Mar 30, 2012 | In the News, Legally Speaking, New Laws, Processing Times, Skilled Workers
On March 22 we posted an article in which we discussed what Citizenship & Immigration Minister Jason Kenney considered would be an option to reduce the current processing times and never-ending backlog. Today, we are continuing our discussion on this topic.
In releasing Canada’s Budget on Thursday March 29, the Department of Finance revealed that Immigration Canada intends to bar the door to applicants who submitted their Skilled Worker applications before 2008. We were under the impression that Minister Kenney’s ‘consideration’ was only such; however we are now beginning to understand more about the “Economic Action Plan of 2012”.
In a media release the Government of Canada is “proposing to return applications and refund up to $130 million in application fees paid by certain federal skilled worker applicants who applied under previous criteria established prior to February 27, 2008”. Canada’s commitment to transforming Canada’s immigration system to a faster and more flexible one will kill the hopes and dreams of thousands of foreign nationals who have been waiting for their applications to be processed for years, some waiting for more than 10 years.
In order to reduce long processing times and a large backlog, Citizenship & Immigration Canada introduced a new set of criteria under Bill C-50. The changes included a yearly quota of 20,000 applications in certain preferred occupations. A year later CIC reduced the quota to 10,000 applications per year. As a result less applications were filed, however the large backlog still remains and those in the pipeline are and will continue to wait for an indefinite period of time. Now we know that these applicants will never have their applications processed. They will be returned and money they paid will be refunded.
A class-action law suit was filed against the Federal Government by several applicants which has now grown to more than 600. We are expecting this number to continue to climb as applicants become aware of this news.
Economic Action Plan 2012 proposes:
- Taking further actions to strengthen the immigration system to make it truly proactive, targeted, fast and efficient in a way that will sustain Canada’s economic growth and deliver prosperity for the future.
- Announcing the Government’s intention to better align the Temporary Foreign Worker Program with labour market demands and to ensure that businesses look to the domestic labour force before accessing the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
- Signalling the Government’s intention to support further improvements to foreign credential recognition and to work with provinces and territories to identify the next set of target occupations for inclusion, beyond 2012, under the Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications.
- Proposing to return applications and refund up to $130 million in fees paid by certain federal skilled worker applicants who applied under previous criteria established prior to February 27, 2008.
Tell us what you think! We want to hear from you – comment and share this article below!
Did you submit your application prior to February 27, 2008? How long have you been waiting? How do you feel that your application will never be processed?
Mar 22, 2012 | Immigrate to Canada, In the News, Legally Speaking, New Laws, Permanent Residency, Skilled Workers
If you submitted your application prior to February 27, 2008 your application may never be processed. Minister Jason Kenney expressed that he is considering wiping out the current immigration backlog by introducing new legislation. This is similar to what New Zealand had done in 2003 to wipe its backlog.
In 2008, Minister Kenney gave priority to those applicants with specific work experience, and those who have job offers in Canada. This did help to reduce the number of overall applications, however it did not help those who applied prior to 2008. Those applications have been put on “hold”, if you will. The Minister said that at 80 per cent of skilled workers are being pulled from the backlog, 20 per cent are newer applications chosen under the new criteria.
As of September 2011, the current backlog includes 472,549 skilled worker applicants, 96,085 business class applicants and their dependants. The current worldwide wait for processing skilled worker applicants is approximately 8 years. Some applications are taking nearly 15 years to process.
Minister Kenney is considering creating legislation that would wipe the current backlog and allow for more timely processing of newer applications from people who can improve Canada’s economy. He proposed a “just-in-time” immigration system, one that would give me businesses a more important role in selecting immigrants. New Zealand created a “pool” from which it selected those applicants who benefited the current economy. Minister Kenney is planning to create a similar “pool” from which individual provinces could sift through applications for their own provincial nominee programs.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been waiting patiently for years for their applications to be processed. In October of 2011, 128 upset skilled workers launched a law suits in the Federal Court pleading the court to order CIC to process the dusty files. Now over 650 applicants from the following visa posts are involved: London, Vienna, Accra, Pretoria, Nairobi, Colombo, Singapore, Damascus, Bogota, Warsaw, New Delhi, Seoul, Port of Spain, Manila, Hong Kong and Beijing.
We’re interested to hear what you have to say about this. Comment below and share!
Dec 4, 2011 | Immigrate to Canada, Immigration, New Laws, Skilled Workers
Next year, Canada will be increasing the Federal Skilled Workers Program. Canada will be admitting up to 10,000 more skilled immigrants than in past years.
The increase in the number of workers will help address the demands of the job market, and help decrease years’ worth of pending applications to the program, the government has said.
The current priority of the government is still the economy. Minister Jason Kenney of the Ministry of Immigration and Multiculturalism says that the government recognizes the value of immigration to the Canadian labor market. Unlike other countries, Canada recognized the importance of the contributions made by skilled immigrants, because they add to Canada’s competitiveness in the international arena.
The government expects levels of immigration to remain fixed between 240,000-265,000, although during the next year, a big chunk of this number would be allowed to enter Canada under the Federal Skilled worker program. Just for this year alone, just fewer than 50,000 immigrants were allowed entry into Canada through this program, and that number is expected to increase to just fewer than 60,000 in 2012.
New studies done by the government show that the Federal Skilled Workers Program is successful, with 89% of immigrants who were allowed entry through this program being employed within 3 years, and 95% of those who hired them being very happy with the services rendered.
Minister Kenney says that the government will keep on exerting effort to improve the immigration system, so that it would be more responsive and adaptable to the needs of the labor market. Recently, the Canadian government has announced many changes to the immigration system. Keep an eye on our blog to learn about these as they happen. Of course, if you are interested in immigrating to Canada through the Skilled Worker Program, please give us a call so we can help you file your application today!
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