First of all, we have good news for International Students in Canada! It doesn’t matter if you missed the last EE “Amnesty“, Immigration Canada is expected to make some big moves this year! On the evening of February 18, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino suddenly posted an exciting tweet: “If you are currently studying or working in Canada on a valid visa, your chances of becoming a citizen are higher than ever.” For international students, this means that the best Time to immigrate, is almost here!
It is reported that due to the impact of the Epidemic and restrictions, Canada only accepted 184,000 new immigrants last year, falling short of its target of 341,000. To fill the gap, the Canadian government has set a target of 401,000 new immigrants for 2021. In order to meet its immigration target this year, Canada is actively “flooding” the country with applicants. Just this past weekend (February 13), Immigration Canada (IRCC) staged an unprecedented “blanket” invitation to all 27,332 in-country applicants in the Experience-based Immigration Express Channel (EE CEC category) pool at once, with a record low invitation score of 75 points.
The IRCC confirmed that the main reasons for doing so are.
First, 90% of the EE CEC category candidates were already living in Canada. They are less likely to have an immigration interruption due to the epidemic than offshore applicants, making the situation more secure and manageable.
Second, generally speaking, once a candidate receives an Immigration Invitation Letter (ITA), he or she needs to take a series of steps to complete the immigration process, including collecting and submitting documents, obtaining a certificate of innocence and medical clearance, submitting biometric information, and, of course, travelling to Canada. During an epidemic, it obviously becomes more difficult for out-of-country applicants to complete these steps.
Another reason is that numerous studies by the IRCC and Statistics Canada have shown that people with local Canadian work experience can integrate into the labour market more quickly, an advantage that is particularly important in these difficult economic times that Canada is facing.
In response, Kareem, a spokesperson for the immigration law firm, explained that the IRCC’s act of conducting such a large lottery is intended to allow more eligible in-country applicants to receive PR in order to meet the 2021 immigration target. kareem believes that with the government’s aggressive push, Canada is on track to achieve its target of 401,000 new immigrants this year.
According to the IRCC’s published immigration quota ratios for 2021: 60 percent for economic class immigrants; 25 percent for Family reunification; and 15 percent for refugee class immigrants. The economic class immigration target will be achieved primarily by making applicants from within Canada PR. In addition, a small number of out-of-country skilled immigrant applicants who are not subject to travel restrictions will be accepted. Family reunification immigrants are not subject to travel restrictions, and some applicants are currently in Canada, awaiting processing of their applications by the IRCC.
There will be a vacancy in the refugee category this year, and CIC News notes that each year Canada typically accepts more than 50 per cent of out-of-country refugee applicants + less than 50 per cent of in-country asylum seekers. Due to the epidemic, approximately 40,000 out-of-country refugee applicants will not be able to enter Canada this year, and the IRCC is likely to fill the 40,000 immigration quota gap by increasing the economic and family reunification categories.
Under the 2021 Economic Class Immigration Program, Canada aims to meet its 108,500 immigration quota through EE, and more than 37,000 (37,986) ITAs have been issued in the two months or so to date in 2021 (compared to only 10,300 issued in the same period in 2020).
If the IRCC wants to meet its quota target for the EE immigration program by the end of 2020-21, it will need to issue another 30,000 or so ITAs in the next two months (which means inviting at least 5,000 people every two weeks between now and April).
In addition to this, the IRCC will also meet its goal of 80,800 immigrants through the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) and absorb another 15,500 new immigrants through other federal pilot programs (such as the Atlantic Four Provinces Immigration Program AIP). Quebec also hopes to welcome 30,000 new immigrants this year.
With the exception of AIP, the processing time for most other economic class immigrants usually takes more than six months, and for PNP and Quebec, it can even take up to two years. Given the travel restrictions, the IRCC will need to speed up the processing of applications if it wants to meet its goal for this year.
The IRCC and provincial immigration ministries may agree to temporarily relax the criteria for the duration of the epidemic if the number of eligible applicants in the territory is currently too low to meet the starting immigration target. For example, the 12-month Canadian work experience requirement will be reduced to 6 months so that more people will have the opportunity to apply for and receive PR in 2021. let’s wait and see what the IRCC announces!
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