Pledge To Make PR Easier For Students

The Canadian government is looking at ways to ease the immigration process for foreign students in Canada and more straightforward. Minister John McCallum stating that "We should be doing everything we can do to court them,” he added these foreign graduates are “the cream of the crop”.

Since January, 2015, that Canada started to select skilled immigrants through Express Entry , many international students in Canada have faulted the system for making their pathway to permanent residence more uncertain than previously. The number of international students studying in Canada is over 300,000 annually and this figure is constantly growing. Many of these students are interested to choose Canada over other developed countries because of certain advantages that studying in Canada can bring, such as access to post graduate work permit up o three years and the potential to obtain permanent residency, not to mention the quality of education on offer.

After a meeting with provincial and territorial government representatives last week , Mr. McCallum said he intends to reform Express Entry, which was launched by the previous Conservative government. Main ideas that have been floated for change the Express Entry system in order to assist international students include giving graduates specific points for education and work experience and education in Canada. The minister stated that foreign students who accomplish to graduate and gain work experience in Canada are basically potential future Canadians.

The Express Entry system requires candidates eligible for permanent resident status to make an expression of interest in immigrating to Canada by collecting points against eligibility criteria pointing system.

Presently, a significant number of points are allocated to individuals with a job offer from a Canadian employer or nominated by one of the provinces. In order for the job offer to be valid for the purposes of Express Entry, a positive Labor market opinion (LMIA) must be issued. Since its launch, Express Entry has had repercussions for international students wishing to remain in Canada after their studies.

Prior launching Express entry in 2015, international students were not required to have a job offer supported with LMIA.

The current government, which has been highly receptive to international students’ concerns, has at least three years left on its mandate, so by the time existing international students are working in Canada post-graduation, their pathway to permanent residence is expected to be more straightforward than at present.

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