Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP)

Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP) is an economic Canadian immigration program that facilitates people becoming permanent residents of Alberta, Canada. To be eligible for this program, the applicants must be capacitated to fill the skilled job vacancies in the province or be financially fit to start or take over a business in Alberta.

This program is driven by the provincial government of Alberta and the government of Canada. IRCC manages the selection process for permanent residence while the discretion of the federal government stands final.

Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP) Offers Separate Streams for Workers and Entrepreneurs

There are 3 streams for foreign workers who aspire to live and work in Alberta.

Alberta Opportunity Stream

This stream is for candidates living and working in Alberta with a legitimate job offer from an Alberta employer. You are open to applying if you have a full-time job offer in order to continue working in Alberta.

The Alberta Opportunity Stream follows certain criteria to understand if you are eligible to apply concerning the following points:

• You should be already working in Alberta as a full-time employee with a legit work permit.
• Your work in Canada should be relevant to your previous work experience or your post-secondary education.
• You should have completed the equivalent of an Alberta High School Education as displayed by the Educational Credential Assessment.
• If you’re a PGWP holder, you should require a credential from a publicly-funded post-secondary institution in Alberta.
• Your language skills should be proficient in either English or French.

You are not eligible to apply under Alberta Opportunity Stream if:

• You are self-employed.
• You hold a spouse visa or an open work permit as a spouse of a student in Canada.

Alberta Express Entry Stream

The Alberta Express Entry stream is for applicants who have an avid Express Entry profile in the Federal Express Entry that connects to Alberta. AAIP invites candidates with Express Entry profiles to apply for Canada PR nomination.

There are two types of criteria the Alberta Express Entry stream follows such as the General Express Entry criteria and the Accelerated Tech Pathway criteria. To add on, if you’re a tech worker, you can speed up your process through the Accelerated Tech Pathway.

General Express Entry Criteria:

• You’re open to applying if you have a valid express entry with a 300 CRS score or above.
• You can also apply if you have connections such as previous work experience in Alberta or if you have a close relative in Alberta.

There are also cases where you can’t apply if:

• The validity of your Express Entry profile expires within 5 months.
• You are self-employed, seasonally employed, or you have limited economic value of occupation.

Accelerated Tech Pathway Criteria:

• You should be a full-time employee in Alberta working at least 30 hours a week.
• Your primary occupation should be the same as your present employment in Alberta.
• You should have a valid score of 300 CRS or above.

You will not be invited to apply if:

• The validity of your Express Entry profile expires within 5 months.
• You submit the AAIP application.

Rural Renewal Stream

The Rural Renewal stream focuses on labor demands and developing skill shortages in rural Alberta communities. This stream is applicable to candidates who are looking to work in a designated rural area in Alberta. It is a crowdsourced stream and will be in need of communities to apply for Alberta’s Government for community designation.

Rural Renewal Stream is just simple and contains a 2-step process:

• First is the community designation process. This process is done when a community recruits newbies to meet labor requirements and provides an Endorsement of a Candidate letter.
• The second process is when the candidate submits the AAIP application.

The eligibility requirements for Rural Renewal Stream are as follows:

• You should receive the Endorsement of Candidate letter from your delegated community.
• Your time period of employment should be at least 12 months and more.
• You should be able to live and work in the community delegated to you in Alberta.
• Your job offer should be full-time based on an Alberta employer from your designated community.
• Your work experience should at least be a minimum of 12 months. This applies to having work experience in Alberta or anywhere abroad.
• You should have pursued a high school education corresponding to the Canadian education standard.
• You must have good language proficiency. That is, CLB 5 for NOC TEER 0. 1. 2 or 3 and CLB 4 for NOC TEER 4 or 5.

Likewise, If you’re an entrepreneur finding ways to do business in Canada There are 4 streams that support entrepreneurship.

Rural Entrepreneur Stream

According to AAIP, Rural Alberta communities are defined as a population of 10,000 people or less. These communities should be situated outside of the Calgary and Edmonton Census Metropolitan areas.

If you’re interested in a particular rural Alberta community, you can contact the designated person of that community and go on an exploratory visit to discuss their business proposal. The exploratory visit depends on the process of each community.

Each community only picks potential entrepreneurs whom they feel suits best and schedules an exploratory visit. Are you planning to start a business or take charge of an existing business in the rural Alberta community? Submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to get nominated.

If you’re applying through this stream, you will require a community support letter from a participating rural Alberta community. The Rural Entrepreneur stream follows certain criteria listed out for you.

• Your work experience should contain a minimum of 3 years experience as an owner or a manager of an active business.
• You should have a high school education corresponding to the Canadian standard with an Education Credential Assessment (ECA).
• You should have a good language proficiency with CLB level 4 for each English language skill.
• Your minimum net worth should be CAD 300,000, and your minimum investment should be CAD 100,000 from your own or your partner’s equity.

Graduate Entrepreneur Stream

The graduate entrepreneur stream is exclusively for international graduates of designated Alberta post-secondary institutions who aspire to venture into a business or plan to establish any business that would provide employment in Alberta for the people of Canada. Your business application has to be approved before you establish a proposed business.

The eligibility criteria for the Graduate Entrepreneur stream are:

• You should be between 21-49 years old.
• You will require a valid post-graduate work permit during your Expression of Interest.
• You should reside in Alberta and operate the day-to-day tasks of the business.
• Your business partners should be Canadians or permanent residents of Canada.
• Your language proficiency should have a CLB 7 minimum on each language skill.
• Your education should include a degree or a diploma from a publicly-funded post-secondary institution in Alberta.

Farm Stream

Farmers with proven experience planning to start a farm or buy one in Alberta can apply for a PR through this stream. In order to get through Farm Stream, you should submit your application with your business plan to the AAIP for evaluation.

The AAIP will confer with Alberta Agriculture, Forestry, and Rural Economic Development if the business proposed by you is workable or achievable and meets the requirements of Alberta’s agricultural industry. To apply through this stream,

• You should possess land management skills.
• You should invest a CDN of a minimum of CAD 500.000 of equity in a primary production farming business in Alberta.

Foreign Graduate Entrepreneur Stream

Foreign graduates (outside Canada) who aspire to launch start-up enterprises and businesses with potential employment opportunities in Alberta can apply for Permanent Residence through this stream. But to make this work, you must have worked with an approved designated agency and received a letter of recommendation, and submit it along with the AAIP application.

The Foreign Graduate Entrepreneur stream contains the following criteria:

• You must have completed a degree from a post-secondary institution outside Canada within the time period of 10 years.
• Your language proficiency should at least contain a minimum of CLB 5 on all language skills.
  You must be eligible for a work permit.
• You should be financially sufficient to launch a business, support your family and also acquire a secured additional investment after your start-up.
• You should reside in Alberta, have a physical place for business, and operate on a daily basis.
• Your business should be relevant to a specific sector such as agriculture, tourism, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, technology, etc.
• Your business should contribute to Alberta’s economic progress inclusive of the location, job innovation, amount of investment, and business sector.
• Your job experience in this particular field should have been full-time with a minimum time period of 6 months before your Expression of Interest. This experience would also involve taking ownership of the business or managing a proactive business.