As an employer have you ever rejected out-of-hand an application which may have come from outside the country? The candidate may be perfectly capable and fits the requirements of your job position, but you let out a heavy sigh because a person is a foreigner and you can see nothing but a bureaucratic maze to have the person qualified.

Before you throw that qualified candidate's resume out be aware that there is a way of fast tracking such applications.

The Province of British Columbia has organized its own Provincial immigration program called the "British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program" (PNP). Simply put provinces can expedite the immigration process for a potential immigrant if the employer can show that there is a need for such an applicant in the sector or geographical area where the employer is searching for an employee.

The Provincial Nominee Program allows British Columbia to recruit, screen and nominate prospective immigrants who have the skills to fill specific British Columbia labour market demands and contribute to British Columbia's industrial and economic growth. The program is employer driven. If the employer has a full-time permanent job of a type where there is a shortage of qualified Canadians, the employer can apply under the Nominee Program. The employer finds a qualified non-Canadian and applies to the Provincial program on behalf of the qualified non-Canadian to determine if the person qualifies. The emphasis under this program is to have employers nominate qualified non-Canadians who are in demand. At present some of the areas of interest are high technology, biotechnology, aerospace, university and college educators, skilled tradesmen, and health care professionals.

This is especially advantageous for employers who are outside the greater Vancouver and Victoria metropolitan areas. Those in smaller centres may be able to successfully nominate a non-Canadian for a position that normally would not qualify if the person was nominated within the urban centres. The Provincial Government understands that it is hard to recruit and retain staff in more remote areas than in the urban centres.

If an employer can identify a job that is either in a new and developed area of industry or for which there is a critical skills shortage, the Nominee Program will do a preliminary examination of the position before an actual application is submitted. This is indeed a great service to employers who are not sure if their staffing needs are suitable for the program. This avoids the unnecessary preparation of a complex application only to be rejected later. The key factors in any nominee application will be to demonstrate that the job either fills a critical skill shortage or that it is a new and developing area of industry where specialized expertise is in demand. The employer has to demonstrate that there is a shortage of qualified Canadians and the employer has done its best to recruit a qualified Canadian.

The benefit for the potential employee is that the processing time for permanent immigration can be reduced to 4 to 6 months rather than the standard 18 months to 2 years, which now currently exists.

So when considering a potentially good applicant who has applied from outside the country, do not forget that the PNP program can work for you, the employer.