Category: Immigration News

Canada’s immigration minister restated his promise to improve processing times for work permits during meetings with the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

Last week, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser told the committee that Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) would use its $85 million budget to reduce processing times that the pandemic has exacerbated. The minister had previously announced that service standards for work permits, study permits, proof of citizenship, and permanent residence card renewals would return to normal by the end of 2022.

The IRCC webpage estimates processing times for work permits submitted from most countries are currently not meeting the processing standard. Nonetheless, IRCC is processing a higher level of work permits. In 2021, Canada issued some 420,000 under the International Mobility Program (IMP) and Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). In 2019, the total was about 405,000.

The TFWP allows Canadian employers to hire foreign nationals to fill labor shortages in Canada. The IMP promotes Canada’s broad economic, social, and cultural interests.

The processing standard for work permits submitted outside of Canada is 60 days, except for International Experience Canada (IEC) work permits, which are supposed to be processed in 56 days. Work permit extensions submitted in Canada have a processing standard of 120 days. Before the pandemic, IRCC met these standards more than 87 percent of the time. However, official data on how often IRCC met its service standards in 2020-2021 have not yet been released.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, IRCC operations worldwide halted operations. The result eventually led to a backlog in applications. As of February 1, IRCC has more than 85,000 work permit applications in its inventory.

IRCC Assistant Deputy Minister Daniel Mills was also at the committee meeting. Mills said in French that the $85 million budget would not improve processing times for permanent residents. Still, it will allow IRCC to develop tools such as electronic application systems and online application trackers. Minister Fraser had previously noted that processing for new spousal sponsorship applications has returned to the one-year standard.

The Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration is a group of Canadian politicians from major political parties that conduct studies and offer policy recommendations on improving the immigration system.

The importance of fast work permit processing

According to the latest job vacancies report, Canada had nearly 900,000 job openings this past November. Immigration has long been touted as a strategy to support labor market growth in Canada.

Since employers in specific industries have long demonstrated a consistent need for foreign talent, some work permits have expedited processes for workers in specific sectors. The Global Talent Stream, for example, has a processing standard of 10 business days. It is meant for employers in the tech sector to onboard foreign talent.

The LMIA is required for the hiring of some foreign nationals. The Canadian government may require a labor market test to demonstrate that a worker in Canada is unavailable to do the job. In addition, Canada offers fast-tracked LMIA processing for the GTS and Quebec facilitated occupations list.

In 2021, about one-quarter of work permits granted required an LMIA. The remaining 75 percent did not require an LMIA.

Staying in Canada

If workers apply to extend their status before their work permit expires, they can stay in Canada on a maintained level until IRCC decides. Then, they are allowed to work under the same conditions as their work permit, staying in Canada while waiting. The maintained status could also apply to study permit holders and visitors applying to extend their temporary status.

If the worker applies for permanent residence, they may be able to get a Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP), which will allow them to stay in Canada until their application is processed.

The Canadian government will provide a significant update by February when it announces its Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024.

The announcement will contain Canada’s immigration targets for this year and the next two years, as well as the number of new immigrants Canada will seek to welcome under its various economic, family, and humanitarian class programs. It will be the first such announcement since Canada made the surprise announcement in October 2020 it would seek to welcome over 400,000 new immigrants per year moving forward, or about 40,000 more per year than its previous targets.

Under Canada’s primary immigration law, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), the federal government must announce by November 1st of each year when Parliament is sitting. If Parliament is not sitting, the announcement must be made within 30 sitting days of Parliament reconvening.

The announcement usually occurs by November 1st of each year, but it did not happen in 2021 since the Canadian government dissolved Parliament due to its September election. Following the election, a new session of Parliament began on November 22nd.

Parliament sat for 20 days before taking a holiday break. It will reconvene on January 31st, which means immigration minister Sean Fraser must make the new levels plan announcement by Friday, February 11th at the latest. The Canadian government has announced the deadline in recent history and has rarely reported it earlier unless the deadline fell on the weekend. If this remains the case this year, the announcement will likely occur in the second half of the week of February 7.

Of note is that the Canadian government will also very likely table a second levels plan this year by November 1st. However, the regularly scheduled announcement will be the Immigration Levels Plan 2023-2025. It will go ahead as planned, barring the improbable scenario the Canadian government decides to hold an election for the second consecutive year.

Under the current Immigration Levels Plan 2021-2023, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will welcome 411,000 new permanent residents to Canada this year. In 2021, IRCC achieved its goal of landing 401,000 immigrants, the highest level in Canadian history. IRCC made the target last year amid the challenging pandemic environment by transitioning temporary residents currently living in Canada to permanent residence.

The current plan aims to welcome 241,500 economic class immigrants to Canada this year through Express Entry, the Provincial Nominee Program, Quebec’s programs, among other pathways. This accounts for 59 percent of Canada’s immigration target.

IRCC is looking to welcome 103,500 family class immigrants through the Spouses, Partners, and Children Program and the Parents and Grandparents Program. This is 26 percent of IRCC’s immigration target.

The remaining 66,000, or 15 percent of the newcomer target, will be welcomed to Canada on refugee and humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

These proportions have been sustained since the mid-1990s when the Canadian government decided to focus admissions on economic class arrivals to help alleviate the economic and fiscal challenges arising from Canada’s aging population and low birth rate. This year’s plans are likely to stick closely to these proportions.

However, what may change is the total number of immigrants Canada chooses to target in the coming years. On the one hand, the Canadian government may be satisfied with their already ambitious targets and decide to keep them as is. This would mean simply continuing to slowly increase annual admissions now that the baseline is over 400,000 immigrants. By way of comparison, the baseline was about 250,000 immigrants annually until 2016. Another consideration is that the Canadian government may want to refrain from significant increases to tackle its backlogs, which currently stand at 1.8 million permanent and temporary resident applicants waiting in the queue.

On the other hand, Fraser has indicated an openness to increasing the targets even further depending on stakeholder feedback. The minister noted he would listen to community groups and employers to see whether they desire to welcome more immigrants.

One may argue that Canada’s immigration targets are already high, and the government should put the brakes on higher levels for a few reasons. For example, backlogs need to be contained, communities across the country have housing affordability issues, and historically speaking, welcoming immigrants amid periods of the economic downturn has hurt the labor force outcomes of newcomers.

Conversely, proponents of higher levels may argue that Canada needs higher levels to support its post-pandemic economic and fiscal recovery and that more immigrants are needed to alleviate labor shortages. Higher targets can also be justified on the grounds they may allow IRCC to reduce its backlogs more quickly. In addition, higher targets may be necessary to accommodate the government’s goal of resettling 40,000 Afghan refugees.

What is certain is we will not be guessing for long as the February 11 deadline is just around the corner.