Step 1: a full-time offer from a designated employer

Step 1 of 5 · updated 2026-08-16 · compiled from GSDC's own pages

In one line: get a full-time offer from a company on GSDC's designated list, and check it is designated for the pilot you intend to use.

The whole path starts here, and nothing after it matters without an offer. Not any job counts, though. Five conditions, all of them:

• Full-time: 30 hours a week or more.
• Non-seasonal and with no fixed end date (indeterminate): summer and contract work does not qualify.
• The employer is on GSDC's designated list: 351 of them today, searchable below.
• The employer is designated for your pilot: 338 take RCIP, 91 take FCIP, 78 take both. An RCIP-only employer's offer cannot go through FCIP.
• The role is on the year's priority occupation list: 42 NOCs for 2026, and that list is split by pilot too.

• Search the 351 designated employers →
• See the 42 priority occupations →

The workplace has to be inside the boundary

• The job's location has to fall inside the Greater Sudbury project boundary, and GSDC publishes a boundary map; for anything near the edge, that map governs.
• An address outside the boundary, or a role that is really remote and based elsewhere, breaks the path entirely.

The map is a PDF. Check the address on your offer against it before you sign: five minutes here saves months later. RCIP / FCIP community boundary map (PDF)

Employer not on the list? Designation is free

The list is not closed. A qualifying local business can apply for designation at any time, and only has to do it once, after which each candidate goes through the recommendation process. If you already work somewhere undesignated, or have an offer in hand, hand your boss the process: apply to GSDC, confirm the business qualifies, complete the community's training, and commit to settlement support for the person recommended. The current forms, contact address and full conditions are on GSDC's page. GSDC's RCIP / FCIP page

Compiled by the lakebbs editorial desk from GSDC's (Invest Sudbury) RCIP / FCIP and candidate pages. It is navigation, not immigration advice; the rules for any given intake are whatever GSDC's notice for that window says, and policy changes.