Canadian Immigration Application Fees to Increase

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced the federal government’s proposed budget on Thursday, which calls for increased fees on citizenship and temporary resident visa applications and increased spending on application processing (Maria Azzurra Mugnai)

Immigration processing fees are going to increase, according to a proposed federal budget released on Thursday.

The cause of the coming fee hikes, according to Alexis Pavlich, a spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, is Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) processing costs for citizenship applications that have increased over the last two decades, without any increases in fees over that time.

Fees currently paid by individuals applying for citizenship only cover 20 percent of the processing cost, and the rest is paid out of taxes levied on the general population. CIC plans on doubling the processing fee for citizenship applications to $400, to reduce the portion paid out of general revenues to 60 percent.

As of September 2012, there were 319,517 citizenship applications awaiting processing, and only enough funding for CIC to process 160,000 of them. The proposed budget allocates $44 million in additional funding over two years to speed up the processing of the remaining citizenship applications, and gives CIC the authority to increase fees to pay for the spending.

Fees for temporary resident permits are also likely to increase. Canada has seen the number of visitor visas issued per year increase to over one million in 2012, and the federal government plans to spend $42 million over two years to process them more quickly. To fund the extra spending, the government is planning to allow CIC to raise application fees for visitor visa applications.

Fees for temporary resident visas haven’t increased for 15 years, according to Pavlich.

Another area where federal officials hope to collect more money is in work permit applications. Currently, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) handles the labour market assessments required for work permit applications at no cost to the employer who is seeking to hire the foreign national.

The federal government plans to begin charging companies a fee for the labour market assessments.

Changes to Arranged Employment Stream of Federal Skilled Worker Program

The Services Canada centre in Ottawa Centre. Applicants under the arranged employment stream of the Federal Skilled Worker Program need to include a positive Labour Market Opinion from Services Canada (HRSDC) with their application beginning May 4, 2013 (GOOGLE MAPS)

Changes will be coming to application requirements under the arranged employment stream of the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) on May 4, 2013, according to an announcement by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) this week.

Individuals with arranged employment in Canada and those enrolled in or who have graduated from a PhD program at a Canadian educational institution are the only groups of people who are currently eligible for the FSWP, as the program is suspended in preparation for the launch of new selection rules for the general application stream on May 4th.

In order for applicants outside of Canada to qualify for the FSW arranged employment stream, they are required to submit an Arranged Employment Opinion (AEO) issued by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) for a skilled job (NOC skill level A or B), along with their application.

Applicants that are in Canada with a work permit at the time of their application are not required to submit an AEO.

According to this week’s notice, starting May 4th, CIC will require applicants outside of Canada to submit a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) instead of an AOE along with their application.

A LMO is typically issued by HRSDC to employers seeking a work permit for a foreign national they are interested in employing in Canada, and shows that the employment of the foreign national in Canada would likely not negatively affect Canadian jobs in the opinion of HRSDC.

Changing to requiring LMOs is expected to simplify government processes and save on procedural costs.