SINP Streams in 2026: Which Ones Are Actually Open, and Which One Fits You
SINP has four categories, but one split decides your route in 2026: the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program streams that need a Saskatchewan job offer are moving, and the two that do not are not. Saskatchewan's last published International Skilled Worker EOI selection was September 12, 2024, at 88 points, and the province lists no scheduled draws.
Ansari Immigration, a Vancouver RCIC practice, reads the SINP question backwards from the paperwork: the first thing to check is not your points total but whether a Saskatchewan employer will file an Employer Position Assessment for you, because that single document decides which half of the program you are standing in.
Why getting the SINP stream wrong costs you a year
Saskatchewan charges a non-refundable $500 application fee and closes applications that arrive with missing or untranslated documents. Its own page is blunt about the consequence: "If your application is closed, you will be sent a letter and asked to reapply," and the fee does not come back.
The more expensive mistake is quieter. People spend a year building a profile for a stream that is not being drawn, because the province archived the tool that used to answer this question. Saskatchewan's eligibility page now states that "The Program Selector tool has been archived effective January 2, 2026." The menu is still there. The guide to reading it is not.
The four SINP categories, and the one split that actually matters
Saskatchewan runs four program categories, and every sub-category sits under one of them.
Category | Who it is for | Job offer needed? |
|---|---|---|
International Skilled Worker | Skilled workers applying from outside Saskatchewan | Depends on the sub-category |
Worker with Saskatchewan Work Experience | People already working in Saskatchewan on a valid permit, and graduates of Saskatchewan institutions | Yes |
Entrepreneur | People starting, buying into or running a Saskatchewan business | No, but a business plan and its own EOI |
Farm Owner and Operator | Experienced farmers buying and operating a Saskatchewan farm | No |
Source: Browse SINP Programs, Government of Saskatchewan. Verified September 2026.
Inside the two worker categories there are nine doors, and this is where the real division lives. Three of them are Talent Pathways, added for specific sectors: Health, Agriculture, and Innovation and Tech. They appear under both worker categories, which is why the program looks bigger than it is.
The split that decides your route is not "skilled worker versus experience." It is this: does an employer file paperwork for you, or do you sit in a pool and wait to be picked?
Everything with an Employer Position Assessment behind it (Employment Offer, the three Talent Pathways, Existing Work Permit, Students) is a direct application. The two without one (Occupations In-Demand and Saskatchewan Express Entry) run through the Expression of Interest pool. Think of it as two queues at an airport: one where a colleague has already checked you in, and one where you are on standby hoping a seat opens. Both are real queues. Only one is being called right now.
Is SINP open now? What Saskatchewan's own pages say
SINP is open, but not evenly. The job-offer doors are being processed in weeks. The two no-job-offer doors have not produced a published invitation in more than two years. Three official pages, read together, say this plainly.
First, Saskatchewan's International Skilled Worker EOI System page carries one sentence that most SINP guides do not quote: "There are no scheduled EOI draws at this time."
Second, the province's own EOI Selection Results document is stamped "Updated: September 12, 2024," and the most recent rounds it records are from that same day.
Last published SINP ISW EOI selections | Category | Lowest score invited | Candidates invited |
|---|---|---|---|
September 12, 2024 | Occupations In-Demand | 88 | 32 |
September 12, 2024 | Express Entry | 88 | 57 |
Source: SINP International Skilled Worker EOI Selection Results, Government of Saskatchewan, document updated September 12, 2024. Verified September 2026.
Third, the SINP Processing Statistics page lists processing times for the second quarter of 2026 by sub-category. Employment Offer, the three Talent Pathways, Existing Work Permit and International Students each show 2 weeks. Occupations In-Demand and Saskatchewan Express Entry do not appear in the table at all. On the same page, the second-review row for "Applicants without Job Offers" reads N/A for the quarter, while applicants with job offers show 1 week.
That is three independent official signals pointing the same way. None of them is a formal closure announcement, and Saskatchewan has not made one, so the honest reading is this: the EOI pool is open, you can still file a profile, and nothing published this run shows anyone being invited out of it since September 2024.
So if you are sitting in the EOI pool today, what is your profile actually doing? It is holding your place and aging. Profiles expire one year from the day they are submitted, so a profile filed today expires next autumn whether or not a draw ever happens.
Which SINP stream fits you
The right SINP stream is decided by three things in this order: whether you are already in Saskatchewan, whether an employer will file paperwork for you, and which sector that employer is in. Work down this list and stop at the first line that describes you.
