October 26, 2021
Canada May Be Expanding Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathways
Earlier this year, on 6 May 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) launched a new, innovative, and temporary pathway to permanent residence for over 90,000 essential workers and international students “who are actively contributing to Canada’s economy.”[1] The special public policy, scheduled to close on 5 November 2021, offered six streams to potential applicants: workers in Canada who work in health care; workers in Canada who are essential, non-health care; recent international graduates from a Canadian institution; and the same three streams for French-speaking individuals.[2] While the English-speaking workers in Canada who are essential, non-health care and recent international graduates from a Canadian institution streams filled up very quickly and are no longer accepting applicants, the workers in Canada who work in health care stream is just over one-quarter filled, while all of the French-speaking streams have unlimited seats but are nowhere close to meeting the numbers of the English-speaking streams.[3] IRCC posts updates regarding the number of applications submitted for each of the streams here.
In a recent interview, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Marco Mendicino, indicated IRCC is considering expanding the special public policy to include refugee claimants as well as extending the deadline to allow more applicants to file applications.[4] This would certainly be a welcome expansion of the public policy, which had previously been criticized by many for excluding arguably the most vulnerable in the population: refugee claimants. We will certainly be monitoring and reporting further on these developments as updates become available. Feel free to contact our office to schedule a consultation should you have questions about your eligibility for permanent residence.