This is Joy Stephen from IRCC news coming to you from the Polinsys Studios in Cambridge, Ontario. Today is January 01, 2022
2021 For Canada Immigration: A snapshot: The Corona Virus or the Global Pandemic continued to influence movement to Canada and we have seen significant impact on the entire system. Major adjustments were made during 2020 and 2021 to address the pandemic. Several Provinces nominated Permanent Residents but many newcomers such as COPR holders waited without direction overseas as the virus levels were threatening movement across borders. Not withstanding the challenges, Canada has achieved a high landing figure of over 401K new Canadian Permanent Residents in 2021 Some of the strategies IRCC adopted to achieve this high number was to transition many temporary Canadian Residents to Permanent Residency. IRCC focussed on Canadian Experience Class to achieve this high level of intake in 2021. Some of the momentous events in 2021 which led to these high numbers were February 13, 2021 draw of selecting 27,322 candidates drawn from the express entry pool of CEC or Canadian Experience Class candidates.
In May IRCC launched six temporary streams by establishing a intake quota of upto 90000 essential workers and international graduates who were currently Canadian Temporary Residents. By around June, IRCC improved their processing capacity by landing 35K Permanent Residents per month mostly from inside Canada and recent months has seen landings of over 45K monthly Currently IRCC’s backlog of mostly international applications has grown to around 1.8 million applications which they admit is primarily because they are now strategizing in-Canada applicants because of the Pandemic situation.
IRCC is also committed to take in more international applicants after the Pandemic and 2022 looks promising. India remains Canada’s major source country for International Immigrations and flight and travel restrictions could impact Canadian Immigration programs as well.
IRCC has adapted itself during a crisis and has made changes on how it handled some challenging situations. PGWP holders were allowed to apply for a one time extension of their Open Work Permit if it expired so as to allow them the opportunity to apply for Canadian Permanent Residence which was impacted by the Pandemic The pandemic is likely to continue to pose challenges but the immigration policy and goals on the long term remains unchanged.
