Category Archives: federal skilled worker

Immigration Department: 1 Year Canadian Experience Class Launching Jan 2013

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Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney tweeted more details in recent days about coming changes to the Canadian Experience Class and Federal Skilled Worker programs

The length of time that a temporary foreign worker needs to have worked full-time in the Canada to qualify for permanent residence under the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) immigration program will be reduced from 24 months to 12 months in January 2013, according to a tweet by Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

The long expected change in the CEC program’s work experience requirement is intended to increase the share of immigrants that come through the program, as Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) considers immigrants with Canadian work experience as more likely to be successful in integrating into Canada’s labour market than those who are admitted under more traditional routes like the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program.

The announcement on the date of the CEC program rule change was made in a response to a tweet directed to Kenney, who is quite active on the micro-blogging site, on November 5th:

@KaushikJay The new 1 year threshold for high-skilled temporary foreign workers to qualify for CDN Experience Class will start January, 2013

In a series of tweets on November 4th, Kenney also described when and in what form the revamped FSW program will be launched.

He posted that the final details for the relaunched program would be released in the “1st half of 2013” and that there would only be “a very limited number of new applications” accepted in 2013, to help CIC “asses [sic] the new grid & educational evaluation”.

He also posted that CIC’s goal was to launch the new Expression of Interest model for the FSW program “around late 2014 / early 2015”.

CIC placed a moratorium on accepting new applications through the FSW program in July 2012, to give it time to deal with the program’s pending application backlog and to design new selection rules and assessment procedures that it says will make the program more economically beneficial for Canada and its application review process faster.

Largest Canadian Province, Ontario, Announces New Immigration Strategy

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Arnon Melo, far right, is the type of immigrant Ontario wants more of. A native of Brazil, the entrepreneur founded a logistics company that now employs 10 people (Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration)

The provincial government of Ontario announced a new immigration strategy on Monday which primarily focuses on attracting more economic class immigrants, meaning those who immigrate through skilled worker and investor programs, to Ontario.

The strategy is shaped by recommendations submitted to the Ontario government by an expert roundtable last month which the government commissioned as a response to years of decreasing immigration to the province.

The final strategy adopted by the provincial government sets as its objectives to increase the province’s total immigration numbers and the proportion of economic immigrants, to boost the economic success of immigrants in order to bring their incomes and employment rates up to that of the Ontario average, and to help the province take greater advantage of the international links immigrants bring.

Some of the specific targets included in the strategy are:

  • Bringing the proportion of economic immigrants up to 70 percent from the
    current 52 percent.
  • Requesting that the federal government double the province’s Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) quota from its current 1,000, to 5,000 by 2014.
  • Encouraging employers to develop and expand mentorship, internship and on-the-job training programs.
  • Increasing the number of immigrants licensed in their field.
  • Increasing Francophone immigration to five percent.

The strategy sets out to persuade the federal government to change some of the immigration rules that the Ontario provincial government blames for contributing to the province’s underperformance, relative to other provinces, in attracting economic immigrants.

While 52 percent of immigrants to Ontario are economic immigrants, the average rate for other Canadian provinces is 70 percent, a disparity that the Ontario government attributes primarily to the low number of economic immigrants, as a percentage of the total number of economic immigrants to the province, that the federal government permits Ontario to select relative to other, less populated, provinces.

Monday’s announcement will likely put pressure on the federal Department of Citizenship and Immigration to increase the number of immigrants it allows Ontario to select through the Ontario PNP.

Canadian Immigration Department Details its Achievements, Expects Reduction in Wait Times

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CIC plans to adopt an Expression of Interest (EOI) model for the Federal Skilled Worker Program similar to that in place in New Zealand.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) summarized what it considers the successes of its reforms in recent years in a press release on Friday. CIC said that it expects that by the end of 2013, it will be able to process applications as they are received, and complete their processing within one year.

It said that this will open the door to the adoption of the Expression of Interest (EOI) model for the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and possibly other economic immigration streams.

The EOI model requires applicants to submit a simplified preliminary application detailing their qualifications, and allowing provinces and employers to select the most promising of those applicants, who are then invited by CIC to submit a full application that includes documents proving their qualifications.

“The Government’s number one priority remains the economy and job growth. Immigration backlogs are detrimental to our ability to attract the world’s top talent,” said Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney in describing the purpose of moving to a “just in time” EOI system of immigration admittance.

“With the decisive actions we’ve taken to tackle the backlog, we will finally be able to select immigrants who better meet the needs of the Canadian labour market. We will aim to process their applications in less than 12 months.”

