The Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP), formerly known as the Alberta Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), will not witness an increase in its annual nomination quota for the year 2024.
Alberta has asked to raise its immigration limit to 20,000 people. However, the federal government informed the provincial officials last week that Alberta would only receive 9,750 provincial nominations for the year 2024, the same as in 2023, despite Alberta’s hope for more due to its significant job growth and population increase.
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The allocation of provincial immigration nominations for all provinces is determined by the federal government, specifically through Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
The government immigration levels plan for 2024 has set aside 110,000 spots for all provinces’ nominee programs in 2024, marking a notable increase of 4,500 from 2023.
This is a slight increase from 2023, but not enough for Alberta, which has seen rapid growth and has a big role in Canada’s job market. Alberta had anticipated a proportional increase to 10,140 in 2024 and 10,849 in 2025.
As of February 2024, Alberta, with slightly under 12% of Canada’s population, leads the nation in net employment growth, accounting for 42.8% of total employment gains between January and February 2024.
Due to limited nomination allocations, the province temporarily paused new applications to its “Opportunity Stream” in February 2024.
Premier Danielle Smith’s Letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Due to a huge increase in Alberta’s population, which hasn’t happened in 40 years, the Provincial Nominee Program or AAIP is the best way to meet the province’s specific immigration and economic targets.
Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, 2022. This caused a lot of people from Ukraine to leave their homes and move to Alberta, a province in Canada. This has made Alberta’s population grow a lot.
While it’s anticipated that many will return to Ukraine after the conflict ends, Alberta also anticipates many families seeking permanent residency under the AAIP.
In response to the limited number of allocations for the provincial nominee program (AAIP) in 2024, Danielle Smith, Alberta’s Premier, wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, asking for more immigration spots. She argued that more spots would help Alberta’s economy and make it easier for Ukrainian newcomers to find jobs.
The Premier advocates for an increase in the annual immigration quota to 20,000 for the year 2024.
Failure to meet Alberta’s requested increase in provincial nominee allocations restricts the province’s ability to address the growing demands of the labor market, especially concerning the integration of Ukrainian evacuees into the provincial workforce.
Various Immigration Streams Offered by Alberta:
- Alberta Express Entry Stream
- Accelerated Tech Pathway for Express Entry
- Alberta Opportunity Stream (Currently on hold)
- Religious Workers Eligibility program
- Rural Renewal Stream
- Rural Entrepreneur Stream
- Foreign Graduate Entrepreneur Stream
- Graduate Entrepreneur Stream
High Number of Applications
Alberta Immigration is currently grappling with a significant backlog of applications, with 7,700 nomination applications awaiting processing.
Alberta’s AAIP Permanent Residency Nominations in 2023
In 2023, Alberta gave out more nominations for permanent residency than the government allocated them under AAIP. They were supposed to give out 9,750 nominations but ended up giving out 10,029.
| Stream / Pathway | Nomination certificates issued |
| Non-Express Entry Streams – Allocations 5,850 | |
| Alberta Opportunity Stream | 4,971 |
| Rural Renewal Stream | 875 |
| All (4) Entrepreneur streams | 4 |
| Express Entry Stream and Pathways – Allocations 4,179 | |
| Family Connection and Occupation in Demand | 1,220 |
| Accelerated Tech Pathway | 1,996 |
| Dedicated Healthcare Pathway | 122 |
| Sector Priorities (that is, construction, agriculture, hospitality and tourism) | 805 |
| General (applications received prior to 2023) | 36 |
| Total nomination certificates: | 10,029 |
