On February 1st 2017, the British Columbia Provincial Nomination Program (BC PNP) underwent changes under the Provincial Immigration Programs Act (the Act) and the Provincial Immigration Programs Regulation. The BC PNP is geared towards skilled workers, businesspeople and their family members who wish to permanently immigrate to British Columbia. This program promotes sustainable economic growth by providing qualified new British Columbians with work, through a further-accelerated immigration process.
Changes to the BC PNP include the authority to collect PNP fees, monitoring of compliance with program requirements and a new process for reviewing denied applications. A complete list of changes that have now come into effect can be found below:
- Statutory decisions are made by the Director of Immigration Programs (section 2 of the Act)
- Conduction of inspections (sections 11/12 of the Act)
- Program/category-specific criteria is set through program policy as matters to be considered (section 4 of the Act, section 6 of the Regulation)
- Collection of fees (section 3 of the Act, section 3 of the Regulation)
Worker Application Fees increased to $700.00
- Review of decisions (section 7 of the Act) $200.00
Entrepreneur Immigration Fees
- Registration $300.00
- Application: $3,500.00
- Key Staff: $1,000.00
- Review of decisions: $200.00 (section 7 of the Act)
- Review of decisions (section 7 of the Act)
- The applicant’s BC PNP online profile is used to submit requests for review
- Entrepreneur Immigration applicants whose applications were submitted on/before July 1st, 2015 and who wish to request a review of decision made on/after February 1st, 2017, now follow the process defined in their decision letter
- The BC PNP is not entitled to have a decision to withdraw a nomination (under section 6 of the Act) reviewed under the internal review process (section 7 of the Act)
- A process in order to accept/refuse applications is now outlined in section 3 of the Act and section 5 of the Regulation
- Authority to enter into sharing agreements with Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (section 9 of the Act)
- Outline of requirements for representatives (section 4 of the Act, section 4 of the Regulation)
