RNIP recommendation timeline extended in North Okanagan

Feb 16, 2024 | 3:16 PM

People looking to move to the North Okanagan from other countries will have more time to apply.

Community Futures North Okanagan has been granted an extension to its recommendation process for the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP).

Ward Mercer, program coordinator for RNIP with Community Futures, said the federal pilot program is set to end on August 31, 2024, as previously planned, but the deadline for issuing recommendations has been extended.

“The federal government was going to give us until the end of February 2024 to issue recommendations to candidates, and any recommendations issued after [that date] would not be valid. We would lose our authority as of the 29th of February,” Mercer told Vernon Matters.

“What they’ve done is they’ve actually extended our ability to issue the recommendations, but have not extended the pilot, so what that means is they’ve given us to the end of July to issue more recommendations.”

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The recommendations are part of the process immigrants and newcomers need as part of RNIP in order to settle into a location involved in the program, such as the North Okanagan Shuswap.

“A recommendation is very similar to the nomination through the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). So what happens is they apply to us, they have to meet all of our criteria, the federal government’s criteria and one of those overarching goals is retention: do they intend to stay in the community, do they fit in the community, do they bring economic value to the community?” Mercer explained.

“If they do [meet the criteria], or the committee believes that they do, then they’ll issue a recommendation for that candidate, and then they’ll use that recommendation to apply for permanent residence, and they can also use it to apply for a work permit if necessary to basically come to the country sooner or to maintain their status while they wait for their permanent residence.”

Both the community criteria and federal eligibility requirements must be met in order to apply.

“If someone is eligible — normally if they make a wage of at least $23 per hour and they meet all requirements — they can apply from anywhere in the world. So if they’ve been in Vernon for one day or they’ve never been here before, they can apply through that program,” Mercer said.

“If their wage is between $18 and $22.99, then they have to be eligible for the wage exemption, which means they have to have resided in the community for six months and obviously make a wage of between $18 and $22.99, and then they can apply.”

Mercer noted the candidates who received recommendations through RNIP have a six-month window to complete all the other necessary applications, and though this extension may mean some newcomers only have one month to complete all the other work, that hasn’t been an issue in the past.

“In the grand scheme of things, a little bit less time to apply for permanent residence, every one of these people we’ll recommend will be fine with that because most of them apply for permanent residence within the first month anyways,” Mercer explained.

“People are desperate for permanent residence and they want it so bad that, in the grand scheme of things, if they just have to do it quickly, then they’re okay with that. They just want the opportunity, and this extension of the recommendation window gives us the ability to offer that to them.”

Mercer stated Marc Miller, the federal minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizens, had previously touted RNIP and indicated it could be established as a permanent program, though the local RNIP coordinator said he was not sure if it would look exactly the same if adopted as a long-term program.

In any case, Mercer said the program had run well since its launch in 2020 and hoped it would be continued in the future.

by Liam Verster

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