More immigration options offered by Canada to temporary residents for permanent residency

Canada will offer more permanent residency options for temporary residents.

Immigration minister Marco Mendocino told Bloomberg, “for those who are already in Canada and on a temporary basis, we need to see if there is a way to accelerate their journey to becoming a permanent resident.”

None of the final details have been announced yet officially, but some good options may help internationals temporary residents in Canada such as students, temporary workers, or asylum seekers to benefit as follows:

• easy access to extending the length of temporary work permit durations to give candidates more time to gain the Canadian work experience they need to be eligible to apply for an immigration program such as the Canadian Experience Class.
• an introduction of a new pilot program specified only for temporary residents
• holding program-specific Express Entry draws
• modifying Express Entry’s Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) to provide more points for Canadian experience as temporary residents have either completed a degree from Canada or have professional work experience
• modifying eligibility criteria for federal programs such as reducing the barriers of points against a number of qualification or work experience years

The good news for foreigners who are already in Canada is that Canada is considering offering them permanent residency. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that we should provide permanent residence to the temporary residents of Canada in order to reduce the economic loss of migration. Canada admitted only 128,430 permanent residents between January and August, half the number in the same period last year. At current rates, Canada will have 150000 permanent residents this year, less than the target of 341,000.

Canada announced a few days ago that the country will provide permanent residency to more than 1 million temporary students, laborers, and refugees living as Foreign workers, asylum seekers. The government will wait a very short time for the “domestic immigration pool” to identify workers, students, asylum seekers who have skilled seats that are compatible with essential services in the economy. The Immigration Minister said it’s important for Canada to identify how it could accelerate the flow of permanent residency for international students, temporary foreign workers, and asylum seekers already in the country.

According to official figures from August, the number of permanent residents has dropped by 60% year-on-year. There has been a significant drop resident in residency in 2019. The number of temporary residents in the first six months of 2020 is over 18,000 and in 2019 it was 190,000, indicating a clear shortage of temporary residents.

Canada issued once again the largest express entry draw by issuing 4,500 invitations a second time in a row. Canada has issued 87,350 ITA’s this year so far. The highest number of invitations ever issued was in 2018 when it reached 89,800. The latest draw was held on 5 November and it had a CRS score cut of 478.

New immigration policy 

On October 30, 2020, the Honourable Marco Mendicino, Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, tabled the 2021‒2023 Immigration Levels Plan that will allow 401,000 immigrants in 2021, 411,000 in 2022, and 421,000 in 2023.