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Newfoundland and Labrador issues 97 provincial nominee invitations on September 4, with no Atlantic Immigration Program candidates selected
Published Date: September 7, 2026

The September 4 round: all 97 invitations to NLPNP candidates

Newfoundland and Labrador's Office of Immigration and Multiculturalism (OIM) held its 13th draw of 2026 on September 4, selecting 97 candidates from its Expression of Interest pool and inviting them to submit a provincial nomination application. Candidates who secure a nomination can then apply to the federal government for Canadian permanent residence.

Every invitation in this round went to an NLPNP candidate, and no AIP candidate was selected. It is only the second time this has happened since the province adopted the EOI model in February 2025. The first was the draw of August 18, 2026, when the province likewise issued all 122 invitations to NLPNP candidates. All 13 rounds held in 2025, and every 2026 round before August 18, included AIP invitations. Immigration trade publications have noted that the province appears to have been alternating recently between rounds that invite only NLPNP candidates and rounds with a heavier AIP component, though the province has not explained the pattern.

It is worth noting that the OIM does not publish the specific NLPNP category invited candidates fall under, nor the sectors they work in, so there is no public basis on which to determine which occupations or industries this round targeted.

Newfoundland and Labrador's 2026 draws

The province held its first draw of 2026 on March 6 and has completed 13 rounds as of September 4. The invitation totals for each round are set out below, with the NLPNP and AIP breakdown in brackets:

  • March 6: 445 invitations (NLPNP 362, AIP 83)
  • March 30: 245 invitations (NLPNP 209, AIP 36)
  • April 13: 210 invitations (NLPNP 177, AIP 33)
  • May 1: 190 invitations (NLPNP 157, AIP 33)
  • May 11: 186 invitations (NLPNP 168, AIP 18)
  • May 28: 103 invitations (NLPNP 84, AIP 19)
  • June 10: 108 invitations (NLPNP 89, AIP 19)
  • July 10: 57 invitations (NLPNP 17, AIP 40)
  • July 28: 445 invitations (NLPNP 400, AIP 45)
  • August 10: 208 invitations (NLPNP 186, AIP 22)
  • August 18: 122 invitations (NLPNP 122, AIP 0)
  • August 26: 140 invitations (NLPNP 94, AIP 46)
  • September 4: 97 invitations (NLPNP 97, AIP 0)

The March 6 and July 28 rounds, at 445 invitations each, were the largest of the year, while the 57 invitations issued on July 10 made that the smallest. Since the second half of August, round sizes have settled back to around 100 invitations.

Year-to-date totals and how 2026 compares with 2025

As of September 4, 2026, Newfoundland and Labrador has issued 2,556 invitations across its two provincial immigration programs:

  • NLPNP: 2,162 invitations, or roughly 84.6% of the total
  • AIP: 394 invitations, or roughly 15.4% of the total

For comparison, the province held the same number of rounds in 2025 — 13, running from its first draw on April 3 to its last on November 12 — and issued 3,376 invitations in total, of which 2,473 went to NLPNP candidates and 903 to AIP candidates, giving the AIP a share of about 27%. In other words, after an identical number of rounds, the province's 2026 total is 820 invitations short of its full-year 2025 figure, and the AIP's weighting has fallen sharply. With almost four months left in the year, it remains to be seen whether the province will close 2026 with a large final round, as it did in November last year.

Allocation background: federal cuts and provincial negotiation

Changes in invitation volumes are closely tied to the nomination allocations the federal government hands each province. In early 2025, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) cut provincial nomination allocations across the country by half, and Newfoundland and Labrador's NLPNP allocation fell to 1,050 spaces, which together with 475 AIP spaces left the province with just 1,525 in total. On January 31, 2025, the province announced it had become the first in Canada to successfully negotiate 1,000 spaces back, restoring its allocation for the year to 2,525 (2,050 NLPNP and 475 AIP). In exchange, the province agreed to welcome 290 humanitarian migrants over two years.

For 2026, the federal government sharply raised the national Provincial Nominee Program target to 91,500 admissions in the 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan, up from 55,000 in 2025, and set the AIP's annual target at 4,000. Provinces that have published their 2026 allocations have generally received increases of about one third, but Newfoundland and Labrador has not yet formally announced its allocation for the year. Industry estimates place it somewhere between 2,000 and 2,525 spaces, and should be treated as estimates only.

