1. Express Entry

Express Entry remains the foremost way to move to Canada in 2024.

The flagship selection system is used to control applications for the main federal programs: Federal Skilled Worker, Canadian Experience Class and Federal Skilled Trades.

Canada plans to welcome 110,770 Federal High Skilled immigrants in 2024, up from 83,000 in 2023, according to the latest Immigration Levels Plan, rising to 117,500 in 2025 and 2026.

Occupation-specific draws were introduced in 2023 and are set to expanded on in 2024. Healthcare, STEM, Trades, Transport, and Farming and Food – plus French-speakers – were all the subject of targeted draws in 2023.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has the power to add or remove categories in 2024, but is it most likely to push ahead with more of the same having identified the areas with the biggest shortages.

This could mean that all-program draws take more of a back seat, as officials prefer to be more targeted with who they are inviting.

The one certainty is that, with such a high target to hit, the record for the number of invitations in a calendar year should be broken this year.

2. Provincial Nominee Program

The combined force of Canada’s Provincial Nominee Programs will see them welcome nearly as many newcomers as the Federal High Skilled class in 2024.

Canada plans to welcome more than 110,000 newcomers through the nine provincial (and two territorial) immigration programs. Quebec is considered separate from this.

From British Columbia in the west, through the prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, to Ontario and the Atlantic Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador and Prince Edward Island, there are thousands of spots for Canada immigration in 2024.

Parts of the PNP also feed into Express Entry, meaning each of the provincial programs mentioned above have specific streams for the federally-operated selection system.

The provinces are geared up to select immigrants specific to their economic needs. Candidates should consult target occupation lists and streams, because provincial and federal priorities differ.

They are also more nimble and subject to change than the federal programs, able to identify shortages or categories of immigrant that they need to prosper in their individua economies.

3. Quebec

Quebec is in a category of its own as it has full control over its economic immigration intake.

Much has been made of the powerful Quebec provincial government’s push to ensure all immigrants welcomed to the province are francophone.

Francois Legault, leader of the Coalition Avenir Quebec, believes the French language is central to preserving Quebec’s culture and is focused on limiting newcomers to the province to around 50,000 in total, 33,000 of them through economic programs.

It remains to be seen how Legault’s policy of continuing to limit immigration plays out, with the province in the grip of a chronic labour shortage.

Can Quebec attract enough French-speaking newcomers to allow the provincial economy to thrive? With temporary workers to the province also expected to learn French, it means Quebec is no longer an option for many.

The Quebec Immigrant Investor Program also relaunched with a new set of requirements on January 1. The revamped requirements include a beefed up language requirement, a mandatory residency requirement, and a temporary work permit requirement.

4. Employer-Driven Pilot Programs

Canada also operates a number of employer-driven pilot programs targeting specific areas of the economy or regions with chronic labour shortages.

At the forefront of these is the Atlantic Immigration Program, which started life as a pilot but has since been made permanent.

Covering the four Atlantic provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador and Prince Edward Island, the AIP has an allocation of 6,500 spaces for skilled worker and international graduate immigrants in 2024.

A further 10,875 newcomers are to be welcomed through the other streams: the Agri-Food Pilot, the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot and the Economic Mobility Pathways Project, as well as the caregiver programs, covered separately below.

All of these programs are employer-driven, meaning they cannot be applied to directly. An employer identifies a need, finds an immigrant to fulfil that need and uses the program to bring that candidate to Canada.

5. Caregiver Pilots

Canada’s two caregiver programs to apply for permanent residency reopened on January 1: the Home Child Care Provider Pilot and the Home Support Worker Pilot. The annual quota is 5,500.

Immigration through the stream in 2024 falls under the target of 10,875 newcomers mentioned above for pilot programs.