The asker compared two employer-driven provincial streams — Nova Scotia's Skilled Worker stream and Saskatchewan's International Skilled Worker: Employment Offer — on two separate clocks: how fast the province nominates, and how fast PR comes afterward. Reported experiences (2021–22, treat as historical):
- Provincial nomination is fast in both. One member had SINP nomination approved in ~3 weeks; another got their Nova Scotia nomination in about a month and recommended NS on that basis.
- The federal PR stage is the real wait. The same SINP-nominated member had applied for PR in May 2021 and had still heard nothing months later. A fast nomination tells you little about how long IRCC will take with the paper-based nominee PR application.
- A work permit can bridge the gap. One couple with job offers obtained work permits after nomination and planned to move and start working while the PR application processed — the practical way to avoid losing the job offer to federal processing times. Note that another member's work-permit application had gone a month with no response, so even the bridge takes time.
Bottom line from the thread: choose based on where your job offer actually is; both provinces nominate within weeks. Budget a year or more for the federal PR stage, and plan a work permit so you can start the job in the meantime.