Last week, the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island (PEI) announced changes to its Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) that will make it easier for immigrants who came through the PEI PNP to fulfill the residency requirements of the program.

Under the PNP Entrepreneur Stream, applicants had to make a good faith deposit of $25,000 which would be returned to them after they had resided on the island for 183 consecutive days. That requirements has now been relaxed.

In addition, applicants who did not show at least moderate proficiency in one of Canada’s official languages were required to make an additional deposit of $20,000 to be returned to them after they achieved a certain level of proficiency in an official language. The benchmark for proficiency in an official language has now been lowered.