By Victor Ing,
Special to The Post

Last week on March 19, 2024, the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) announced significant upcoming changes to its International Post-Graduate (IPG) stream that will make it more difficult for many international students who have graduated in BC with master’s degrees in natural, applied and health sciences to obtain a coveted provincial nomination to qualify for Canadian permanent residence. Post-graduate students already enrolled in these programs bristled at the news as they gathered in downtown Vancouver this past weekend to protest the proposed changes to the IPG stream that will take effect as of January 2025. They argue that these changes come without warning and will unfairly affect them since they made the important (and expensive) decision years ago to study in BC based on promises that will no longer be kept.

What is the IPG Stream?

The BC PNP’s IPG stream has remained largely unchanged since it was first introduced as a three-year pilot program in 2010. It offers international post-graduate students who have studied natural, applied and health sciences in certain BC universities a streamlined opportunity to obtain a provincial nomination. In July 2013, the IPG became a permanent program after the BC PNP deemed the pilot a success.

At the core of the IPG stream is a recognition that individuals with graduate degrees in fields such as the agricultural sciences, engineering, and computer sciences, are highly sought after by employers in BC. As such, it was not necessary as a matter of policy for these individuals to show that they have a job offer in BC or to show prior experience in the field before receiving a nomination for permanent residency. Any candidate who graduated with an eligible master’s degree in one of these prioritized fields could apply directly to the PNP for a nomination, without competing with anyone else for a spot.

What’s New?

The BC PNP has now changed the longstanding policy to support master’s students completing programs of study in natural, applied and health sciences. As of January 2025, the IPG will become open to post-graduate students who have completed master’s degrees from eligible post-secondary schools in  any  field of study. In exchange for opening the IPG to all areas of master’s studies, however, IPG candidates will now compete with each other to receive one of the BC PNP’s coveted nominations. Gone are the days of directly applying for a nomination upon graduation. Successful candidates must now obtain a minimum one-year full-time job offer in BC, and they must now meet the higher language proficiency requirements of Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 8 in order to qualify.

To put things in perspective, the BC PNP awards approximately 7,000 nominations each year. Of those, roughly 12 to 15% of nominations are awarded each year under the IPG, meaning that approximately 800 to 1,000 individuals are expected to be affected by these changes.  

Why Change?

The BC PNP states that its shift in policy stems from the recent trend of ensuring transparency for students seeking to pursue international studies in Canada. The PNP wants to discourage what they deem to be “predatory” behaviour from recruiters and others by establishing clear thresholds to apply for a nomination and to eliminate the perception that the BC PNP, including its IPG stream, as being an “easy pathway” towards permanent residency.

Most importantly, the BC PNP made it clear that with only 7,000 nominations allocated to it by the federal government, not all candidates will be selected to receive a nomination. Accordingly, this change is intended to bring the IPG in line with their other streams where candidates are not guaranteed nominations – instead, they must score points based upon language proficiency and other factors. In so doing, the BC PNP believes that it will be a net positive for everyone since those who score higher points for having better English proficiency, for example, tend to do better in the labour market over time. This allows the BC PNP to award its limited nominations to only the top candidates in each stream.

The BC PNP’s latest announcement was sudden and unexpected. Perhaps foreseeing some backlash from the international student community and its advocates, the BC PNP made the announcement this month in March 2024 with a lengthy 9-month lead time before the changes will be implemented.

It seems like every month or so I find myself writing about new changes in the immigration world and encouraging clients to do their due diligence before making any decisions to invest their time, money, and effort to come to Canada. More than ever, it’s clear that it is getting harder to qualify for permanent residency, even through streams like the IPG that have existed for over a decade. The “tried and true” pathways are no longer so, and it is crucial to not only prepare for a “Plan A” but also to prepare contingency plans in case of unexpected and sudden shifts in the immigration landscape.

The BC PNP’s March 19 announcement is just the latest example of a fast-changing immigration environment where we are beginning to question as a country whether we can or should accommodate hundreds of thousands of newcomers each year. The result for now, it seems, is an ever-increasing bar to qualify for permanent residency in all areas of immigration law.

Victor Ing is a lawyer of Sas & Ing Immigration Law Centre. He provides a full range of immigration services.

For more information go to canadian-visa-lawyer.com or email victor@sasanding.com.