The essence of the new approach of immigration authorities is the priority selection of individuals closely connected to Canada, having work experience there or having received a job offer from a local employer. The functions of selecting immigrants are now transferred to the provinces, while federal authorities will mainly focus on verifying the reliability of applicants. Now obtaining permanent residence is no longer a well-established and simple procedure as it was until recently.
Now it is necessary to fulfill a number of preliminary conditions with further decision making depending on the evolving circumstances. This includes, among other things, regularly reviewing available immigration programs and choosing the one where the applicant has the highest chances of success.
How it was
For a long time, Canada was one of the few countries in the world that had a clear immigration policy with a large quota for accepting new residents (250 thousand people per year), aimed at businessmen and highly qualified specialists. For those who wanted to immigrate to Canada without having close relatives in the country and not falling under the refugee category, three immigration programs were available to choose from. The most popular one, the Skilled Worker Program, was intended for people with good education, a sought-after specialty, and work experience in that field. Almost half of all immigrants came through this program.
Given that there were no alternative immigration programs to Canada for specialists, all that was required for success was to achieve the passing score. The immigration process itself was relatively simple and straightforward: gathering documents, sending them to the embassy along with an immigration application. Then just waiting and following instructions sent by the embassy during the processing of the immigration case.
The other two programs were aimed at businessmen. For instance, the Entrepreneur program required a potential immigrant to have their own liquid assets of at least 300 thousand Canadian dollars and several years of business experience. A condition for proceeding under this program was the obligation to conduct business in Canada with the employment of at least one person for a period of no less than one year.
Another program, also aimed at businessmen, required the applicant to have personal savings of at least 800 thousand Canadian dollars, of which 400 thousand must be invested in Canadian investment funds for five years.
The procedure for these programs is similar to the Skilled Worker Program: gather a package of necessary documents, an immigration application with documentary evidence of available funds, and submit to the embassy. Then just follow instructions.
Undoubtedly, preparing documents and presenting oneself at the embassy required some effort, but the process itself, simple and clear, boiled down to the scheme "document preparation - submission to the embassy - waiting for an immigration visa." This scheme operated for a good two decades.
The problem, however, is that this approach is hopelessly outdated and no longer works. This is due to changes in the basic principles of immigrant selection that have occurred over the past few years. The turning point was 2010, when Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced plans to radically reform immigration policy. In fact, it was about rethinking what kind of immigrants Canada needs and how their selection should be conducted. As a result, the new immigration policy was based on the idea that the country should recruit young specialists who have close ties to Canada and are able to easily adapt to the country. Emphasis was placed on attracting primarily individuals with Canadian education and work experience in Canada. The second important point was granting provinces greater rights in selecting immigrants for a more even distribution across the country.
All this led to a radical change in immigration programs and their eligibility requirements. This, in turn, affected the strategy for immigrating to Canada. The "apply and wait" approach is now ineffective and in many cases simply does not work. Now, to become a resident of Canada, one will have to make much more effort, while facing much greater uncertainty than before.
Changes using federal programs as an example
If we summarize the changes that have occurred over the past 2-3 years in Canada's immigration policy, they can be reduced to the following points:
1. Almost all immigration channels where it was enough to submit an application with the necessary documents and simply wait for an immigration visa to be issued have been closed.
2. Preference will be given to individuals with Canadian education, work experience in the country, ties to Canada, proficiency in English or French, and knowledge of the Canadian system – that is, people who can easily integrate into Canadian society, quickly find employment, filling vacancies where there is a shortage of personnel.
3. Currently, there are a large number of immigration programs (about 50-60) offered by federal and provincial authorities. Moreover, they are most often aimed at the same category of immigrants, with slight differences in eligibility requirements.
The changes that have occurred have led to the total quota for the number of immigrant visas issued being evenly distributed among numerous immigration programs and streams. Therefore, applicants are forced to fit into the narrow limits of allocated quotas for a given program, which significantly reduces their chances of success. Those programs where an application can be submitted without much effort, against the backdrop of reduced quotas allocated to that program and a noticeable increase in those wishing to go through it, become unrealistic due to high competition from other applicants, making the chances of success minuscule.
As an example, we can cite the Federal Skilled Worker Class. The quota for accepting applications under it is only 5,000 per year. At the same time, there is a limited list of occupations, with a cap of 300 applications per year for each. Given that just a few years ago up to 100-120 thousand immigrant visas were issued per year under this program, it is obvious that the chances of going through it have significantly decreased. Currently, this program cannot be considered a reliable channel for immigration to Canada at all.
Under the new rules, before applying for immigration, you need to do a considerable amount of work. For example, you need to take a language test (the level requirements are quite high), have your diploma certified by Canadian accreditation bodies, gather documents, etc. However, having done all this work and prepared the required package of documents, there is no guarantee that your application will be accepted for processing. There are two main reasons for this.
The first is that by the time you are ready to submit your application, the quota for that program may already have been filled. For example, in 2011, the quota of 700 applications under the Investor program was filled within the first 30 minutes after the start of accepting applications. Therefore, for programs that have a quota, especially a small one, the chances of having your application accepted are extremely low.
The second reason is that in programs such as the Federal Skilled Worker Class (where there is a list of priority occupations), when the application intake is reopened (i.e., new quotas are allocated), this list may change, and consequently, you may lose the opportunity to submit an application.
In 2014, a new procedure for selecting immigrants by provinces will be introduced. Submitted applications will be added to a single database, from which provincial authorities, including local employers, will select those they need. Although details are not yet known, it can be assumed that applications not selected from the common database will be removed after some time. That is, with a high degree of probability, immigration to Canada under programs such as the Federal Skilled Worker Class will turn into a lottery with an unpredictable outcome.
Much more reliable are immigration programs and streams that have additional requirements, such as having an education obtained in Canada, work experience in Canada, or a job offer from a Canadian employer certified by HRSDC. These programs and streams have different conditions for accepting applications and processing immigrant cases, including the absence of quotas and the absence of a list of permitted occupations. That is, the probability of successful immigration here is significantly higher.
Based on this, we can conclude that if you just want to try, without much hope for a positive outcome, and are willing to spend time and effort on it, you can act according to the algorithm that was relevant up to 2008-2010. The chance of successful immigration remains, albeit a very small one. But you need to be prepared for various unpleasant surprises. If your immigration plans are serious, then to achieve the goal, you need to make additional efforts. This mainly involves studying in Canada and finding a job here.
Such are the realities of Canada's new immigration policy. Considering that these rules are just being introduced, we can confidently say that they will determine the trends in immigrant selection for the next decade.
To be continued.
Elena Ryabinina,
«Русский Торонто».