the federal requirements for the Atlantic Immigration Program. Designation and endorsement are administered provincially — by Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Each of those offices publishes its own current notices — occupation restrictions, pauses on designation or endorsement intake, and how candidates are selected. Read the notice page for the relevant province, and check whether a prospective employer holds current designation with that province directly, on the day it matters.
Straight answers
The questions people actually ask
If no LMIA is needed, does that mean I do not need an employer?
Can I buy a job offer from a designated employer?
Can I apply on my own, without an employer, and find work later?
Do I have to stay in the Atlantic province?
What is a settlement plan, and who pays for it?
What are the language and education requirements?
How long does it take and what does it cost?
Can you guarantee an endorsement or permanent residence?
Before you pay anyone
Find out whether an Atlantic route is realistic for you
Tell us your occupation, your experience, your language results, and whether you actually have an offer from a designated Atlantic employer. We will tell you honestly whether this fits — and if it does not, which route might.