What this category is
This is the province's enhanced route, meaning it runs through the federal Express Entry system. It is the only worker category here with a published points grid, and the only one where a number can make you ineligible however good the rest of the file is.
You cannot apply to this category directly
Every economic route the province administers runs through one expression of interest pool. You register an expression of interest, and the province may then invite you to apply. An expression of interest without a job offer identified in it will not be considered for an invitation. An employer invite code is needed as well by anyone who requires a job vacancy assessment space, meaning anyone without existing authorisation to work for that employer in that position, and by every Atlantic Immigration Program applicant, without which the expression of interest is not reviewed at all. Being inside Canada does not by itself remove that requirement.
Selection from the pool is discretionary and unscored. The province publishes nine prioritization criteria and states that they guide decisions without guaranteeing an invitation.
- You must already be in the federal pool. Accepted into federal Express Entry with a valid profile. No valid profile means no eligibility, and the profile has to stay valid from the point you apply to the province until you are nominated.
- Sixty seven points of a possible hundred. On the Annex A point assessment grid, as a condition of nomination rather than a ranking. The grid is a PDF linked from the criteria policy the province dates to April 2025.
- The province sets no language minimum of its own. It defers to the federal program you qualify under. The grid, separately, awards nothing below CLB 5, so a result that satisfies the federal minimum can still leave you short of 67.
- A post graduation work permit is fine here. Which is not true of the Skilled Worker category, where a permit holder is excluded outright.
- You document everything you declared federally. The province requires documentation for all work experience declared in the federal pool, so a federal profile that was optimistic becomes a provincial problem.
Every worker category here also carries the conditions the three share. The job offer must be full time, guarantee a minimum of thirty hours a week, run at least one year with a reasonable expectation of extension as verified by the employer, come from an eligible provincial employer, and be paid as a salary or an hourly wage rather than commission, meeting provincial employment standards and regional prevailing wage rates. You must be aged 21 to 59, hold no more than a ten per cent stake in the employing business, satisfy a qualitative settlement funds test with no published dollar figure, and intend to settle in the province. If you previously resided in another province or territory you must show twelve consecutive months of full time employment here before nomination, subject to two exemptions. A criminal record, an unresolved custody or child support dispute, and misrepresentation by you or your employer are each a bar, and police certificates are required from everywhere you have lived for more than six months since the age of eighteen or over the last ten years, whichever is more recent. The shared conditions are set out on the province overview.
What the category requires
| Requirement | What the province asks for |
|---|---|
| Federal profile | Acceptance into the federal Express Entry pool and a valid profile maintained until nomination. |
| Job offer | Full time, at least thirty hours a week, at TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3, at least one year in duration with a reasonable expectation of extension as verified by the employer, paid as salary or wages rather than commission. |
| Employer | A valid job vacancy assessment or labour market impact assessment, unless you already hold a valid work permit or other federal authorisation to work full time in the identified position. |
| Education | A Canadian post secondary degree or diploma, or a valid educational credential assessment. The province states no age limit for the assessment in this category, where it does state a five year limit in the entrepreneur categories. Do not read that silence as permission to rely on an old assessment, because this category runs through federal Express Entry, where an assessment must be less than five years old when the federal application is made. The province may accept what the federal system will not. |
| Language | A valid English or French test, at the minimum set by the federal program you qualify under rather than by the province, and valid for the whole of the provincial process and the federal application. The province accepts IELTS General, PTE Core, CELPIP General, TEF Canada and TCF Canada. |
| Points | At least 67 of 100 on the Annex A point assessment grid. |
| Authorisation to work | The province lists a valid work permit or authorisation to work in Canada among the requirements for this category, separately from what it asks of your employer. |
| Status | If you are living in Canada, a permit with at least four months remaining. |
| Work experience | Documentation for all work experience declared in your federal profile. |
| Fee | No provincial application fee, and no fee to register an expression of interest. |
The grid is reproduced in the calculator below, factor by factor and band by band.
The province's own grid contains an arithmetic contradiction, and the resolution matters. The experience factor is headed as a maximum of 20 points, while the narrative beside it says up to 15, and the two bands add to 22. The published total of 100 only reconciles if the factor is capped at 20, which is what the heading says, so that is what the calculator applies. We would confirm the point with the province on any file where it decided the outcome.
Estimate your Annex A score
The province's published grid for this category, reproduced band by band. It tells you whether you clear the 67 point condition. It does not tell you whether you will be invited, because the province does not rank its pool.
Your situation
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