You are already working in Saskatchewan on a valid work permit, in health care, agriculture, or an eligible innovation and tech occupation: go to the matching Talent Pathway, not the general stream.
You are already working in Saskatchewan on a valid work permit in any other high skilled occupation: Skilled Worker With Existing Work Permit. Note that open spousal work permit holders and study permit holders are excluded from this sub-category.
You graduated from a Saskatchewan designated learning institution and hold a post-graduation work permit: the Students sub-category, after six months of paid Saskatchewan work in your field of study.
You are outside Saskatchewan with a permanent, full-time Saskatchewan job offer in a health, agriculture or tech occupation: the matching Talent Pathway.
You are outside Saskatchewan with a permanent, full-time high skilled job offer in any other occupation: International Skilled Worker, Employment Offer.
You have no Saskatchewan job offer and you are in the federal Express Entry pool: International Skilled Worker, Saskatchewan Express Entry. Read the section above first.
You have no Saskatchewan job offer and no Express Entry profile: International Skilled Worker, Occupations In-Demand. Read the section above first.
You intend to start or buy a Saskatchewan business, or buy and operate a farm: Entrepreneur or Farm Owner and Operator, each with its own EOI process.
Two carve-outs catch people every time. Truck drivers cannot use the Employment Offer sub-category; Saskatchewan directs them to the Existing Work Permit stream, and only with a CUAET, LMIA-supported or Francophone Mobility work permit. Health occupations in NOC Broad Occupational Category 3 cannot use Employment Offer either; they belong in the Health Talent Pathway or the Students sub-category.
The 2026 nomination numbers, and why your sector decides your odds
Saskatchewan's 2026 allocation is 4,761 nominations, and the province publishes how much of it is gone. At the last quarterly update, 2,628 had been issued, or 55 per cent.
2026 nominee sector | Allocation | Nominations issued to date | Share used |
|---|---|---|---|
Priority sectors (minimum 50 per cent) | 2,380 | 1,466 | 62% |
Trucking, Accommodation, Food Services, Retail Trade (maximum 25 per cent) | 1,190 | 718 | 60% |
Other sectors | 1,191 | 444 | 37% |
Total | 4,761 | 2,628 | 55% |
Source: SINP Processing Statistics, Government of Saskatchewan. Verified September 2026. Saskatchewan notes that these figures are updated quarterly, exclude applications currently in process, and that actual remaining availability may be lower than shown.
Priority sectors for 2026 are health care, agriculture, skilled trades, mining, manufacturing, energy and technology. Capped sectors are retail (NAICS 44 to 45), trucking (NAICS 48 to 49), and accommodation and food services (NAICS 72). Everything else is "other."
The line worth reading twice is the bottom of the middle column. "Other sectors" has used 37 per cent of its room while priority sectors have used 62 per cent. If your occupation is neither on the priority list nor in a capped sector, you are competing in the least crowded pool of the three, and nothing about that is obvious from the front page of the program.
There is also a carve-out for graduates that almost nobody states correctly. Saskatchewan reserves a minimum of 750 nominations in 2026 for graduates of Saskatchewan post-secondary designated learning institutions who secure a job offer in a priority sector, and the eligibility test is the employer's sector as shown on their Certificate of Registration, not the graduate's field of study. A computer science graduate working for a retailer is not in the tech allocation. A history graduate working for a mining company is.
The capped-sector intake windows, and the six-month rule
If your employer is in trucking, retail, or accommodation and food services, the job offer alone is not enough. Saskatchewan's Existing Work Permit page states that Employer Position Assessment applications for those sectors "will only be accepted during scheduled intake windows (January, March, May, July, September and November)." Outside those windows the door is shut. Five of the six have been held so far in 2026, and the sixth has no published date or position limits on the statistics page yet.
And there is a second gate stacked on the first. Saskatchewan's pages state it directly: employers can only submit an EPA for a candidate with six months or less remaining on their work permit, and "Applications for candidates in capped sectors with more than 6 months left on their work permit will not be accepted."
Read that twice if you work in one of those sectors. Having more time left on your permit makes you ineligible, not safer.
