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Newfoundland and Labrador issues just 36 provincial nomination invitations on September 10, the smallest round of the year
Published Date: September 14, 2026

This round: all 36 invitations went to NLPNP candidates

The Newfoundland and Labrador OIM held its 14th draw of 2026 on September 10, selecting 36 candidates from the Expression of Interest pool and inviting them to submit a provincial nomination application. Candidates who receive a provincial nomination may then apply to the federal government for Canadian permanent residence.

All 36 invitations in this round went to NLPNP candidates, with AIP candidates once again receiving none. It is the third time the province has issued zero AIP invitations since it moved to the EOI model in February 2025; the previous two occasions were August 18 (122 NLPNP invitations) and September 4 (97 NLPNP invitations). Every one of the 13 rounds held in 2025, and every 2026 round before August 18, included AIP invitations. The three recent rounds without AIP invitations have all fallen within less than a month, and AIP candidates were last invited on August 26, when 46 invitations were issued.

At 36 invitations, the round is down 61 from the 97 issued on September 4, a decline of roughly 63 per cent, and sets a new low for the year. The previous smallest round of 2026 was July 10, with 57 invitations (17 NLPNP and 40 AIP). It is worth noting that the OIM does not publish the specific NLPNP categories that invited candidates fall under, nor the industries they work in, so it is not possible to determine from the public data which occupational fields this round targeted.

Invited candidates have 60 days to submit a complete provincial nomination application.

All 2026 draws to date

The province held its first draw of 2026 on March 6 and has completed 14 rounds as of September 10. Invitation totals for each round are listed below, with the NLPNP and AIP breakdown in parentheses:

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

The trend is clear. March 6 and July 28 were the two largest rounds of the year, each with 445 invitations. From August onward, the province increased the frequency of its draws to roughly one per week, but round sizes fell steadily — from 208 to 140, then to 97, and now to 36.

Year-to-date totals and the comparison with 2025

As of September 10, 2026, Newfoundland and Labrador has issued 2,592 invitations through its two provincial immigration programs, broken down as follows:

  • NLPNP: 2,198 invitations, or roughly 84.8 per cent
  • AIP: 394 invitations, or roughly 15.2 per cent

By contrast, the province held 13 rounds in 2025, from its first draw on April 3 to its last on November 12, issuing 3,376 invitations in total — 2,473 through the NLPNP and 903 through the AIP, with the AIP accounting for roughly 27 per cent. In other words, 2026 has already seen one more draw than all of last year, yet the cumulative invitation total is 784 lower. The average round size has also fallen, from roughly 260 invitations last year to roughly 185 this year, while the AIP's share has dropped markedly.

Allocation background: the 2026 quota has yet to be published

Changes in the volume of provincial nomination invitations are directly tied to the nomination allocations the federal government assigns to each province. In early 2025, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) cut provincial nomination allocations across the country in half, and Newfoundland and Labrador's NLPNP allocation fell to 1,050, 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 to successfully negotiate with the federal government to recover 1,000 spaces, restoring its allocation for the year to 2,525. In exchange, the province agreed to accept 290 humanitarian immigrants over two years.

For 2026, the federal government raised the national Provincial Nominee Program target sharply in the 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan, from 55,000 in 2025 to 91,500, 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 still not formally announced its allocation for the year and does not disclose how many spaces remain. Estimates circulating in industry media put the figure at around 2,000, though this should be treated as an approximation only. Some immigration industry media have suggested that the province's recent pattern — a steady draw cadence paired with continually shrinking round sizes — is consistent with a program working through a limited number of remaining spaces. The province has offered no explanation of its own.

Separately, the provincial government launched a public consultation on May 15, 2026, examining stronger protections for foreign workers and considering amendments to the legislative and regulatory framework governing the NLPNP and the AIP. In January of this year, the province also released an audit of the NLPNP. Taken together, these steps suggest the province is reviewing its provincial immigration programs at an institutional level.

Federal temporary measure: a bridging work permit before acknowledgement of receipt

For candidates invited in this round and earlier rounds who will apply for permanent residence from within Canada, one federal temporary measure carries real practical weight. Under IRCC Operational Bulletin 699, issued on June 9, 2026, provincial nominees who submit a permanent residence application from inside Canada may apply for a Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP) without having received an Acknowledgement of Receipt (AOR), from that date until December 31, 2026. Applicants need only provide the confirmation email for their online submission together with proof of payment, and IRCC officers can also verify through internal systems that an application has been submitted. Previously, an AOR was a mandatory document for a BOWP application, and acknowledgement of receipt often took several months — leaving some provincial nominees at risk of their work permit expiring and their status lapsing.

Under the general rules of the immigration regulations, BOWP applicants who remain in Canada and whose existing work permit expires while their application is being processed may continue working lawfully on maintained status. The measure applies equally to employer-specific work permit applicants whose provincial nomination has expired but whose permanent residence application is still in processing, as well as to eligible spousal open work permit applicants. Provincial nominees who apply from outside Canada are not covered by the exemption and must still provide an AOR.

How to apply for permanent residence through the NLPNP

Foreign nationals hoping to immigrate through the NLPNP must first submit an Expression of Interest through the province's Immigration Accelerator Portal. The EOI requires applicants to provide the following:

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

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

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

Additional factors the province may consider are set out on the OIM's official "Expression of Interest Model (EOI) Prioritization Criteria" page. The province does not publish a quantified points grid; selection outcomes depend on the OIM's overall assessment against the priorities above.

Once a provincial nomination application is approved, candidates can use it to apply to the federal government for permanent residence. If the federal application is approved, the applicant receives a Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR). Applicants nominated through an Express Entry category also receive 600 additional points in the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS).

An EOI is valid for 12 months. Candidates who are not invited within that window must resubmit their profile in order to be considered in subsequent draws.

Federal processing times

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

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

Base PNP processing times have fluctuated between 12 and 14 months through 2026, above IRCC's 11-month service standard, while enhanced PNP processing has held steady at six to seven months. Because most of Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial nominees fall under the base category and are already living in the province, these longer waits are precisely why the temporary BOWP measure matters so much to them.

Provincial context: immigration demand under demographic pressure

Figures from Newfoundland and Labrador's Department of Finance put the province's population at 547,910 as of April 1, 2026, a decrease of 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 continuous record-keeping began in 1949. Net international migration over the same period was just 101, consisting of a net gain of 1,397 permanent immigrants 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 prioritize the healthcare sector, employment outside urban centres, and local graduates in its draws. The NLPNP categories currently listed by the province 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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