Thunder Bay RCIP Points Calculator

How the Rural Community Immigration Pilot works in Thunder Bay

The Rural Community Immigration Pilot is a federal program that lets a participating community recommend skilled workers who have a genuine job offer from a local designated employer. The pilot exists because smaller and northern communities often struggle to attract and keep the workers their employers need, and a community recommendation gives those candidates a dedicated pathway to permanent residence that the general federal streams do not. In Thunder Bay, the process has two clear stages. First, the community assesses your profile against its own published scoring grid and, if you are competitive, issues a recommendation. Second, you use that recommendation to apply to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which makes the final decision on permanent residence after checking admissibility and completeness.

Because the community controls the first stage, local factors matter far more here than in a national ranking. A qualifying job offer from a designated employer is the foundation, but the sector the employer operates in, the wage attached to the offer, your work experience, your language results and your genuine ties to the community all influence whether a recommendation is issued. The calculator on this page reflects that community-specific logic rather than the federal Comprehensive Ranking System, so a strong result here does not translate into a CRS score and vice versa. Treat the number as a planning estimate, confirm employer designation and current intake rules on the community’s official page, and remember that recommendations are limited and competitive.

Understanding the Thunder Bay scoring process

Thunder Bay’s grid distinguishes between the broad sector of the employer and the exact occupation in the job offer. The job-offer category is capped at 25 points, so the calculator combines the two published values without allowing that category to exceed the stated maximum.

Several occupations carry operational limits or documentary conditions. A numerical result should therefore be read as a planning estimate: employer size limits, annual caps, security-experience rules and the short-haul requirement for truck drivers can still decide whether an application is accepted.

Official source used: Thunder Bay CMA 2026 RCIP Scoring Grid. Visit the community’s official website.

Frequently asked questions