2026 intake window | Positions offered across the three capped sectors | Positions used | Filled? |
|---|---|---|---|
January 13 (trucking filled January 20) | 300 | 300 | Yes |
March 2 | 400 | 387 | Closed with 13 trucking spots unused |
May 4 | 400 | 400 | Yes |
July 6 and 7 | 175 | 175 | Yes |
September 14 and 15 | 550 | 456 | No. The table shows 48 trucking and 46 retail positions remaining |
The sixth 2026 window | Not yet dated or sized on the SINP statistics page |
|
|
Source: SINP Processing Statistics, Government of Saskatchewan. Verified September 2026.
Four windows in a row filled the same day or within a week. The September window was three times the size of July's and did not fill. Saskatchewan's page does not state whether that window is still accepting submissions, only that figures are updated daily during a window or immediately when a limit is reached, so treat the remaining figures as a reason for your employer to check rather than as a promise of an open door.
Spots are first-come, first-served, and the province encourages employers to draft the EPA in the OASIS portal ahead of time so it can be submitted the moment intake opens. The EPA itself took 3 weeks to process in the second quarter of 2026 against a six-week service goal.
Not sure whether your sector is capped, priority, or neither, or whether your permit timing puts you inside or outside the window? That is a 30-minute question for an Ansari Immigration consultation ($80) before your employer spends time on an EPA that cannot be submitted.
What the 60-point SINP points grid does not tell you
You need 60 points out of 110 on the SINP International Skilled Worker points grid to apply under Employment Offer, Occupations In-Demand or Saskatchewan Express Entry. Sixty is the floor to be allowed through the door. It has very little to do with whether you are invited.
Factor I is worth up to 80 points: education up to 23, skilled work experience up to 15, language up to 30, and age up to 12. Factor II is worth up to 30, and this is where the grid quietly sorts people by stream.
Factor II item | Points | Available to |
|---|---|---|
High skilled employment offer from a Saskatchewan employer | 30 | Employment Offer only |
Close family relative in Saskatchewan | 20 | Occupations In-Demand and Saskatchewan Express Entry only |
Past work experience in Saskatchewan (12 months in the past five years) | 5 | Occupations In-Demand and Saskatchewan Express Entry only |
Past student experience in Saskatchewan (one full-time academic year) | 5 | Occupations In-Demand and Saskatchewan Express Entry only |
Source: Assess Your Eligibility, Government of Saskatchewan. Verified September 2026.
The two halves of Factor II do not mix. A job offer earns 30 and nothing else. A Saskatchewan connection can earn up to 30 but only without a job offer.
Here is how that plays out for one profile, built entirely from the grid above. A 29-year-old with a bachelor's degree, three years of skilled work experience in the past five years, and a first language test at CLB 7 scores 12 for age, 20 for education, 6 for experience and 18 for language. That is 56 Factor I points.
Through Employment Offer, with a Saskatchewan job offer: 56 plus 30, which is 86. Clears 60 comfortably.
Through Occupations In-Demand or Saskatchewan Express Entry, with no Saskatchewan relative, no past Saskatchewan work and no past Saskatchewan study: 56. Four points short of even applying.
Same person, with an aunt who is a permanent resident living in Saskatoon: 76. Clears.
Same person, no relative, who sits a French test and reaches CLB 5 as a second language: 60 exactly.
Two people, identical on paper, and the stream decides whether they qualify at all. That is the honest answer to "how many points do I need for SINP": it depends which door you are at.
And now the part the 60-point framing hides. The last published EOI selection invited candidates at 88 points, not 60. Our 60-point candidate would have been eligible to sit in the pool and nowhere near an invitation. Note which variants those are: the 76-point and 60-point versions of this profile both reach the pass mark using connection points that only exist in Occupations In-Demand and Saskatchewan Express Entry, the two sub-categories with no scheduled draws. Clearing 60 there buys a place in a pool, not an invitation. If you are building toward the no-job-offer route, build toward the high 80s rather than the low 60s, and read the section above about whether the pool is being drawn at all.
If you have run your own numbers on this grid, which factor left you shortest, language or the connection points? Say so in the comments, keeping it general.
What IRCC checks after Saskatchewan nominates you
A nomination is not permanent residence. Saskatchewan decides the nomination; IRCC decides the PR application, and it runs its own test.
Internal IRCC training material released under the Access to Information Act sets out what the federal decision-maker does with a provincial nominee file. The officer assesses eligibility for the Provincial Nominee class, then assesses "that the applicant meets the program requirements of at least one of the federal economic immigration programs," then factors related to A11.2, then admissibility, then makes the final decision.