CIC also detailed the measures it has taken in recent years to address a problem that has long afflicted the FSWP: the large volume of applications that exceed the program’s annual quota and lead to wait times as high as eight years:

  • In 2008, only accepting FSW applications from individuals qualified in an occupation on the “priority occupations” list.
  • In 2010, adding a quota to the number of new applications accepted.
  • In June 2012, eliminating most of the FSW applications on the backlog that were received before February 27, 2008.
  • In July 2012, temporarily pausing acceptance of new FSW applications, except for applicants with a qualifying job offer and those applying under the PhD stream.

These measures, said CIC, have reduced the FSWP backlog from 640,000 people in 2008 to 100,000 today.

CIC plans to re-start the FSWP in 2013, and admit 55,300 people over the year, approximately the same as the 55,000–57,000 quota for the program in 2012. It said that new rules for a revamped FSWP will be published later this year.

New Language Requirements Under the Revised Federal Skilled Worker Program – CLB to IELTS

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Qualifying for the Federal Skilled Worker Program will require meeting minimum language requirements under rules that will be put in place in early 2013

New language requirements under the new Federal Skilled Worker program

CLB to IELTS Conversion

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has released more details about the new Federal Skilled Worker program, which will be launched in January of 2013, and it includes changes to how language proficiency is assessed. In an interview with CICS News, Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) Alex Khadempour said applicants would need to focus more on language under the new rules:

“If you are looking to apply for the new Federal Skilled Worker program, it’s best to start by understanding the new language requirements and to write your exam as soon as possible so that you don’t miss the window of opportunity before the quota fills up.”

“CIC plans to significantly increase the maximum points awarded for proficiency in the English and French languages from 24 points to 28 points, making language the single biggest factor in an application’s chances of being accepted,” he added.

Details of the proposed changes

First Official Language:

According to a bulletin released by CIC, an applicant must prove a minimum proficiency in each of the four language abilities, speaking, listening, reading and writing, that is at the Canadian Language Benchmark 7 (CLB 7) level for English or is at the Niveau de compétence linguistique canadien 7 (NCLC 7) level for French, in order to qualify for the Federal Skilled Worker Class (FSWC) program.

For the English language requirement, CLB 7 is equivalent to scoring 6 on the IELTS. For the French language requirement, NCLC 7 is equivalent to scoring 309, 248, 206 and 309 on the speaking, listening, reading and writing modules of the Test d’évaluation de français (TEF), respectively. 4 points are awarded for each of the four language abilities, meaning that all candidates that meet the mandatory minimums on all language abilities will have at least 16 points.

The bulletin also states that applicants will be awarded one extra point for each language ability for which they score CLB 8 or NCLC 8 and two extra points if they score CLB 9 or NCLC 9 (for a maximum of 24 points).

The IELTS equivalent to CLB 8 is 7.5, 6.5, 6.5 and 6.5 on Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. The TEF equivalent to NCLC 8 is 349, 280, 233, and 349 on Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking, respectively.

The IELTS equivalent to CLB 9 is 7.5+, 6.5+, 6.5+, and 6.5+ on Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. The TEF equivalent to NCLC 9 is 349+, 280+, 233+, and 349+ on Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking, respectively.

Second Official Language:

The number of points awarded for proficiency in a second official language will be reduced from 8 to 4 under the new rules, making focusing on studying a single language a more viable strategy for those seeking to qualify for immigration to Canada.

Canadian Immigration Provides Instructions for FSW Backlog Wipe-out Fee Refund

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The return of application fees to those affected by the wipe-out of the pre-February 27 2008 FSW backlog will be processed by CIC

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) issued a notice on Friday instructing those affected by the wipe-out of the pre-February 27, 2008 Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) application backlog to submit a form informing the department of their current address in order to have their fee return processed.

Approximately 280,000 FSW applications filed before the Feb. 27th 2008 were wiped out with the enactment of Bill C-38 on June 29, 2012, with the federal government committing to return the application fees paid by those affected.

Friday’s notice asks those whose FSW applications were likely affected by the new law to submit a completed RETURN OF PROCESSING FEE, RIGHT OF PERMANENT RESIDENCE FEE OR RIGHT OF LANDING FEE form to CIC.

The first contingent of applicants to have their fees returned will be those who had contacted CIC to enquire about their fee refund before Friday’s notice. The next group to be refunded will be those who update CIC about their current address by submitting the above linked form. Finally, CIC will contact the remaining applicants and attempt to verify their current mailing address before processing their fee return.

