It is now official.  Citizenship & Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced in Calgary today that beginning July 1st, 2012 the Federal Skilled Worker program is frozen.  No new applications under this program will be accepted until further notice. The temporary freeze does not affect those applicants who have arranged employment offers or those who are applying under the PhD eligibility stream.

“We have been making lots of changes to our economic immigration system,” said Minister Kenney. “We will take the next six months to do a lot of the heavy lifting to get us closer to a fast and flexible immigration system.”

This temporary, yet indefinite, pause to the program will allow the government to catch up and process over 120,000 files in the backlog.  Applications filed before February 27, 2008 have been stuck as a result of the ministerial instructions implemented in 2008. 

The Minister promised that Citizenship & Immigration Canada will be consulting with provinces, territories and stakeholders on ways to reform the current immigrant investor program which is also currently frozen. 

Programs currently frozen; Federal Skilled Worker program, Federal Investor Program, Parents/Grandparents sponsorship, and the Federal Entrepreneur program.

For more information regarding these changes we strongly suggest that you contact our office.  Let one of our immigration advisers provide you with a free, no obligation consultation to determine your chances for immigration to Canada. 

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