Hire a permanent foreign worker

• A completed and signed Endorsement Application Form
• A completed and signed Offer of Employment to a Foreign National (IMM 0157)
• A signed offer letter or contract
• A completed settlement plan for the candidate and accompanying family members
• Proof of recruitment efforts

Who is eligible?

• Canadian employers
• Employers in Atlantic Canada that become designated by the provincial government
• Employers working with a province or territory to hire a provincial nominee
• New Brunswick employers designated by Immigration New Brunswick
• Nova Scotia employers submitting an expression of interest for designation and endorsement through the online system

Who is not eligible

• Businesses or agencies that recruit and hire workers to establish a pool of workers who can later be transferred or contracted to separate businesses for staffing purposes
• Employers that are in violation of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act or the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations
• In New Brunswick, home-based businesses and businesses located in residential homes may not be eligible for designation
• In Nova Scotia, companies operating from a residential address or with a telework arrangement may not be eligible for designation

Ineligible Costs and Activities

• In Nova Scotia, job offers with NOC 62020 – food service supervisors under the Atlantic Immigration Program are currently not eligible.

• In Nova Scotia, Atlantic Immigration Program employer expressions of interest are periodically selected for processing based on provincial priorities and program integrity considerations.
• In New Brunswick, endorsement applications are selected from the AIP candidate pool for processing based on provincial labour market needs, available allocation, and other priorities determined by the Government of New Brunswick.

• Have the foreign national register on the INB portal and create a candidate profile.
• Ask the candidate to start the Atlantic Immigration Program process in the portal and click Send approval request to employer.
• Log in to your employer account on the INB portal and go to the Applicant pool.
• Locate the candidate, verify the Applicant profile and Applicant information, then upload the required documents in the Checklist tab.
• Go to the Action tab and click Send ITA so the candidate can complete their portion.
• The candidate completes their portion and clicks Submit application; the application is not submitted until the candidate hits the red Submit application button.

• In Nova Scotia, designation submissions under the Atlantic Immigration Program are treated as expressions of interest and placed into an EOI pool.
• Effective May 1, 2026, Nova Scotia introduced a 12-month validity period for expressions of interest, with transition measures for EOIs already in the pool.
• In Nova Scotia, only submissions selected for processing receive direct communication; selection moves the submission to the next stage of processing and does not guarantee approval.
• In New Brunswick, endorsement applications are placed in the AIP candidate pool and remain valid for 365 days from the date of submission.
• In New Brunswick, applications that are not selected expire after 365 days, and the designated employer and candidate can submit a new endorsement application.

• Under the Atlantic Immigration Program, you can apply for designation even before you find a candidate, and you only have to apply once to be designated by a province.
• You don’t need a labour market impact assessment for Atlantic Immigration Program endorsement applications.
• Effective 1 November 2025 in Nova Scotia, employers with multiple locations need only one Employer Registration Certificate, but employers with multiple business names still need one ERC for each business that wants to employ foreign workers.
• As of March 25, 2025, job offer points were removed from the Comprehensive Ranking System for current and future candidates in the Express Entry pool, but valid job offers still matter where they are part of program eligibility.