A Canadian permanent resident is a citizen of another country who has been granted permission to live in Canada as a permanent resident. Once a person has permanent resident status, they have the right to live and work anywhere in the country. Permanent residents receive a significant number of benefits in Canada, including access to healthcare and social services, the right to live, work, and study anywhere in Canada, and protection under Canadian law. As well, after being a permanent resident for a certain amount of time, permanent residents are eligible to apply to become Canadian citizens! Notably, Canadian permanent residents do not have the right to vote in Canadian elections.

How to become resident

There are many streams and programs throught the Canadian provinces designed for welcoming newcommers to Canada, but there are two systems that draws the most attention:

Express Entry

The Express Entry system is responsible for welcoming over 100,000 newcomers to Canada each year. If you are applying for an Express Entry program, it is likely that you will not need a job offer. In fact, about 90% of Express Entry candidates were invited to apply for permanent residency without holding a Canadian job offer, according to IRCC’s Year-End Report 2019.

Express Entry requires applicants to have adequate work and educational experience, as well as language skills. However, you will not lose points for not having an offer from a Canadian employer

Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs)

Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) allows Canadian provinces and territories to nominate individuals who wish to immigrate to Canada and who are interested in settling in a particular province. Many Canadian provinces and territories have developed ‘enhanced’ PNP streams that are aligned with Express Entry.

If an applicant is nominated through a PNP which is aligned with Express Entry, the applicant can then claim 600 additional Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) points, virtually guaranteeing they will receive an invitation to apply (ITA) for permanent residence in the next Express Entry draw.

There are also many Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) that do not require a job offer to apply.

Some provinces, such as Saskatchewan, will instead use Expression of Interest (EOI) points-based systems – similar to Express Entry – to determine which candidates will be invited to apply for nomination.

Other provinces, such as Ontario or Nova Scotia, will invite candidates directly from the Express Entry pool to fill specific demographic or labour market gaps. That means, just by having an Express Entry profile in the pool of candidates, you have the opportunity to be invited to settle permanently in a Canadian province.

So if you want to immigrate to Canada and do not yet have a valid job offer, don’t panic! There are many options available to become a permanent resident do not include a job offer requirement