According to the agreement signed between the authorities of Canada and Manitoba, the province can play a more active role in selecting immigrants. In accordance with Canadian immigration law, the status of a nominee (a person needed by the province) gives an applicant for Canadian citizenship practically a "green light" when applying for entry to Canada under independent immigration. So for someone who has received provincial nominee status, the question of moving to Canada can be considered practically resolved.
The difference between this immigration process and the usual one is its two-stage nature. First, the applicant must submit an application to the immigration authorities of the province of Manitoba and obtain provincial nominee status. After that, they can submit documents to the Federal Immigration Service of Canada and be almost certain of a positive outcome.
As is known, the main criterion for selecting independent immigrants to Canada – whether under the federal or Quebec program – is occupation. The emergence of a separate program for the province of Manitoba gives chances to those who could never enter Canada under independent immigration through other programs. First of all, people without higher education but with skills in high demand on the Manitoba labor market.
To date, the immigration authorities of the province have developed two lists of occupations. The first is a priority list: an applicant with an occupation listed in this list immediately receives 15 points. The second list also gives good chances: here, an occupation can earn 10 points.
As experts note, these lists often include occupations that rarely appear in the federal and Quebec lists. And even if these occupations do appear in other lists, the applicant is unlikely to score the necessary number of points to qualify under the federal or Quebec program.
For immigrants planning to move to Canada under the Manitoba provincial program, there are a number of special requirements, which, as in the federal and Quebec programs, are reduced to a points-based assessment system. With one significant difference: an applicant seeking provincial nominee status in Manitoba needs to score only 55 points, not 70 as for the federal program. In addition, important selection criteria include the potential immigrant's language skills, age, work experience, and a number of other factors.
An interesting example is given by "Inostranets". A potential immigrant – a person with secondary technical education, a welder by profession, with good English skills. This is quite enough to become a nominee of the province of Manitoba. At the same time, to qualify under the federal program, one needs higher education and must meet a number of other requirements.
From all this, it follows that thanks to the immigration program of the province of Manitoba, the road to Canada remains open for a person with a trade but without a university degree. You just need to please Manitoba – the Canadian province once favored by settlers from Western Ukraine.
"Zagranitsa" No. 6, 1999.