Last year, employers across Canada issued only 3.9 thousand invitations to specialists from abroad.
The growing backlog of unprocessed immigration applications at some embassies is causing processing times to increase, reaching 5-6 years at some embassies, for example in China and India. Moreover, the situation is worsening year by year, and it is clear that at some point it will simply be impossible to process these applications.
Attempts to somehow solve this problem have led the government to introduce restrictions for those who would like to come to Canada under the professional immigration category. That is, they decided to fight the backlog by tightening selection rules. In particular, the notorious list of most in-demand occupations (the 38 list) suggests that it was introduced primarily to deprive as many people as possible of the opportunity to immigrate to Canada. Another measure currently being considered by the Canadian government is a significant reduction in quotas for the number of immigration visas issued under the Skilled Worker category.
At the end of May, information from unofficial sources indicated that the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration Canada plans to tighten the rules for issuing work invitations. From the data that leaked to the press, it follows that this will primarily affect small and medium-sized businesses. Of course, this initiative in itself will hardly affect anyone, as obtaining a work invitation at present is almost impossible for the average applicant. What matters more is the message it sends, which is that the Conservative government continues to pursue a policy of erecting barriers for skilled professionals who wish to come to Canada.
It is worth recalling that with an officially issued work invitation, an applicant for immigration to Canada under the Skilled Worker category receives an additional 15 points. With a passing score of 67, such an addition undoubtedly plays a huge role. I would even say a decisive role. Moreover, with a work invitation, the requirements for English language proficiency are less stringent. In some cases, having a work invitation is the only chance to go through the immigration process – for example, for welders, plumbers, or electricians, whose professions are included in the list of eligible occupations but who do not have sufficient education and good command of English or French to achieve the passing score.
The implementation of the requirements of the "38 list", which closed the door to Canada for a very wide range of professions, also makes having a work invitation in Canada a desirable gift for many. The fact is that with it, you do not need to meet the requirements of the "38 list", that is, you do not need to obtain permission from the center in Sydney, but can submit the application and the full package of documents directly to the embassy. And finally, a work invitation relieves you of worries about finding a job.
From all sides, having a work invitation in Canada is a winning proposition, and anyone planning to immigrate to Canada undoubtedly thinks about obtaining one. Especially when points are not enough, English is not very good and one does not want to study it, or the notorious "38 list" stands in the way. However, the principle of "too good to be true" applies here. The trick with work invitations in Canada is that it is extremely difficult for an ordinary person to get one. Why? Below I will give a brief explanation.
The procedure for obtaining a work invitation consists of two important stages – finding an employer and the employer obtaining permission to hire you. Each of these stages is a very serious test.
Let's start with finding an employer who would give you a Job Offer – a work invitation. It is worth saying that the labor market in Canada is very tough and very conservative. Finding the right worker is generally not difficult for an employer; they almost always have a choice. Their task is only to select the best from among those who have applied for the job. Therefore, there is generally no need to invite specialists from abroad; there are always local ones. It should be noted here that the invited foreign specialist must be provided with a salary not lower than that of similar local workers. So the argument "I am ready to work for half of what locals are paid" does not work, as the employer simply does not have the right to do that.
The second point is the conservatism of the labor market that newly arriving immigrants face when getting their first job in Canada. This is expressed in the fact that employers ask to confirm the presence of work experience in Canada or Canadian education. Immigrants do not like this, but there are very serious reasons for it. First of all, it is the difference in quality standards of labor in Canada and abroad. Therefore, few Canadian employers want to take the risk of hiring a specialist who might spoil the assigned task. It must be considered that many jobs in Canada require licensing, and foreign workers naturally do not have these licenses. There is a different work culture and relationship building within the team. Finally, the language barrier – having an employee who poorly understands what is said to them and cannot explain what they need, especially when it comes to a complex and responsible task, is quite risky. All these factors combined make inviting workers from abroad unattractive.
Therefore, usually only those specialists are invited whom the employer knows well, or who meet specific requirements. For example, this could be the transfer of an employee within the same company that has offices and workplaces in different countries around the world. This could also be the invitation of a highly qualified specialist with a reputation, whose work for the company will give it a significant advantage over others. This could also be the invitation of a researcher engaged in promising research and development, or a lecturer at a university, etc. Finally, even if we are talking about welders, electricians, and plumbers, for whom demand has been quite high in recent years in the western provinces of the country, preference was given to workers from those countries where English is widely used or with which Canada has signed free trade agreements.
