Every Canadian immigration programme that has closed since 2024
A dated reference to the federal and provincial programmes that stopped accepting applications between 2024 and 2026, and what replaced them.
Between August 2024 and August 2026, Canadian immigration lost more programmes than in any comparable period in the last decade. Some were pilots that reached their natural end. Others were closed abruptly. Several provinces demolished their nominee streams and rebuilt from scratch.
The practical problem is that the internet has not caught up. A great deal of what you will read — on consultant websites, in forums, in YouTube videos, and in AI-generated answers trained on older material — describes programmes that stopped accepting applications a year or two ago. We still speak to people every month who have spent months preparing for a pathway that closed before they started.
This is a dated reference. Every entry gives the date the programme stopped accepting new applications and what, if anything, replaced it. We keep it current.
Federal programmes
| Programme | Stopped accepting applications | What replaced it |
|---|---|---|
| Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) | 31 August 2024 | RCIP and FCIP, both launched 30 January 2025 |
| Recognized Employer Pilot (LMIA) | 16 September 2024 | Nothing |
| Student Direct Stream (SDS) | 8 November 2024, 2 p.m. ET | Nothing — one regular stream for everyone |
| Nigeria Student Express | 8 November 2024 | Nothing |
| Flagpoling for work and study permits | 23 December 2024 | Online applications; five narrow exceptions remain |
| Open work permits for dependent children | 21 January 2025 | Nothing |
| Arranged-employment CRS points | 25 March 2025 | Nothing in force; IRCC is consulting on wage-based points |
| Agri-Food Pilot | 14 May 2025 | Nothing |
| Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP) | End of 2025 | Nothing |
| Home Care Worker Immigration Pilots | Intake paused 19 December 2025 | Nothing announced |
| Parents and Grandparents Program intake | Paused 15 July 2026 | Nothing; the super visa remains available |
| Hong Kong recent graduates open work permit | Closed | Nothing |
The three that catch the most people
SDS. The Student Direct Stream was the fast-track study permit route for applicants from India, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Pakistan, Morocco, Senegal, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and several other countries. It closed at two o'clock in the afternoon, Eastern Time, on 8 November 2024, and nothing replaced it. If an agent is still telling you to buy a $10,000 GIC "for SDS", they are describing a programme that has not existed for nearly two years. A GIC is still a perfectly good way to show proof of funds — but the amount is different, it buys you no speed, and the current requirement is $22,895 for a single applicant plus first-year tuition.
Arranged-employment CRS points. Until 25 March 2025, a valid job offer backed by an LMIA added 200 points to your Comprehensive Ranking System score for a senior management occupation, or 50 points for other skilled roles. Those points were removed entirely, and the removal applied to candidates already sitting in the pool. We have met people who spent a year and several thousand dollars chasing an LMIA for points that no longer exist. A job offer still matters — for provincial nominations, for Federal Skilled Trades eligibility, for the FSW selection grid, and for proof-of-funds exemptions — but not in the CRS.
RNIP. The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot ended on 31 August 2024 and was replaced on 30 January 2025 by the Rural Community Immigration Pilot and the Francophone Community Immigration Pilot. This one gets stated backwards constantly, including by people who should know better. RNIP is the old one. Applications filed on or before 31 August 2024 are still being processed; there is no new intake.
Provincial and territorial programmes
| Stream | Closed | Position now |
|---|---|---|
| BC — Entry Level and Semi-Skilled (ELSS) | Last invitations December 2024 | Permanently closed |
| BC — International Graduate and International Post-Graduate | April 2026 | Eliminated; BC has confirmed no replacement student streams |
| Quebec — Programme de l'expérience québécoise (PEQ) | 19 November 2025 | PSTQ through the Arrima portal |
| Yukon Community Program | 30 June 2025 | Yukon's regular nominee streams continue |
| Ontario — all nine OINP streams | 2026 | Single Ontario Workforce Priority Stream, launched 26 June 2026 |
| New Brunswick — Skilled Worker with Family Support | Closed | Nothing |
| New Brunswick — Express Entry Labour Market and Entrepreneurial | Paused | Paused, no reopening date |
| Nova Scotia — ten pathways | 18 February 2026 | Consolidated into four streams with a three-tier framework |
Ontario deserves its own paragraph
Ontario did not trim its programme. It closed every one of the nine streams that made up the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program — Human Capital Priorities, the Masters and PhD Graduate streams, the three Employer Job Offer streams, the Express Entry streams and Entrepreneur — and replaced the lot with a single Ontario Workforce Priority Stream on 26 June 2026. Ontario holds the largest nomination allocation in Canada at 14,119, and further streams are expected in a second phase, but as of today there is one door where there used to be nine.
If you have been reading about the Masters Graduate stream or Human Capital Priorities, you are reading material written before mid-2026. Our provincial nominee page lists only what is currently open, province by province.
What has not closed, despite what you may have heard
- Express Entry is very much open. IRCC has consulted on merging the three federal programmes into a single Federal High Skilled programme, but nothing has been enacted, and a consultation is not a rule.
- The Atlantic Immigration Program is not a pilot and has not closed. It became permanent in January 2022 and runs across all four Atlantic provinces at roughly 4,000 admissions a year.
- Provincial nominations generally. The federal PNP admissions target was halved for 2025, to 55,000, then set at 91,500 for 2026. That reads like a large increase, but most provinces received mid-year top-ups in 2025, so 2026 is roughly flat rather than a return to 2024 levels.
- Family sponsorship for spouses, partners and children is open and unaffected by the parent and grandparent pause. 69,000 admissions are planned for 2026.
How to check before you commit
Three habits will save you most of the risk here.
Check the date on anything you read. An immigration page without a visible last-reviewed date is not maintained. That includes ours — every service page on this site carries the date it was last checked.
Go to the source. Federal programmes are on canada.ca; provincial streams are on the province's own immigration site. If a consultant's description and the official page disagree, the official page is right.
Be suspicious of urgency. "This programme is closing, apply now" is the oldest line in this industry, and it is now being used about programmes that closed years ago. Nobody can get you into a stream that is not accepting applications, at any price.
If you were counting on one of these
It is rarely as bad as it first looks. Someone who was preparing for RNIP is often a good fit for RCIP. Someone chasing an LMIA for CRS points may be better served by a provincial nomination, which is worth 600 points rather than the 50 that no longer exist. Someone whose Ontario stream vanished may qualify under the new Workforce Priority Stream or somewhere else entirely.
What does not work is continuing with the old plan and hoping. If you have been preparing for something on this page, it is worth twenty minutes with a licensed RCIC to work out what your actual options are now.