That second line is the one people are not told. A provincial nomination does not replace a federal class; it routes you into one. In IRCC's own worked answers, a nominee with a year of skilled Canadian work experience is assessed through the Canadian Experience Class and faces no points calculation, while a nominee without that year is assessed through the Federal Skilled Worker program and has to clear a 67-point federal grid that has nothing to do with the SINP grid or your CRS score. The same nomination, two very different second exams, and the branch point is one year of Canadian work experience.
The other thing that training material makes clear is who owns which decision. Provinces and territories set their own nomination criteria; IRCC owns admissibility and the final call. That division is why the next section happens.
Where this goes wrong: a nomination review can freeze your federal file
The failure mode specific to SINP is not refusal. It is a file that stops moving and nobody tells you why.
In Yao v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2026 FC 1068, decided August 18, 2026, the applicant lived in Regina and had filed a permanent residence application under the Provincial Nominee Program non-Express Entry stream on December 20, 2021. By the time the Federal Court heard the case she had been waiting roughly four years and eight months. The published processing time for that application type had been 11 months.
Two things were holding it. IRCC's system notes showed security screening ongoing since October 7, 2024. And on February 3, 2025, the Government of Saskatchewan emailed IRCC: "Please hold [the applicant's] file pending the conclusion of a SINP Nomination Review. [...] We will advise further once our investigation is concluded."
Justice Fothergill found that the Minister's evidence gave "no particulars" of why screening was incomplete, and no evidence at all about what Saskatchewan's investigation concerned or how long it might run. Blanket statements that a delay is caused by a pending security assessment are not enough. Mandamus was granted and the Minister was ordered to decide within 90 days.
Read that email again. A province can ask IRCC to hold your federal file while it re-examines a nomination it already issued, and the applicant found out through litigation. If your SINP file has gone quiet well past the published time, "it is with security" is not, on its own, an answer a court has accepted. Our post on forcing IRCC to decide a delayed application covers what the remedy actually involves.
The Saskatchewan rule about representatives that catches people out
Saskatchewan licenses immigration consultants itself, and a paid representative who is not on its list means your SINP application is not processed. A Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant licensed by CICC is authorized to act on federal immigration matters across Canada, and that does not automatically make them authorized to represent you to the SINP.
Saskatchewan runs its own licensing regime under The Immigration Services Act. Its Using an Immigration Representative page says a paid representative must be a close family member as defined in the Act, a lawyer in Canada in good standing with a provincial law society, or "an Immigration Consultant or Foreign Worker Recruiter licensed in Saskatchewan." The consequence is stated without hedging: "If your appointed representative doesn't meet one of the requirements above, your application won't be processed." Recruiters need a separate Saskatchewan licence too.
So before anyone files a SINP application on your behalf, check their name on Saskatchewan's published list of Licensed Immigration Consultants. This is one of the few places in Canadian immigration where hiring the wrong help does not just waste money, it stops the application.
The same page makes another point worth absorbing: "You are not required to hire a representative. Using one will not speed up processing times or guarantee your application will be approved."
Where Saskatchewan's own pages go quiet, or disagree
Three things the official SINP pages either do not answer or answer two different ways. Each one below was checked against the named pages rather than assumed.
Nobody says when the next EOI draw is, or whether there will be one. The EOI page says there are no scheduled draws. The selection-results document says "Selections will take place on a bi-monthly basis, at minimum," which has not held since September 2024. Those two sentences contradict each other, and neither the EOI system page, the Occupations In-Demand page, the Saskatchewan Express Entry page nor the processing-statistics page resolves it. If you need a date, there isn't one published.
The pages disagree about TEER 0. The Employment Offer, Students and Existing Work Permit pages all list eligible occupations as NOC TEER "0", "1", "2" or "3". The Occupation Restrictions page tells you to "verify that your occupation or NOC code is considered high skilled in Canada (TEER 1, 2, or 3)." Managers sit in TEER 0. Treat the stream page as governing, and confirm with SINP before you build a file on it.
Saskatchewan will not tell you your NOC. The Occupation Restrictions and Requirements page is explicit: "SINP Staff cannot tell you what NOC to select." That matters more than it reads, because the NOC choice is assessed against duties, not titles. IRCC's own training answer key walks officers through downgrading a "Contact Centre Supervisor" to a complaints clerk and a "Financial Services Officer" to a customer service representative, on the duties in the employment letter. A generous job title over clerk-level duties is the textbook example of a file that comes apart at assessment.
