Canada's Immigration Bureau has issued an express entry (a system used to select so-called economic migrants) for all programs after a temporary suspension of pandemics and travel restrictions. The lottery will resume today. And with that.
This is good news for many who are stuck with a significant backlog of applicants seeking permanent residence, but CTV News. People who talked to ca say that long pauses and wait times led to uncertainty and suffering in their lives.
Canadian Immigrants, Refugees and Citizenship(IRCC) announced on July 6th that they will resume the Express Entry (EE)draw as an oif.
{12 The Canadian Experience Class (CEC) lottery has been withheld since September of last year. Meanwhile, the Federal Skilled Workers Program (FSWP) and the Federal Skilled Workers Program (FSTP) have been suspended since December 2020, more than 18 months ago.Canadian Immigration Minister Sean Frasertweeted: "Newcomers continue to play an important role in the success of the Canadian economy and we look forward to resuming this important program.
This decision is that Canada's current immigration backlog is 2.4 million and countries. It happens when you are facing a labor shortage.
"People have been waiting for a long time and I think the resumption of these draws is welcomed, especially for federal skilled workers, especially for Canadian experience classes", { Fragomen Canada, director of 24} and Rick Ramanna immigration service provider, told CTV News in an interview with Zoom.
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Many Canadian employers are highly skilled foreigners through a program introduced in 2015 that leads to permanent residence (PR). It relies on express entry designed to attract workers.
EE-based programs include parts of the Federal Skilled Workers Program (FSWP), Federal Skilled Workers Program (FSTP), Canadian Experience Class (CEC), and State Nominee Program (PNP). It will be.
According to a recent survey of major employers by the Canadian Business Council, employers are the most dependent on the global talent stream, FSWP, and CEC of all economic immigration programs.
However, due to the suspension of express entry programs such as FSWP and CEC, many employers have had difficulty filling jobs.
4 out of 5 respondents to the survey are experiencing labor shortages and delays in processing are considering hiring new entrants It was still the biggest barrier for two-thirds of Canadian employers.
Historical weekend draws and sudden pauses
Before the program pauses, the IRCC sent more than 27,000 economic migrants on the weekend of February 13, 2021 (Saturday). ) Was invited to apply under CEC. The largest lottery in the history of the express entry system.
Application Invitation (ITA) is the lowest score accepted from 75 toon theComprehensive Ranking System (CRS)CRS It was issued to the person of. Is a point-based system in which qualified candidates score based on factors such as age, education level, language skills, and work experience.
A few months later, in September 2021, the CEC and FSWP draws ceased, PNPs will be the main focus of all future draws, and other program applicants will be eligible for express entry. did not.
CTV News. In an email statement sent to ca, IRCC Media Relations Advisor Rémi Larivière said travel restrictions in 2020 and 2021 delayed processing of international applications and increased processing inventories.
"In September 2021, ITA temporarily under a federal highly skilled stream while continuing to run a PNP invitation round to manage its inventory. It's stopped. This pause was temporary, "says Larivière.
For express entry, you must first select and invite one, and then you can only apply.
However, the suspension meant that the IRCC suspended people's selection from a particular program for some time. Therefore, because these applicants were resident in the country, people in Canada were invited through PNP. The IRCC states that some of the
Express Entry systems are designed to reduce or suspend ITA to manage increasing inventories. With the resumption of ITA, the department expects to reduce sufficient processing inventory to process new applications within the 6-month service standard.
One of the problems when looking at the backlog is that the longer it takes someone to get a PR, the more applications they have to submit to maintain their status.
As an example, there is a student whose work permit program after graduation(PGWP) expires. To maintain your current status in Canada, you need to not only arbitrate your PR application, but also extend it.
"Therefore, it is more important to resume these draws," Ramanna said. "It's a good sign that the government has promised to do so this summer."
Life affected by an unexpected stop
Temporary September 2021 The outage affected those who planned their lives within a certain period of time. Since January 8, 2020, PNP has accounted for 52% of the total draw for Express Entry and CEC has only accounted for 29% of the total lottery.
Temporary suspensions have made it difficult for many to maintain their legal status in the country, some have lost their jobs and extended temporary work permits. I'm having a hard time doing it.
Even now that the lottery has resumed, some people still wonder what that means in terms of securing the future in a country they love. Others believe that they may not be able to meet the cutoff score they estimate to be very high.
'DRAWS MADE ME QUIT MY JOB'
Mikita Arlous came to Canada from Belarus in 2019 and graduated from Hamburg College during the 2020 pandemic. With a one-year PGWP — an open work permit that allows international graduates to work in Canada — his path to public relations seemed clear and manageable at the time.
But because I don't have a job today, Arlous relies on his savings and hasn't heard about his application for a work permit extension yet.
His 90-day interim period ends in mid-July and allows him to regain his position in Canada. If he fails to regain his position within the 90 days, he may not be able to live or work in the country and may have to return to Belarus.
Arlous cannot get medical care because he has no employment. As a cancer survivor, he needs an annual health check, which he can't do now.