Expert Roundtable Submits Report on Immigration to Ontario Government

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Julia Deans, chair of the 13-member roundtable on immigration strategy, presenting the panel's report to Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Charles Sousa (Government of Ontario)

A 13-member expert roundtable, appointed seven months ago by the government of Ontario to advise the province on the development of a provincial immigration strategy, submitted its report yesterday, and it includes 32 recommendations for the province.

The key recommendations of the report are:

    • Aiming to increase the proportion of economic class immigrants, meaning those who immigrate through skilled worker and business immigration programs, to 65-70 percent. The report notes that the percentage of economic class immigrants has fallen from over 64 percent in 2001, to 52 percent today, while the proportion of family and refugee class immigrants has increased. Immigrants in the latter categories are more likely to face problems integrating into Ontario’s labour market than economic class immigrants.
    • Increasing Ontario’s total immigration levels to 135,000 people a year, or one percent of Ontario’s population, to alleviate the decline in the province’s working-age population, which the roundtable expects will put pressure on the provincial government’s budget.
    • Shifting the focus of immigration selection to human capital and away from immediate labour needs, due to evidence showing that an immigrant’s level of human capital, meaning their skills, education and language proficiency, is the best predictor of earnings growth and employability.
    • Ontario continuing to rely on the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) as the main source of economic immigration to the province, and recommending that the federal government eliminate the Federal Skilled Worker Class’ priority occupations list.
    • Recommending that the federal government delegate immigration selection for the purposes of responding to specific occupational shortages to Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) run by provinces. In line with this recommendation, encouraging the federal government to increase the quota for Ontario’s PNP from current 1,000 to 5,000 people per year.
    • Reducing the amount of low-skilled temporary foreign workers that it allows in the province for extended periods, as it depresses wages by giving Canadian employers a below-market wage alternative to hiring Canadians.
    • Shifting the focus of the temporary foreign worker program to bringing in high skilled and skilled trades workers on a temporary basis to fill immediate skills and labour shortages, rather than to provide low-wage labour to businesses for extended periods.
    • The province working with the federal government in designing the Expression of Interest (EOI) model of immigration which the federal government has recently announced that it intends to implement. This model, which is currently in use in New Zealand, adds a preliminary application phase whereby those seeking to immigrate to Canada submit an EOI that contains their personal information to the Canadian government, and immigration authorities invite the most promising EOI applicants to submit a full application along with proof of qualifications.
    • To enable the government of Ontario to play a bigger role in immigration selection, codifying the province’s immigration strategy and regulations through legislation. The report suggests that a provincial governing framework for immigration might become a prerequisite for the the federal government agreeing to allow provinces to have a bigger role in the immigration selection process.

The report is likely to be influential because of Ontario’s importance to Canada, as the country’s most populous province and the destination of over 35 percent of Canada’s immigrants.

How to Prepare for New Canadian Immigration Rules

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New Canadians taking the Citizenship Oath. The Federal Skilled Worker Program will resume in January 2013 with new rules, and you can take steps now to increase chances of being eligible.

A guide provided by Jim Metcalfe of Pace Immigration provides tips on what hopeful Canadian immigrants can do to prepare for changes to the Federal Skilled Worker Program:

Now that the Minister of Immigration  has signalled his intention to change the selection criteria for the Federal Skilled Worker program, it is a good idea to plan ahead if you want to apply.

The guide advises that would-be applicants take steps now to prepare to apply rather than waiting until the new occupation list is released, as it could be too late by then. It cites past openings of the Federal Skilled Worker Program to new applications which saw the quotas for some listed occupations fill up over night.

The specific steps suggested by the guide are:

  1. You and your spouse doing an English or French language test, (the IELTS test and TEF test, respectively), as the new FSW assessment rules will award points for language proficiency for both the principal applicant and the spouse, rather than only the principal applicant as is the case now.
  2. Prepare a resume, and ensure the experience listed matches the description of duties and responsibilities in the NOC (National Occupation Classification) for the occupation you are applying under. Also look through the NOC to see if you qualify for other occupations.
  3. Prepare your “education documents, transcripts and course descriptions” as the new FSW program will require that you to get an assessment of the foreign credential’s equivalent value in Canada.
  4. Prepare “biographical documents and proof of funds”.
  5. If you have a spouse or common-law partner, make sure they make the same preparations in case your spouse’s occupation is on the list.
  6. If you need further assistance, consult with a qualified professional.

