Temporary Resident Visas

Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates in the Express Entry pool have not been invited to apply for permanent residence since the last-all program draw, nearly two months ago, on January 18.

A criminal record can hinder your plans to work in Canada, however, you may have options to overcome inadmissibility.

If you have a criminal record and do not address inadmissibility before you apply for a Canadian work permit, you risk being refused entry to Canada.

As of mid-March, IRCC reports a backlog of 1,844,424 persons across all lines of business.
IRCC reports there are 1.84 million people waiting on decisions in its inventory as of mid-March.

The backlog has progressed as follows since summer 2021:

• March 15 and 17, 2022: 1,844,424 persons
• February 1, 2022: 1,815,628 persons
• December 15, 2021: 1,813,144 persons
• October 27, 2021: 1,792,404 persons
• July 6, 2021: 1,447,474 persons

The data represents the number of persons currently awaiting processing by IRCC.
Permanent residence inventory data is from March 15 and temporary residence inventory data is from March 17. The reason for the difference is when IRCC provided the March 15 temporary residence data initially, the “visitor record” data was missing. On March 17 temporary residence data was provided when requested.

The new measures include:

In a significant policy shift, Immigration Minister Marc Miller has unveiled plans to integrate temporary resident targets into Canada's annual Immigration Levels Plan from fall 2024. Historically focusing solely on permanent residency quotas, the updated plan will now also consider the influx of temporary residents, aiming to refine and potentially reduce their numbers over the next three years. This move is not designed as a hard cap but could lead to application limitations in specific sectors.

The World Social Forum, an annual meeting bringing together activists and leftist intellectuals from around the world, runs from August 9 to August 14.The gathering, which was first introduced in 2001, serves as an annual counterweight to the World Economic Forum, held in Davos, Switzerland. The Montreal WSF event is expected to draw 50,000 people and 5,000 organizations and is aimed at finding "concrete alternatives to the neoliberal economic model and to policies based on the exploitation of human beings and nature," according to its website.

Settlement reached in secret with plaintiffs who said January 28 intake was 'arbitrary' and 'unjust'

The recent update provides the following report:

Permanent residence

Distance learning measures have been extended to August 31st, 2023.

Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) now has a processing time of 30 days for Temporary Resident Visas (TRVs) for spousal applicants. 

IRCC publishes service standards indicating expected processing times for temporary residence applications. However, these are estimates and actual times can vary based on application details and processing locations.

In the coming years, Canada is on track to welcome the highest numbers of newcomers ever. In 2022, IRCC made more than five million final decisions on applications across all lines of business, double the number of decisions in 2021.

Dual intent is present when a foreign national has applied, or may apply, for permanent residence in Canada but has also applied to enter Canada for a temporary period of time as a visitor, student or worker.

Irish cabinetmaker Gerard Minogue was recruited to Canada at a job exposition in Dublin in 2012, when Canadian employers were desperately looking for foreign skilled-trade workers.

Many provincial immigration streams target candidates with work experience in a specific occupation
Immigration candidates with work experience in any skilled occupation may be invited to apply for Canadian permanent residence through Canada’s Express Entry system, but experience in a specific line of work can be an advantage at the provincial level.

Year-over-year, Canada has added 426,000 net new jobs — most of them full-time

Canada is beginning a new work permit option under the international mobility program. This stream aims to make hiring francophone skilled workers more straight forward for employers in certain regions of Canada.

That, in the opinion of the House, the government should develop and publicly release within 120 days following the adoption of this motion a comprehensive plan to expand the economic immigration stream to allow workers of all skill levels to meet the full range of labour needs and pathways to permanent residency for temporary foreign workers, including international students, with significant Canadian work experience in sectors with persistent labour shortages, and such plan should incorporate the following elements:

Manitoba has unveiled two new “fast track” immigration pathways for international graduates of post-secondary institutions in the province.