China News Service, April 24. According to Canada's "Sing Tao Daily" report, Canada's federal immigration minister Sean Fraser recently announced that the overseas skilled immigration and Canadian experience category immigration express entry lottery will be resumed in July this year.
Fraser said the Department of Immigration will reinstate the three categories of Express Entry: Canadian experience class, federal skilled worker class and federal skilled trades class in early July. Lottery for permanent immigrant applicants.
These three immigration categories are collectively referred to as the "federal high-skilled streams" category.
The Department of Immigration said that in 2020 and most of 2021, the process of processing applications for overseas permanent residents has been significantly delayed due to international travel restrictions, which has led to a significant increase in the backlog of cases.
"In response to these backlogs, we have temporarily suspended draws and invitations for federal high-skilled immigrants. Invitations will now be resumed and most new applications will be processed within the required service standard of six months."
The Department of Immigration said that during the suspension of the draw, the department focused on processing the backlog of cases, which reduced the backlog from 111,900 in September 2021 to 48,000 in March this year.
The backlog will be reduced further by July this year, allowing the Department of Immigration to return to the service standards that applicants have come to expect.
Fraser also announced that international students on post-graduation work permits (PGWPs) that expire at any time throughout the year will be eligible for up to an additional 18 months. Open work visas, so that these newly graduated international students can work and stay in Canada longer, gain more work experience, and create more opportunities for permanent residents.
The Department of Immigration pointed out that there are about 95,000 international students whose post-graduation work permits will expire in 2022. Except for some of them who have successfully obtained immigration status or have applied for other types of work permits, it is estimated that about 50,000 of them will benefit. on this new open work permit policy.
In 2021, 157,000 former international students have successfully become permanent residents of Canada.
Among them, 88,000 were directly converted from holding post-graduation work permits to permanent residents.
The Department of Immigration noted that 156,000 permanent resident applications were concluded between January and March 2022, doubling the number for the same period in 2021.
Related to this, Canada welcomed a total of 113,000 new immigrants to the port in the first quarter of this year.
More than 100,000 work visa applications were also approved in the first quarter of this year, also nearly doubling from the same period last year.
The new policy, which will take effect in July, also includes the removal of the immigration requirement that applicants must remain in Canada while their case is being processed.
People who apply for an open work visa while awaiting final approval for their permanent resident application will be granted a work visa valid until the end of 2024.
This move ensures that all permanent resident applicants will not need to apply for an extension of their residency status until the final result of their permanent application is received.
In addition, immediate family members of the main applicant for family group immigration, if they have submitted a permanent resident application together with the main applicant, are also eligible to apply for a Canadian open work visa separately while waiting for the approval result.