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Canada’s immigration system is poised for a frenzied end to what has been an eventful 2020.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is expected to continue holding Express Entry draws during the holiday season. In previous years, there were at least two draws in December. The activity of the Provincial Nomination Program (PNP) is also expected to continue. In previous years, PNP draws took place until Christmas Day, which is a national holiday in Canada.
Additionally, there may be some upcoming news about Canada’s Ministerial Letters of Mandate, the Parents and Grandparents Program, and additional immigration pathways for international students and temporary foreign workers residing in Canada.
Here are five top immigration stories to follow for the rest of the year.
First big story: Letter of new mandate for Minister Marco Mendicino
We can expect Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to issue new mandate letters to his ministers before Christmas. The prime minister’s mandate letters outline the political goals each minister will strive to achieve. They are made public so that Canadians can ask the government to account for them.
The letter to Canadian Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino will provide more details on what is on the government’s agenda in terms of immigration.
The new letter to Mendicino will guide his efforts and the efforts of the IRCC, provinces and territories, and immigration stakeholders across Canada as they work to get the immigration system back on track after the coronavirus pandemic.
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Canada’s immigration priorities will include implementing the 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Plan and could include discussions on new initiatives such as the Municipal Nomination Program and the elimination of Canadian citizenship taxes.
Second important story: Express Entry
Two more Express Entry draws are scheduled for December. The next draw is scheduled to take place around December 2, two weeks after the previous Express Entry draw, when Canada invited a record 5,000 immigration candidates to apply for permanent residency.
Thereafter, there will likely be another draw around December 16th. In previous years, there was a gap of three to four weeks between the last draw of the year and the first draw of the new year.
This has been a bumper year for Express Entry despite COVID-19 with Canada already inviting 92,350 immigration candidates in 2020, the highest level ever. Canada could end the year by surpassing 100,000 invitations to apply for the first time since Express Entry was born in 2015.
Third important story: the PNP
Canadian provinces are expected to conduct PNP drawings during the holiday season. It is not uncommon to see PNP activities up until a few days before the Christmas holidays on December 25th.
Prince Edward Island has a draw scheduled for December 17, where they will likely invite applicants through the work impact, express entry, and business impact streams.
BC is also expected to continue to have weekly draws, inviting candidates through the Tech Pilot.
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Ontario is expected to hold a tie next month. Currently, the popular destination for new immigrants has at least 386 applications left from their annual budget. This, after receiving an additional 250 applications for temporary foreign workers in intermediate skilled occupations.
Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia can also hold draws in December, based on the PNP activities of these provinces from the previous year.
Fourth Main Story: Parents and Grandparents Program Draw
The IRCC opened the Parent and Grandparent Program (PGP) sponsor interest forms in October and closed it in early November. It is likely to hold the 2020 PGP drawing by December and therefore expects to receive applications from sponsors who were drawn from the lottery in January and February 2021.
For 2020, the IRCC will invite up to 10,000 sponsors to apply to sponsor parents and grandparents for Canadian immigration. Next year, the IRCC is expected to invite up to 30,000 sponsors.
Fifth important story: Canada will offer more PR pathways to TRs
Mendicino recently told Bloomberg that Canada is looking for more ways to allow temporary residents to switch to permanent residents. This should help offset the decline in new immigrants admitted to Canada during the pandemic, which has also taken a severe blow to Canada’s population and economic growth. While we don’t know exactly when this announcement will be made, it’s worth staying on the radar. While it may arrive as soon as December, the IRCC sometimes delays such important announcements until after the holidays.
There are several ways the federal government can create multiple permanent residency routes for temporary foreign workers and international students. Here are some of the options the IRCC could employ to allow more temporary residents to become Canadian permanent residents.
Option 1: Changing the SR
The Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) awards points to Express Entry candidates with both foreign and Canadian work experience and education. If the government wants to make immigration easier for temporary residents, it can choose to increase the amount of points Canadian work experience and education are worth under the CRS. The more CRS points an Express Entry candidate has, the more likely they are to be invited to apply for permanent residency.
As things stand, individual Express Entry candidates (i.e., candidates without a spouse or common law partner) can earn up to 210 CRS points for Canadian qualified work experience and education. They can earn up to 80 points for Canadian work experience, as well as up to 100 points for having a combination of post-secondary education and Canadian work experience, and Canadian work experience and work experience abroad. Applicants can also qualify for up to 30 additional points by having a Canadian education credential.
Already this year, Canada made knowledge of the French language more valuable on the CRS. IRCC now awards up to 50 additional points for French and English speaking Express Entry candidates, up from 30 CRS points prior to this change.
Option 2: Organize multiple draws specific to the Canadian experience class
Another option the federal government has is to organize multiple Express Entry draws that are only for Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates. The IRCC already implemented this strategy earlier this year. They organized Express Entry draws only for CEC candidates and the Provincial Nomination Program (PNP) in an effort to prioritize immigration candidates who were already in the country in light of the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Option 3: Change the eligibility criteria for the CEC
The federal government could also make it easier to be eligible for the CEC by reducing the requirement for applicants to have at least 12 months of skilled work experience.
Immigrants were disproportionately represented in the hardest hit sectors when nearly two million jobs were lost last April. Likewise, people who are in Canada with a limited-time work permit may also have lost their jobs or experienced reduced hours due to COVID-19. This could compromise their ability to gain that year of work experience they need to be admitted to the CEC.
Reducing the eligibility requirement for CEC work experience from 12 months to nine or six months, for example, may allow some of these people who have been interested to join the Express Entry candidate pool.
Option 4: Increase PNP allocations for provinces
The IRCC can also empower provinces and territories with greater immigration screening powers by increasing the number of people they can nominate through their Provincial Nomination Program (PNP). For example, the IRCC can tell provinces that the increased appropriations can only be used for the appointment of temporary residents already residing in their respective jurisdiction.
Option 5: Launch new federal pilot programs
The federal government has the ability to launch new pilot programs to support the needs of the Canadian job market. Drivers can race for up to five years and allow admission of up to 2,750 leading candidates per year.
This option, however, would not be sufficient to provide significant numbers of additional immigration points to the hundreds of thousands of temporary residents currently in Canada.
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