Location of Atlantic Provinces

Who can apply?

To be eligible for the Atlantic Immigration Program, you must

  • have qualifying work experience, unless you’re an international graduate of a recognized post-secondary institution in Atlantic Canada
  • meet or exceed the educational requirements
  • meet or exceed the language requirements
  • show that you have enough money to support yourself and your family when you get to Canada
    • If you’re already living and working in Canada with a valid work permit, you don’t need to show proof.

In addition to meeting all of these requirements, you also need a job offer with a designated Atlantic employer.

Work experience

In the last 5 years, you must have worked at least 1,560 hours. This is the number of hours you would have worked in 1 year if you were working 30 hours per week.

To calculate your hours

  1. Count hours worked in part-time and full-time jobs.
  2. Count only paid hours of work. Volunteering or unpaid internships don’t count.
  3. Don’t count hours when you were self-employed.
  4. Count hours worked inside or outside Canada. You must have been legally authorized to work in Canada as a temporary resident.
  5. Count hours that were accumulated over a period of at least 12 months.
  6. Count work experience acquired while studying, as long as the work hours don’t exceed what was authorized.

This work should be at one of these National Occupational Classification (NOC) skill levels:

  • NOC Skill Type 0 (management jobs such as restaurant managers, mine managers)
  • NOC Skill Level A (professional jobs that usually need a degree from a university, such as doctors, dentists, architects)
  • NOC Skill Level B (technical jobs and skilled trades such as chefs, electricians, plumbers)
  • NOC Skill Level C (intermediate jobs that usually call for high school and/or job-specific training, such as industrial butchers, long-haul truck drivers, food and beverage servers)


Your work experience must include:

  • the actions in the description of your NOC
  • most of the main duties of your NOC

International graduates

You do not need to meet the work experience requirements if you’re an international graduate who

  • has a degree, diploma, certificate, or trade or apprenticeship certification that
  • was a full-time student for the entire time you were studying
  • lived in one of the following provinces for at least 16 months during the last 2 years before you graduated
    • New Brunswick
    • Nova Scotia
    • Newfoundland and Labrador or
    • Prince Edward Island
  • had the visa or permit you needed to work, study or get training while you were in Canada

Educational requirements

You must have one of these:

  • If you have a job offer at the NOC 0 or A skill type or level, you must have a Canadian one-year post-secondary educational credential or higher, or the equivalent outside Canada.
  • If you have a job offer at the NOC B or C skill level, you must have a Canadian high school diploma, or the equivalent outside Canada.

However, if you studied outside Canada, you need an educational credential assessment (ECA) to confirm that your studies are equal to or higher than the required level of education for your job offer.

  • Your ECA report must be less than 5 years old on the date we receive your application.

Language requirements

You must meet the minimum language requirements based on the NOC category that applies to your job offer. This can either be the

  • Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) or
  • Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens (NCLC)

The minimum language requirements for each NOC category are

  • CLB/NCLC 5 for NOC 0, A and B
  • CLB/NCLC 4 for NOC C

You must submit your results from a designated language testing organization with your application. These results must be less than 2 years old when you apply.

Settlement funds

You need to have enough money to support yourself and your family when you get to Canada. The amount you need depends on the size of your family. The size of your family also includes anyone you support who isn’t immigrating with you. updated annually.

How much money you should bring

It’s a good idea to research how much it costs to live in the place where you plan to settle in Canada.

Bring as much money as you can to make moving and finding a home in Canada easier. Note that Canadian customs regulations require you to declare if you’re bringing more than CAN$10,000 into Canada. If you don’t tell them, you may be fined, and your funds could be seized.

These funds could be in the form of

  • cash
  • documents that show property or capital payable to you (such as stocks, bonds, debentures, treasury bills)
  • documents that guarantee payment of a set amount of money, which are payable to you (such as bankers’ drafts, cheques, travellers’ cheques or money orders)

The job offer must meet all of these requirements:

  • The job offer must be full time.
  • The job offer must be non-seasonal. In general, this means you have consistent and regularly scheduled paid employment throughout the year.
  • For NOC 0, A or B skill type or level job offers, the employer must be offering you a job that will last at least 1 year (1 year from the time you become a permanent resident).
  • For NOC C skill level job offers, the employer must be offering you permanent employment, that is, there is no set end date.
  • The job offer cannot come from a company where you (the applicant) or your spouse is a majority owner.
  • The job offer must be at the same skill level as, or higher than, the work experience that qualified you for the job (refer to the table below), unless you’re an international graduate from a recognized post-secondary institution in Atlantic Canada.
    • For certain health care sector jobs, you don’t need to have a job offer at the same skill level as, or higher than, the qualifying work experience.
      • Work experience in NOC 3233 (practical nurses) and NOC 3012 (registered nurses) can be used as qualifying work experience if you have a job offer in NOC 3413 (nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates) or NOC 4412 (home health care workers).

    NOC level job offer and qualifying work experience requirement

    NOC level job offerWork experience requirement

    NOC 0

    NOC 0, A, B, C

    NOC A

    NOC A, B, C

    NOC B

    NOC B, C

    NOC C

    NOC C