The second stage in the process of obtaining an invitation to work in Canada, after you have found an employer willing to issue a Job Offer, is for them to obtain permission to hire you. This permission is issued by the state organization Human Resources and Social Development Canada, which evaluates the employer from the standpoint of how reliable they are, whether they meet the stipulated criteria, and how necessary it really is for them to hire a worker from abroad. In this case, the potential employer must provide complete information about their company's activities, demonstrate a real need for the invited specialist, and prove that they cannot find such a person in Canada. All this bureaucratic red tape must be handled by the employer themselves, and as you understand, they must be truly interested in you to go through all these procedures.
Obviously, obtaining a work permit under such a complex scheme is very problematic. As a result, in 2008, across Canada, employers issued only 3,900 invitations to specialists from abroad. At the same time, government agencies approved only 2,038 (80%). Incidentally, in 2007, only 56% of the issued job offers were approved.
So, the result for 2008, which was one of the peak years in terms of the rise of the Canadian economy and, accordingly, when the greatest need for skilled labor was observed — only 2,038 officially processed job offers, with the total number of immigration visas issued under the Skilled Workers category alone exceeding 150,000, not counting provincial programs.
Nevertheless, people who are poorly acquainted or not at all familiar with the specifics of obtaining an invitation to work in Canada and the situation in this area view a Job Offer as a chance to immigrate easily and quickly. In response to the existing demand, many companies have emerged that promise to arrange a job offer for a certain fee. Naturally, in the vast majority of cases, these are fictitious invitations that do not provide any additional points and do not exempt from the preliminary selection according to the 'list of 38'. But the most unpleasant thing is that by submitting such an invitation along with documents to immigration authorities, the applicant thereby attempted to deceive the state bodies of Canada. As a result, their application is rejected and they are placed in the category of persons who are banned from entering Canada and re-applying for immigration for two years (which in practice means a much longer period).
Faced with this situation regularly, Citizenship and Immigration Canada was forced to place a corresponding warning on its website's main page. However, apparently, even among those job offers that were approved by HRDC, there were many fictitious ones. Currently, Citizenship and Immigration Canada is preparing new methods to combat this phenomenon.
It is proposed that only companies that have been operating for at least five years, have at least five employees, and have an annual income of at least $2.5 million will be able to invite a worker from abroad. That is, essentially, all companies that can be classified as small or medium-sized businesses are deprived of the right to invite workers from abroad.
What can be said about the new government initiatives, which, apparently, will be announced in late summer - early fall? The measures being taken are unlikely to solve the problem, since the trade in fake invitations has nothing to do with their approval by Canadian state bodies. What is interesting is something else: there is a feeling of a desire to create as many obstacles as possible for those going through the immigration process to Canada. This is largely explained by the fact that due to the economic crisis, the country no longer needs additional labor, and the conservatives in power traditionally view immigrants as additions to the labor market, not as an increase in the country's population. The second reason is the desire to reduce the number of applications waiting in line at embassies by any means. Be that as it may, the situation is currently such that the conservatives are doing everything to reduce immigration, increasingly tightening immigration policy. I can say quite unequivocally, based on our practice, that in recent months, the approach in embassies when reviewing immigration cases has become stricter, and the frequency of invitations for interviews has increased significantly. Also, the expected revision of the 'list of 38' did not happen.
Such a situation is unlikely to last long. First, the shock of the sudden crisis has passed and the Canadian economy is not in a dire state. Second, the Conservatives' approach to immigration and their desire to erect barriers causes discontent both in ethnic communities and among many Canadians. And if in recent years the Conservatives felt comfortable in the absence of strong competition from other parties (the December parliamentary crisis being an exception), now the situation has changed. The Liberal Party, after electing Michael Ignatieff as its leader, is rapidly gaining support in the country, while the Conservatives are making one mistake after another. Therefore, in a situation where the number of their supporters is shrinking, losing the votes of ethnic communities as well is dangerous for the Conservatives. And they will be forced to do something in the field of immigration to correct the negative image that has developed in recent years.
It looks like elections are not far off, and the press is actively discussing the possibility of them being held as early as mid-summer. Undoubtedly, this should have a significant impact on Canada's immigration policy. Especially if the Liberals can oust the Conservatives, then with a high degree of probability we should expect a serious change in selection approaches and a serious easing of the immigration procedure.
Elena RYABININA.
«Russian Toronto»