What is the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP)?

AIP in one paragraph

The Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) is a permanent residence pathway for skilled workers and international graduates who have a job offer from a designated employer in one of the four Atlantic provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, or Newfoundland and Labrador. The job offer drives the whole pathway. No designated employer, no AIP application.

Who AIP is for

AIP has two candidate streams:

1. Skilled workers — foreign workers who hold a job offer from a designated Atlantic employer and meet the federal work experience requirement (typically 12 months of continuous full-time work in the last five years in a qualifying NOC code).
2. International graduates — graduates of a publicly funded post-secondary institution in an Atlantic province who completed a program of at least two years, lived in the province for at least 16 months during their studies, and hold a job offer from a designated employer.

How the pathway actually works

1. Identify a designated employer in one of the four provinces. The province's economic immigration office maintains the list.
2. Apply to jobs at those employers. Standard application process — resume, cover letter, interview.
3. Receive a job offer in a qualifying NOC code at the skill level required for your stream.
4. Get an endorsement from the province. The employer works with the provincial immigration office to submit an endorsement application on your behalf. You provide a settlement plan (where you'll live, how you'll integrate).
5. Apply for PR to IRCC using the endorsement certificate. Federal eligibility rules around language (CLB 5 for most NOC TEER 0-3 roles, CLB 4 for some TEER 4), education, and settlement funds apply.

What AIP is not

• Not a work permit program directly. AIP is a PR pathway. You may still need a separate work permit to start the job while your PR application is processing. AIP does have its own employer-specific LMIA-exempt work permit stream for approved candidates, which is faster than a standard LMIA.
• Not a way around the job offer requirement. Without a designated employer offer, there is no AIP.
• Not limited by provincial allocation in the way PNPs are. AIP is a federal program delivered in partnership with the four provinces; the caps are higher than a typical PNP stream.

The four Atlantic provinces, at a glance

• New Brunswick — strongest in healthcare, manufacturing, skilled trades, IT. Fredericton, Moncton, Saint John all have designated employer pools.
• Nova Scotia — Halifax dominates but AIP hiring runs across the province. Strong in healthcare, technology, financial services.
• Prince Edward Island — small province, smaller employer pool, but very engaged economic development office.
• Newfoundland and Labrador — strong in healthcare, marine industries, trades. St. John's is the main employer cluster.

Why applicants get stuck

The common failure mode is the same as with most employer-sponsored pathways: the candidate targets the right province but sends a generic resume that wasn't tailored to an Atlantic employer. Regional employers want to see:

• A Canadian-format resume with NOC code mapped to the role
• Clear willingness to relocate to the specific province — and stay
• Realistic settlement planning — housing, schools, family support
• Language credentials (IELTS, CELPIP) already in hand or scheduled

A resume that reads like it was written for Toronto or Vancouver will lose to one written for Halifax or Moncton, even if the skills match on paper.

What Job Scout does for AIP applicants

We identify designated employers across all four Atlantic provinces, tailor every resume to the specific role, and track which employers are actively hiring under the stream. Applicants work with us through the job-search portion of the pathway. We refer to a licensed immigration consultant for the PR application itself.

We do not provide immigration advice. For AIP-specific immigration filing, we refer to Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCIC) and immigration lawyers.

Related pathways worth comparing

• RCIP — similar structure, different communities (14 rural, including Pictou County in Nova Scotia)
• LMIA work permits — the alternative when no employer-specific pathway applies
• Provincial Nominee Programs — each Atlantic province also runs its own PNP stream, separate from AIP