Frequently asked questions about SINP
Is SINP open now?
SINP is open and accepting applications through its job-offer streams, but Saskatchewan's EOI page currently states there are no scheduled EOI draws, so the two no-job-offer sub-categories are not producing invitations. Employment Offer, the three Talent Pathways, Existing Work Permit and Students were all processing in about 2 weeks in the second quarter of 2026.
Has SINP been paused?
Saskatchewan has not announced a pause of the SINP, but the International Skilled Worker EOI pool has not produced a published invitation since September 12, 2024, and the two EOI sub-categories do not appear in the province's most recent quarterly processing-time table. The job-offer streams are unaffected and continue to be processed.
What are the requirements for SINP?
Requirements differ by sub-category, but the common core is legal status if you are in Canada, an intention to live in Saskatchewan as a permanent resident, an eligible occupation, a language test, education that relates to your intended occupation, and a $500 non-refundable application fee. The three points-tested streams also require 60 points out of 110.
How do you apply for SINP?
For the job-offer streams you apply directly once your employer has an approved Employer Position Assessment, which you must confirm in your OASIS account within 10 days of being notified. For Occupations In-Demand and Saskatchewan Express Entry you first submit an Expression of Interest and can only apply after receiving an Invitation to Apply.
How long does it take to get a SINP nomination?
Saskatchewan's goal is to process International Skilled Worker and Saskatchewan Experience applications within 16 weeks, and its published figures for the second quarter of 2026 show every active sub-category finishing in about 2 weeks. Those figures cover only completed applications and exclude the time spent getting an Employer Position Assessment approved.
How much is the SINP application fee?
The SINP application fee is a non-refundable $500 CAD, paid online by Visa or Mastercard as the final step before you submit. It is not refunded if your application is closed for missing or untranslated documents, and it is separate from the federal permanent residence fees you pay to IRCC later.
Can I move to another province after SINP?
You must intend to live in Saskatchewan as a permanent resident when you are nominated and when you land, and IRCC assesses that intention separately from the province. Mobility rights are real but they are not a licence to treat a nomination as a shortcut, and our post on intent to reside explains where the line sits.
Who is eligible for SINP PR?
Eligibility runs in two stages: Saskatchewan decides whether to nominate you against its own criteria, then IRCC decides the permanent residence application against a federal economic class and admissibility. A nomination is necessary but not sufficient, and IRCC's own training material has officers confirm that a nominee meets the requirements of at least one federal economic program.
Which SINP door did you end up at, and did the points grid put you where you expected? Tell us in the comments. Keep it general, and for advice on your own file use a consultation.
Related Posts
Do You Have to Live in the Province That Nominated You?: what intent to reside actually requires after a provincial nomination, and where your mobility rights begin.
Easiest Province to Get PR in Canada: how to compare provincial nominee programs honestly instead of chasing whichever one looks open.
Immigrate to Canada Without a Job Offer: the routes that genuinely work when no employer is backing your application.
BC PNP Requirements: Complete Skills Immigration Guide: the British Columbia comparison, including how its registration system differs from Saskatchewan's EOI pool.
Three signs your SINP plan needs a second read. Your occupation sits in a capped sector and your work permit has more than six months left on it. Your route depends on the Occupations In-Demand or Saskatchewan Express Entry pool. Or your job title is more senior than the duties in your employment letter. Any one of those is exactly the kind of thing Ansari Immigration untangles in a $80, 30-minute consultation, and if the honest answer is that Saskatchewan is the wrong province for your profile, that is the answer you will get.
Why work with Ansari Immigration Flat, transparent fees quoted upfront, with no surprise add-ons. Every Ansari Immigration file is handled personally by the firm's licensed RCIC (R709304, regulated by CICC), start to finish, with direct access to your consultant throughout. No juniors, no call centers. One note in the spirit of that: SINP applications filed by a paid representative require a Saskatchewan licence under The Immigration Services Act, so check any consultant's name on Saskatchewan's published list before you sign.
Work out which door fits your profile, and whether a Saskatchewan route beats a federal Express Entry or another provincial nominee plan. If you have been through a SINP application recently, the timeline you saw is worth more to the next reader than anything we can publish, so share it in the comments.
This article is for general information only. It is not legal advice. Program criteria, requirements, processing times, and selection approaches can change without notice. Always confirm details on official government websites or consult a licensed Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) for advice specific to your situation.
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