Canada unveils measures to help international students become permanent residents
Credit to Author: Nicholas Keung| Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2022 19:29:59 +0000
The immigration department will resume its federal economic immigration programs in July and extend international students’ expiring work permits while they are waiting for their permanent residence application to be processed.
Canada will resume the federal economic immigration programs in July after a lengthy suspension that has left many international students in limbo without a pathway for permanent residence.
The immigration department will also allow those with expiring postgraduate work permits this year to remain in Canada for an additional 18 months while it continues to tackle a backlog that has reached 1.8 million across all immigration and citizenship programs.
Along with a string of other special measures, the changes are intended to address the crisis faced by thousands of international students who have run out of, or are running out of, status in Canada and face the prospects of having to leave the country.
“With the economy growing faster than employers can hire for new jobs, Canada needs to look at every option so that we have the skills and labour needed to fuel our growth,” Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said in a prepared statement Friday.
“Immigration will be crucial to address our labour shortage, and these measures aim to address pressing needs in all sectors across the country while providing more opportunity for recent graduates and other applicants to build their lives in Canada and continue contributing to our short-term recovery and long-term prosperity.”
The pandemic has wreaked havoc on Canada’s immigration system as travel restrictions and lockdowns here and abroad throughout most of 2020 and 2021 delayed the processing of overseas applications, which led to the ballooning backlog.
As a result, Ottawa last year suspended its flagship federal economic immigration programs — the Canadian experience, federal skilled workers and skilled trades streams — that were among the popular pathways for international students to obtain permanent residence after graduation.
Officials said they managed to cut those programs’ “inventory” by half — from 111,900 people in September 2021 to just 48,000 people by March this year. They hope it will be further reduced by July to return to the service standards in place before the pandemic.
Last May, the immigration department also launched a one-time special program for some students and migrants employed in essential jobs during the pandemic to become permanent residents. However, the processing of the applicants has taken longer due to the pressing needs for Ottawa to resettle displaced Afghans and now Ukrainians to Canada.
To avoid those applicants falling through the cracks while being stuck with a lengthy wait inside Canada, immigration officials will now allow applicants to leave the country while their application is being processed. The ones with expiring work permits, in the meantime, will also be eligible to extend their work authorization until the end of 2024. Their family members outside Canada will also be able to join them on an open work permit.
Posted with permission from Toronto Star.
The post Canada unveils measures to help international students become permanent residents first appeared on Canadian Immigrant.
http://canadianimmigrant.ca/feed