Canada being the top destination for global talent, is eager to recover from the pandemic in order to open doors, once again, for Immigrants to fill out hundreds of thousands of vacant positions in all the sectors across the country. Immigration is more important than ever to fuel Canada’s economy as the strong economic growth is now outpacing their ability to find and keep workers.
Today, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, Sean Fraser, announced that Express Entry draws will soon resume and that invitations for candidates to apply for permanent residence will begin in early July.
Due to travel restrictions caused by COVID throughout most of 2020 and 2021, Canada had put a halt to the Express Entry Draws among other of their immigration programs which has given rise to a backlog of thousands of applicants waiting to receive their Initiations to Apply (ITA’s). However, the wait is now over. The draws are to resume soon and Invitations to apply will resume in early July, and the vast majority of new applications will be processed within the 6-month service standard.
Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship says,
“With the economy growing faster than employers can hire new workers, Canada needs to look at every option so that we have the skills and labor needed to fuel our growth. Immigration will be crucial to easing our labor shortage, and these measures aim to address pressing needs in all sectors across the country, while providing more opportunities for recent graduates and other applicants to build their lives in Canada and continue contributing to our short-term recovery and long-term prosperity.”
To help bring even more skilled workers quickly to Canada, the number of permanent residence decisions made in the first quarter of 2022 have been doubled. From January 1, 2022 to March 31, 2022, over 156,000 final decisions on permanent residence applications have been made and, through these efforts, Canada welcomed over 113,000 new permanent residents in the first quarter of 2022. So now is the time for everyone who is interested to apply for Canadian PR through the Federal Skilled Worker Program to take charge and apply.