Canada Immigration Visas

The Canadian government has released a timetable of meetings to be held between Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and state officials in various Canadian provinces. The meetings will be aimed at discussing which occupations will be considered worthy of allowing migrants into Canada under the new fast-track immigration system and which would not.

Following the changes made to the Immigration and Refugee Act on 18 June, the government now has the right to process the applications of certain migration hopefuls over others based on their occupation.

If an application is lodged by someone who possesses much-needed skills, they could be granted the right to live and work in Canada in as little as six to twelve months. Recently, applications have taken as long as six years to be processed due to a crippling backlog.

According to the CIC website, the government aims to achieve three goals during the meetings with provincial representatives, they are: to Improve Canada’s competitiveness and more closely align the skills of newcomers with Canada’s labour shortages; to ensure that immigration targets are met and to ensure the backlog does not grow; and that people who apply for Canadian migration receive a decision quickly.

The CIC has also mentioned that three main discussion themes will form the basis of the consultations:

1. The role of the immigration program in addressing specific labour market needs
2. Occupational pressures in each participants’ workplace, industry, sector and region
3. Federal skilled worker applications filed on or after February 27, 2008: prioritization of those applications meeting labour market needs, return of others.

Canadian migration expert Eric Katz commented: “It is clear that Canada is going the way of Labour Market immigration. In other words, demand for certain types of immigrants with specific skills will dictate who gets in or more specifically who gets in quickly (i.e. in 6 – 12 months).

I honestly believe that this occupations that are currently under pressure on a Province by Province basis will be getting their cases fast-tracked to between 6 and 12 months. If you look at the Regional Occupational lists of jobs under pressure or some of the Provincial Nominee Programs, you will be able to read between the lines to see where the Feds are going with this.

Since the last National Roundtable of consultations is August 15th, it is likely that the actual job list will come into effect sometime in September”.

Follow the links to view the Regional Occupations Under Pressure Lists for:
Alberta
British Columbia
Ontario