New federal measure: BOWP before the Acknowledgement of Receipt

For nominees invited in this round and earlier rounds who intend to submit their permanent residence application from within Canada, one temporary federal measure carries real practical value. Under IRCC Operational Bulletin 699, issued on June 9, 2026, provincial nominees applying for permanent residence from inside Canada can apply for a Bridging Open Work Permit without having received an Acknowledgement of Receipt, from that date until December 31, 2026. Applicants need only provide the confirmation email generated when they submitted their application online, or proof that the application fee was paid, and officers may also verify the submission through IRCC's internal systems. Previously an AOR was a required document for a BOWP application, and because acknowledgements often take months to arrive, some nominees faced expiring work permits and a gap in their status.

The measure also applies to applicants for employer-specific work permits whose provincial nomination has expired while their permanent residence application remains in processing, as well as to eligible spousal open work permit applicants. Nominees applying from outside Canada are not covered by the exemption and must still provide an AOR.

How to get permanent residence through the NLPNP

Foreign nationals who want to immigrate through the NLPNP must first submit an Expression of Interest through the province's Immigration Accelerator Portal. The EOI asks candidates to provide the following:

  • Educational background
  • Work experience
  • Language ability
  • Plans to settle in the province

All worker categories require candidates to hold a job offer from an employer in the province. The OIM reviews the candidates in the EOI pool on a regular basis and selects from them according to its current immigration priorities. Factors that may attract priority consideration include:

  • Employment in the healthcare sector
  • Employment outside major urban centres
  • French-language ability
  • Graduation from a post-secondary institution in Newfoundland and Labrador

The full list of factors the province may consider is available on the OIM's official website. The province does not publish a quantified points grid, and selection outcomes rest on the OIM's overall assessment against those priorities.

Invited candidates have 60 days to submit a complete provincial nomination application. Those who are approved receive a provincial nomination certificate, which they can use to apply to the federal government for permanent residence; if the federal application is approved, the applicant receives a Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR). Candidates nominated through an Express Entry-aligned category also receive an additional 600 points in the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS).

An EOI remains valid for 12 months. Candidates who are not invited within that period must resubmit their profile in order to remain in consideration for future draws.

Federal processing times

According to the most recent figures as of September 4, federal processing times for provincial nominee permanent residence applications were as follows:

  • Base PNP (non-Express Entry): 13 months
  • Enhanced PNP (Express Entry): 7 months

Base PNP processing has fluctuated between 12 and 14 months throughout 2026, above IRCC's 11-month service standard, while enhanced PNP processing has held steady at 6 to 7 months. Because most Newfoundland and Labrador nominees fall into the base category and are already living in the province, those longer waits are precisely why the temporary BOWP measure matters so much to them.

Provincial context: population pressure and immigration demand

Figures published by Newfoundland and Labrador's Department of Finance put the province's population at 547,910 as of April 1, 2026, down 647 from the start of the year. In the first quarter of 2026 the province recorded 865 births and 1,806 deaths, a natural decrease of 941 people — the largest quarterly decline since consistent records began in 1949. Net international migration over the same period added just 101 people, as a net gain of 1,397 permanent immigrants was almost entirely offset by a net outflow of 1,267 non-permanent residents. Against that backdrop, immigration is effectively the province's only source of population growth, which helps explain why it continues to steer its draws toward healthcare, employment outside urban centres and locally educated graduates.

When it launched the EOI model in February 2025, the province said the two-step process would allow it to allocate its immigration spaces more strategically across the year, with a focus on sectors such as healthcare and education. The NLPNP categories the province currently lists officially are Express Entry Skilled Worker, Skilled Worker, International Graduate, International Entrepreneur and International Graduate Entrepreneur.

Friendly reminder: There are many pathways to immigrate to Canada. We recommend first using UNA AI to generate an objective and neutral immigration plan, so you can gain an initial understanding of the possible immigration pathways and their requirements, and then choose to proceed with one-on-one consultations with a licensed Canadian immigration consultant partnered with UNA.
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