While other developed countries close their doors to foreigners, Canadian Minister Jason Kenney is ready to accept even more immigrants
While other countries constantly make the immigration process more difficult, Canada steadily increases immigration quotas each year, accepting more and more people wishing to move to the country. So immigration lawyers in Canada are not at risk of being out of work. The rules of immigration selection change periodically—the country tries to create the most favorable conditions precisely for those categories of people it needs most at the time.
At first glance, it seems that the change in rules leads to a tightening of the selection of applicants, but in fact this is far from the case. After all, the overall quotas for the number of immigrants increase annually, which means that more and more categories of people can immigrate. For example, if higher education was previously almost a mandatory requirement, now many people with a good professional diploma have a chance to successfully go through the immigration process and obtain the right to reside in Canada, and over time, citizenship.
At the end of last year, Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, presented the country's annual report for 2009 and plans for 2010-2012 to parliament. The report clearly stated that while other countries have reduced immigrant entry quotas (perhaps as a temporary short-term measure in response to the global economic downturn), the Canadian government is instead supporting and even increasing entry quotas in the long-term perspective of using the knowledge and skills of immigrants in the future. Canada plans to accept about 240-265 thousand new permanent residents in 2010, which is more than the number of immigrants in previous years (for example, 233 thousand in 2009). The main emphasis will be on professional and business immigration—that is, on people capable of supporting and developing business in Canada in the post-crisis period.
Minister Kenney also noted that the ranges of passing quotas for immigrants under provincial programs in 2010-2012 will be increased. This is because provinces and territories can better assess their current labor needs than the federal government, and accordingly, can more effectively adjust their provincial immigration program. Additionally, closer cooperation at the federal and provincial levels in immigration is expected to be developed, which will allow for a more targeted selection of immigrants under the federal program, but in accordance with regional needs.
Increasing the total number of immigrants and transferring larger quotas to the provinces will allow the federal government to process applications faster for those under the federal skilled immigration program (which has been the subject of many complaints in recent years). Jason Kenney stated that now people under the federal skilled immigration program can expect a final decision within 6-12 months (under the old system, processing of applicants' files took from 3 to 6 years). The minister also noted that over the past year, the backlog for processing federal applicants under the skilled immigration program has been reduced from 630,000 to 425,000 people, i.e., by 30%.
If we recall that the total annual quota is 240-265 thousand immigrants, most of which falls precisely on the federal program, we can agree with the minister and hope that now the time from submitting documents to obtaining visas will indeed be 1-2 years.
Improving the federal skilled immigration program is part of the Canadian government's long-term strategy to modernize the entire immigration system and maximize its contribution to the country's overall economic recovery. Although this change is primarily aimed at meeting the needs of the Canadian government, it will also successfully affect those who plan to immigrate to Canada, minimizing their waiting time for visas.