Recently, the Canadian province of Nova Scotia announced that from 17 April 2024, the Nova Scotia Provincial Nominee Program will suspend the receipt of applicants in the accommodation and food service occupations. The move is due to the fact that the province has recently received a large number of immigrant applications in these occupations and is at capacity. In order to deal with the backlog of these applications, the government has decided to suspend applications in these industries, and there is no certainty as to when they will resume.

The Accommodation and Food Services sector, which includes hotels, motels, casino hotels, motorhomes (RVs) and recreational camps, is directly impacted by the Skilled Worker category of the Nova Scotia Provincial Nominee Program (NSNP), the Nova Scotia Experience : Express Entry experience category, and the Occupations in Short Supply category, which means that they will no longer accept applicants from these occupations. This means that these programmes will no longer accept applicants in the relevant occupations.

In addition, the Nova Scotia Provincial Nominee (NSNP) has reduced the number of occupations designated as in short supply from seven to five, including two food and beverage related occupations. After the suspension of the AOS Opportunity Class Immigration Project, many applicants from the accommodation and catering industry flocked to Nova Scotia, because the threshold of the provincial nomination project is usually lower, only requiring one year of relevant work experience and obtaining an employer's offer to immigrate, without the need to be invited and without scoring.

Let's talk about two NS provincial nominee programs that have low thresholds and are suitable for the general public: the NSNP Skilled Worker category and the NSNP EE Experience category.