The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) ends today, 31 August.

The deadline for communities to recommend candidates to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) was July 31, and August 31 was the last date on which recommended candidates could submit permanent residence (PR) applications to IRCC.

The RNIP was introduced in August 2022 to encourage newcomers to Canada to settle in some of Canada’s more remote regions. Each region was allowed to invite 125 candidates per year, bringing the total program capacity to 2,750.

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Typically, newcomers prefer to settle in large urban centres such as Toronto or Vancouver, where there are already established communities of newcomers.

While skilled newcomers have flocked to major cities, rural and northern Canadian communities have faced a shortage of skilled workers in sectors such as healthcare and trade. Through the pilot program, IRCC selected communities that could welcome newcomers and connect them with established community members and local settlement services.

IRCC did not renew the pilot program. But it is replacing the program with a different pilot program, which was launched earlier this year.

Rural Community Immigration Pilot Program

The Rural Community Immigration Pilot Program is a new economic immigration pathway that will act as an economic immigration program benefiting some of Canada’s more remote regions.

It will work in a similar way to the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP), which provides additional support to nominated employers in the Atlantic region. These employers in turn provide their employees with more support than other provincial immigration pathways such as the Provincial Nominee Program.

The new pilot program is set to begin this fall. IRCC has not yet announced which communities will be eligible to participate, or what the eligibility criteria will be for newcomers.

Pilot Program

When IRCC announced the RCIP, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said it was intended to ensure the department “continues to work toward creating a sustainable rural immigration program.”

“Rural and northern communities face unique economic and demographic challenges,” he said. “However, through the RNIP, rural communities have been able to attract and retain the skilled workers they have needed for years to ensure their economic growth.”

Pilot programs in Canada typically last for five years so that IRCC has a chance to collect data and measure the program’s success. In some cases, such as the AIP, the program is made permanent.

IRCC has also recently announced the launch of the Francophone Community Immigration Pilot for the upcoming autumn. The pilot will aim to increase the number of French-speaking newcomers settling in communities outside of Quebec.

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