The province's own route to settling in Manitoba for good is the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (MPNP). Manitoba cannot make you a permanent resident (PR, someone allowed to live in Canada permanently). Instead, it selects people and nominates them, which means recommending them to the federal government for PR. You then apply for PR to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the federal immigration department, which decides: to get a permanent resident visa you must meet IRCC's requirements as well as the MPNP's.

Manitoba says it chooses people on their potential to become economically established: likely to be employable, to support themselves and their families, and to contribute to the province's economy over the long term. Its skilled worker and international education streams also look for ties to the province, and its Skilled Worker Overseas pathway does not accept anyone without a connection to Manitoba, whatever their points total.

How the MPNP picks people

For the Skilled Worker and International Education streams, you start with an Expression of Interest (EOI). The province calls it "not an application, but an online profile": you answer questions online, earn ranking points for your answers and join a pool of eligible candidates. A profile stays valid for one year from the day you submit it, and you can have only one active EOI at a time. The Business Investor Stream has a separate EOI process.

Points come from six factors: language, age, work experience, education, adaptability and risk. Language points are based on your Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) level in each of reading, writing, listening and speaking, worked out from your English or French test results; the language score converter shows which level a test result matches. Adaptability points depend on your connection to Manitoba. A close relative in the province is worth 200 points, and an Invitation to Apply under a strategic recruitment initiative is worth 500. Risk only ever takes points away. The section for readers already in Canada sets out how the ranking treats work in Manitoba and work or study in another province.

The MPNP regularly draws the highest-scoring candidates from the pool and sends them a Letter of Advice to Apply (LAA), an invitation to submit a full application. The province says the number of LAAs in each draw depends on its annual processing targets and capacities, and that it may leave out occupations with a high volume of submissions. It also warns that an LAA can land in a spam or junk folder.

An LAA does not promise PR. The skilled worker FAQ says you must meet every requirement of your stream, and IRCC's, to get a permanent resident visa. Our guide to provincial nominee programs explains how a nomination differs from PR.

For an enhanced nomination, the kind linked to Express Entry (the federal online system that ranks skilled workers for PR), the pre-application FAQ says to create your Express Entry profile first and enter its profile number and Job Seeker Code in your EOI; our Express Entry guide explains that system.

What does a connection to Manitoba actually mean?

The Skilled Worker Overseas rules accept three kinds of connection.

Manitoba Support is a close relative, or a friend or distant relative, living in Manitoba who will review and endorse your plan for settling and finding work. Among other conditions, your supporter must have lived in the province continuously for at least a year, be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and support your Settlement Plan. A close relative is a sister or brother, niece or nephew, aunt or uncle, first cousin, parent or grandparent, whether yours or your spouse's. Children living in Manitoba cannot support their parents, and a spouse of a Canadian citizen or permanent resident cannot apply to the MPNP at all.

Manitoba Experience means you lived in the province before, either as a temporary foreign worker with at least six consecutive months of full-time work for a Manitoba employer, or as an international student who completed an authorized program at a public, or registered private vocational, post-secondary institution there. Language studies do not count.

Manitoba Invitation means the MPNP invited you through a strategic recruitment initiative, after an interview on a recruitment mission or an exploratory visit. You cannot choose this connection yourself, and it is the invitation, not the visit, that creates it. Manitoba's regional immigration initiatives, developed with local partners for communities outside Winnipeg, are among these recruitment initiatives, and an Invitation to Apply under one of them is also worth 500 EOI points.

The province adds that the MPNP is not a sponsorship program: every applicant must be employable, with job-ready English, enough settlement funds and the genuine intention and ability to become economically established in Manitoba. Separately from the MPNP, IRCC's Rural and Francophone Community Immigration Pilots include Manitoba communities; our guide to community immigration programs explains how those pilots work.

Who cannot apply to the MPNP?

Among the people Manitoba lists as not eligible to submit an application are refugee claimants and people in a federal appeal or removal process; live-in caregivers living in Canada; spouses of Canadian citizens or permanent residents; people the MPNP refused in the last six months who cannot address the reasons; and anyone with an active application to another provincial or federal immigration program. An Express Entry profile does not count as an application. If you or your spouse already has an active MPNP application, you cannot apply under another MPNP stream as well.

The skilled worker FAQ adds that Manitoba nominates only people who intend to live in the province with their dependent family members, and that its decisions are final, with no appeal. Before a final decision, if an officer cannot recommend approval, the MPNP sends a Procedural Fairness Letter setting out its concerns and allows up to 30 days to respond. False or misleading information gets an EOI refused, and the EOI page says you may then be banned from submitting another for two years.

Can a recruiter charge you for a job offer in Manitoba?

No. Manitoba's policy on immigration representatives says that under Manitoba legislation it is illegal for immigration representatives or recruiters to charge foreign workers or future immigrants for a job offer in Manitoba, and that the Manitoba employer must cover all recruitment costs. The province's page for foreign workers names the law, The Worker Recruitment and Protection Act: employers must register with the government before hiring temporary foreign workers, recruiters must hold a licence, and neither a recruiter nor an employer can charge you money to get a job.

You do not need a paid representative at all. The MPNP says it has no official immigration representatives acting on its behalf and does not require one. If you do hire someone, they must be registered with the MPNP, and it recognizes a paid representative only if they are a lawyer in good standing with a Canadian provincial or territorial law society, a notary in good standing with the Chambre des notaires du Québec, or a consultant in good standing with the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC). Failing to declare a paid representative or recruiter can get your application refused. You can check an immigration adviser, and our guide to spotting immigration scams explains how to check a job offer.

First steps after you arrive in Manitoba

If you qualify for coverage, register for a Manitoba Health Card with Manitoba Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care; the card confirms your eligibility for health benefits under The Health Services Insurance Act. Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI), which issues driver's licences, explains on its New or Returning to Manitoba page when a licence from another country can be exchanged without tests and when you need a knowledge test and a road test. The province's After You Arrive page lists other early tasks, such as getting a Social Insurance Number, which you need to work in Canada. IRCC's Find free newcomer services near you tool searches federally funded settlement services by postal code or city, for newcomers who are eligible.