"We were waiting for the extension of the work permit promised by Immigration Minister Sean Fraser two months ago, but there was no single update on how and when to apply," he said. .. I told ca as follows. Zoom call.
Mikita Arlous came to Canada in 2019, but after waiting a few months he hasn't heard about his application for a work permit extension yet.Fraser stated that the Immigration Bureau would extend the work permit for those affected by theCEC lottery, but no application for the extension was opened.
Fraser tweeted about the PGWP application extension, whose work license expires or expires between September 20, 2021 and December 31, 2022, on June 24. It was a day.
But for Arlou, these timelines are tight and the news is late.
"I'm stuck because I don't have a job right now. I don't do anything and spend days in bed thinking about the future," he said.
'The last eight months have been hell'
Like Arlou, Joshua Addis has put his life on hold after the September suspension.
He first came to Canada from the United Kingdom in February 2020 after obtaining a two-year openwork permit under theInternational Experience Canada (IEC). This is the route leading to CEC and ultimately PR.
However, the sudden outage of express entry disrupted Addis' plans to secure Canada's future.
"Immigration to Canada was the most stressful experience I have ever endured, so I sought expert help," Addis said on CTV News on Zoom Call. I told ca.
Joshua Addis and his partner Rosie. Addis said he submitted an extension of the work permit in January this year to maintain his working condition, but it took five months for the IRCC to refuse it.
He states that he has obtained a professional license, gained experience, paid taxes, spent time and effort to contribute to the local economy, and permeated the community and culture. I did.
Addis said he submitted an extension of his work permit in January this year to maintain his working condition, but it took five months for the IRCC to refuse it.
Currently there is no extension of work, he is currently unemployed and has no income, insurance or benefits.
If you have a visitor visa, he is not allowed to work or study under it.The announcement to continue the express entry draw has provided some relief, but it is still doubtful that Addis will meet the CRS cutoff.
"It's difficult to deal with uncertainty," Addis said. "It was hard to sleep and not know where I was in the coming months."
However, due to uncertainty, he sponsored common law, etc. It does not exclude other options.
"I couldn't get PR for another year and couldn't work in Canada while I was waiting," he said. "At least with the support of my family, I may be able to get permission from a civil servant in four to five months."
"I really am my partner, my job, and my You don't have to leave your house behind, but this situation has robbed us of our human rights, "he said.
'This whole situation is rude to us'
Pedro Carvalho came to Canada from Brazil with his wife in 2017. After graduating in 2019, the couple have lived and worked in Toronto.
"Our lives are stopped. We can't plan for the future. Immigration was a nightmare," Carvalho said on CTV News. I told ca with a zoom.
The couple applied for the Express Entry Program and received the ITA on July 22, 2021.
However, due to a technical problem with the online portal, the application was not made on time.
After many failed attempts, filling out a web form and not receiving useful assistance, he wants to cancel the application near the expiration date and put it back in the pool. did.
However, due to the unpredictable September suspension at Express Entry, he realized that there could be another ITA opportunity for the next nine months.
Pedro Carvalho and his wife Marini Slek
Carvalho are skeptical about achieving a CRS score in the July EE draw. .. His age.
"At least I don't think there is a chance for this lottery," he said.
Age is one of the criteria that the CRS score takes into accountThe younger the applicant, the higher the score. Under the point system, after the age of 40, the points will be reduced by 10 points each year.
The couple is currently navigating another route called PR from TR.
Carvalho and his wife are due to give birth in October and want to calm things down before that. However, as the work visa expires in November of this year, there are not enough options.
What's next?
According to the IRCC, the department continues to evaluate invitation round options tailored to current inventory, current and future levels of space and processing time goals.
In that statement, global migration was overturned by a pandemic, and application inventories increased during the pandemic with health and travel restrictions enabled.
"It will take some time to fully recover," Larivière said in an email.
IRCC continues the $ 317.6 million new funding announced in thebudget 2022
, with the government promising $ 2.1 billion over five years. He said he had raised $ 85 million from. The 2021 Economic and Fiscal Updateaims to reduce the application backlog accumulated during a pandemic by hiring processing staff, digitizing applications, implementing technology-based solutions, and more. increase.
According to the IRCC, there are approximately 5,460 employees dedicated to processing, including support staff and processing personnel across the vast processing network. As of June 2022, since the pandemic began in March 2020, the department has hired more than 1,200 additional staff across the processing network.
But Ramanna said there was no magic bullet to end these huge backlogs overnight.
"There are many people in Canada who depend on immigrants, both inside and outside Canada," Ramanna said. "We want people to have some certainty, whether they apply in paper or online, so the government is trying to fix what the government wants to do. Let's see how we work. ”
But for many migrants, the combination of backlog overcoming, delays, lack of communication, and transparency seems to have lost the fight." I feel it.
"We don't know what we're trying to do," Carvalho said. "We've been working here for five years and the whole situation is rude to people like us. I thought everything was organized and kind to people, but I don't seem to care.
