The Nova Scotia Office of Immigration on Tuesday announced the introduction of two new business immigration streams to help attract international entrepreneurs and retain international university and college graduates. 

Both these new  streams – the Entrepreneur Stream and the International Graduate Entrepreneur Stream - have been carefully developed using the best practices of others around the globe, said a statement from the office.

“These new tools will be an integral part of the future growth of our economy and will foster entrepreneurship in Nova Scotia,” said the statement.

Of the two new programs, the Entrepreneur Stream is intended for immigrants with experience owning or managing a business in their home countries. Once approved, these people can settle in Nova Scotia under a two-year work permit and grow their businesses in the province. Once the two years are up, they can be nominated for permanent residency.

Under the International Graduate Entrepreneur Stream, foreign students can be nominated for permanent residency. They must have finished at least a two-year program at a Nova Scotian university or college and have been running a business for at least a year.

The provincial government expects to nominate as many as 50 people in each stream annually.

Last week, Nova Scotia received an additional allocation of 300 nominations from the federal government for its provincial nominee program, said the statement. The government said the cap (which has benefited from other recent adjustments) will be 1,350 in 2015, almost double the cap of 700 in 2014.

According to data released by the province, 2661 immigrants came to Nova Scotia in 2014. That’s the highest number in 10 years, but the Ivany Commission into the economy has called for three times as many people to be attracted to the province.