CICS Immigration Consulting recommends considering these additional steps as well:

  1. Improve your English and/or French language skills. Language will play a bigger role under the new FSW assessment rules.
  2. Look for a job in Canada: temporary foreign workers in skilled occupations (defined as as skill type 0, A or B in the NOC) will only require one year of full-time Canadian work experience to qualify for the Canadian Experience Class under coming changes, rather than 24 months of work experience required now. The new Federal Skilled Worker Program will also award more points for Canadian work experience than foreign work experience.
  3. If you have a long time horizon for immigrating to Canada and are willing to enter a new line of work to do so, consider starting a career in a skilled trade, like welder, heavy duty equipment mechanic and millwright, as they are in high demand in Canada and will offer a new route to immigration through a newly created Federal Skilled Trades Program.

Globe & Mail: Highly Educated Parents Choose Canada

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The make-up of the typical Canadian school has changed dramatically since the 1950s, with 10 percent of K-12 students now foreign-born, and a majority of immigrant students belonging to a visible minority group

A new story in the Globe and Mail, Canada’s largest national newspaper, explores the advantage Canada has over other high income democracies in attracting highly educated emigrants.

The article notes that 10 percent of K-12 students in Canada are foreign-born, with the prevalence increasing to over 25 percent in major metropolitan centres like Vancouver and Toronto.

It lauds the success of these foreign born students, who despite facing the challenges of integrating into a new country, outperform their native born peers academically.

This is in contrast to other countries, including the US and UK, where immigrant students perform more poorly academically than their native-born peers, and this, the article contends, is often the reason why highly educated parents choose to immigrate to Canada.

The article has generated tremendous interest among the Globe’s readership, with 600 comments submitted at the time of this writing.

Details of Revised Federal Skilled Worker Program Released

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Skilled tradespersons in eligible vocations like construction work will be able to apply for Canadian permanent residence under the new Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) (Paul Keheler)

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) unveiled information on Friday about the new Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) that will be launched in the new year.

The revised program will have more demanding language requirements, more selective credential assessment, and will give preference to Canadian work experience over foreign work experience, among other changes.

CIC placed a temporary freeze on the acceptance of new applications for the FSWP on July 1st to give the immigration department time to instate change that it said were needed to address shortcomings in the program.

The following are the major changes to the FSWP that were announced in Friday’s release:

  • Increasing the maximum points awarded for proficiency in an official language, from 16 to 24 points
  • Awarding a maximum of 12 points to applicants aged 19 to 35, and decreasing the points awarded until age 46
  • Reducing the maximum number of points awarded for foreign work experience from 21 to 15
  • Eliminating points awarded for spousal education and awarding points for spousal language proficiency instead
  • Awarding a maximum of 10 points for Canadian work experience
  • Awarding points for foreign education credentials based on an assessment of the foreign credential’s equivalent value in Canada as assessed by an organization that is designated to provide credential assessment and authentication

New Federal Skilled Trades Worker Program

In addition to the changes to the FSWP, CIC also announced the details of a new Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) that will be open to tradespersons skilled in eligible trade occupations.

The requirements announced for the FSTP are:

  • An offer of employment of a duration of least one year from up to two Canadian employers or a Certificate of Qualification from a provincial or territorial Apprenticeship Authority.
  • Proficiency in an official language
  • At least two years of work experience in an eligible skilled trade in the last five years
  • Required qualifications in the skill trade as described by the National Occupational Classification (NOC)

Changes to the Canadian Experience Class

As forecasted by CIC earlier in the year, the Canadian work experience required to qualify for the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) program will be reduced from 24 months to 12 months, to allow temporary foreign workers in Canada to more quickly qualify for Canadian permanent residence status.

Group Suing Government Over Wipe-Out of 280,000 FSW Application Backlog Making One Last Try in Court

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A group of immigration-hopefuls whose applications for permanent residence in Canada were wiped out by legislation passed by parliament on June 29th are asking a federal court judge to order CIC to process their applications on 'humanitarian and compassionate' grounds. (Montrealais)

A group of approximately 900 people whose applications for permanent residence in Canada were closed after the federal government wiped out the back-log of 280,000 Federal Skilled Worker program applications are making one last attempt in court to force the federal government to process their applications.

The group had previously scored a victory when a federal court justice ruled that the federal government must assess their applications due to the legal obligation it had to process applications in a timely manner once it had filed them. Soon after the ruling, Bill C-38, legislation which includes a legal provision that wipes out the back-log of applications that were filed before February 27th 2008, was passed, which the federal government argues invalidates the court ruling.

The lawyers representing Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) stated that the federal government would process the applications of 165 of the litigants whose files were not among the 280,000 applications in the backlog, but that the applications of the remaining litigants would not be processed as they were eliminated by Bill C-38 when it was passed on June 29th.

The group’s lawyer, Tim Leahy, is making a final effort to save the group’s applications and asking the presiding judge to order CIC to process the group’s applications on ‘humanitarian and compassionate’ grounds.