The new Nova Scotia Demand Express Entry (NSDEE) is set to open the first week of January. We don’t know much about it yet, but from what we understand, the new stream will be a more focused version of the Nova Scotia Regional Labour Market Demand stream (RLMDS) which was open for 6 weeks earlier this year and closed due to overwhelming popularity.
Some things we do know about NSDEE:
– it will be a pilot program and run through the new Federal Express Entry program
– it will require a very high level of English or French
– it will require applicants to have their credentials assessed
– applicants will not need a job offer but must be qualified in one of the designated occupations (occupation list to be published soon, we hope)
– it will require some sort of third-party endorsement (NOTE: this makes me lose sleep because it sounds like the old loosey-goosey Community Identified program in disguise, which I was never a fan of. How about instead requiring an exploratory visit or sworn proof of a connection here?)
Beyond this, we have little information. In the meantime, we still have not received any word on the RLMDS applications we submitted in March and April. Processing times in other NS streams have slowed considerably. The province is still issuing nominations, so we know the 2014 quota of applications has not been reached yet.
Furthermore, the new (federal) Express Entry portal has not gone live yet. Despite crashing every possible info-session we heard about over the past year, major details are still missing. Like, how often will CIC issue invitations to apply?
Just to recap: 3 weeks from now, a new provincial program opens and the overhauled federal economic immigration process begins, and yet we still don’t have enough information to advise anyone on whether they qualify for Express Entry or NSDEE.
If that’s not a solid reason to get into the eggnog, I don’t know what is.