New Citizenship Opportunities for International Graduate Students

A recently announced change to the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) has important implications for international graduate students at the U of S. The addition of a new immigration stream will allow international students to apply for Canadian landed immigration status more readily than in the past.

The Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) allows the government of Saskatchewan to nominate applicants for Canadian landed immigrant status, thus expediting their application, and easing the process. Until now there was only one nomination stream, the Post-Graduation Work Permit Stream. Only students who had graduated, show a minimum of 960 hours of work in Saskatchewan and had an offer of full-time work from a Saskatchewan employer were eligible.

Under a new stream - the Master’s and PhD Graduate Stream - students who have graduated within the last two years, are eligible to apply for Canadian landed immigrant status if they have worked for six-months in a job related to their field — such as a teaching assistant or a research assistant — or have received a job-offer for employment with a term longer than six-months. Married students with a spouse who has permanent full-time employment are also eligible.

Full details are available at the Government of Saskatchewan website at: http://www.saskimmigrationcanada.ca/student.