PNP Application Fees Compared by Province, With PEI Charging Just $300

The spreadsheet started as a simple comparison — job-offer requirements, EOI windows, points thresholds, one province per row. Then the application-fee column got filled in, and Prince Edward Island’s $300 sat next to British Columbia’s $1,750 for what looked, on paper, like a similar kind of process.

Pnp application fees compared by province turns out to be one of the more genuinely useful comparisons to run before you commit time to a specific stream, because the gap is real and it isn’t explained by anything you’d guess from the eligibility criteria alone.

PEI: the low end

Pei pnp application fee 300 dollars is the figure the province’s own January 2026 Workforce Application Guide states, and it applies whether you’re going through the Skilled Worker, Critical Worker, Intermediate Experience, International Graduate or Occupations in Demand pathway — all of them sit under the same fee. There’s a second cost worth knowing about if a work permit is involved: employers registering with the federal Employer Portal pay a $230 compliance fee, separate from your $300. After nomination, PEI expects the PR application to follow within six months.

BC: the higher end

Bc skills immigration fee 1750 dollars became the reality on 22 January 2026, up from the previous $1,475 — a jump of $275 in a single change, applied to both the Skilled Worker and Health Authority streams. BC hasn’t published a comparable low-cost general stream the way PEI has; its narrowed lineup of active Skills Immigration streams all sits at the higher figure.

What the gap doesn’t tell you

It’s tempting to read the fee difference as a signal about which province is “easier,” and that would be a mistake. PEI’s lower fee doesn’t mean a lighter process — its Critical Worker and Occupations in Demand streams reach occupations, largely TEER 4, that most other PNPs and Express Entry don’t touch at all, which is arguably a bigger practical advantage than the fee saving. BC’s higher fee reflects a province running fewer, more competitively scored streams under its “Care, Build, Innovate” priorities, not necessarily a harder eligibility bar for a matching occupation.

The honest gap in this comparison

Not every province publishes its current application fee in a form that’s easy to verify from outside Canada, and several — including some of the Atlantic provinces — don’t appear in provincial nomination fees compared canada exercises at all, because a confirmed 2026 figure couldn’t be located at the time of writing. Treat PEI and BC as two confirmed data points at opposite ends of a range, not as the full national picture. Before you budget around any application fee, check the current amount on the specific province’s official page — fees have already moved once in 2026, and they can move again.

Any real pnp application fees compared by province exercise should sit alongside travel, credential-assessment and settlement costs, not stand in for the whole budget. None of this replaces a proper cost plan for your specific pathway, which is worth building with guidance from a licensed RCIC once you’ve settled on a province.

Our budgeting worksheets track provincial and federal fees together, so nothing shows up as a surprise line item partway through.