News

Starting November 1, 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is inviting privately sponsored refugees under the Sponsorship Agreement Holder, Group of Five, and Community Sponsorship streams to participate in a survey to learn about refugees’ experiences to support improvements to IRCC program delivery. Participants will be selected randomly, and participation in the survey will not impact their status with IRCC. Participants will be contacted and asked to answer questions about the support they received under the sponsorship program. …

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On November 1, 2021, Saskatchewan updated the number of spots remaining through the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) for international graduates in the framework of the temporary immigration policy. The provincial government has allocated 1,000 spots for direct submission of a nomination application for those who resided in the province on September 1, 2020, and has completed an academic program in the province. Since the last week, the province has accepted 10 applications, and 405 spots remain available. …

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On November 1, 2021, British Columbia (BC) announced that the BC PNP Entrepreneur Immigration Regional Pilot had been extended until March 31, 2024. The Pilot introduced in March 2019 supported economic growth in smaller regional centres of the province and was an innovative collaboration between regional communities and the provincial government. Over the past two years, the province attracted entrepreneurs from around the world that contributed to regional economic development needs. More than 50 communities across the BC have already signed up to participate in Phase 2 of the Pilot to attract new entrepreneurs to open businesses in these communities. …

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The Government of Canada announced that the IEC season closure will take place on Friday, November 12, 2021, after the final round of invitations for all remaining pools will be issued. Candidates can submit their profiles before 9:00 am Eastern Standard Time on November 12, 2021, to be considered for the 2021 season. Those who received an Invitation to Apply before the close of the season, or have started their work permit application, will still be able to complete and submit their work permit applications. …

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On October 21, 2021, the Government of Canada published the details of Canada’s COVID-19 proof of vaccination for travel. The document will let Canadians demonstrate that they are vaccinated against COVID-19 when travelling within and outside Canada. All fully vaccinated Canadian citizens can get their proof of vaccination from their province or territory. The Government also advised Canadians to check public health requirements of the country they travel, since the vaccination and entry requirements can be different in other countries. …

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Ontario has been calling on the Federal Government to increase the level of economic immigration into the province. Ontario, even being the most immigrant accepting province, has a labour shortage of 290,000 people and wants ‘hard working’ immigrants to fill the job vacancies in various sectors. Premier of Ontario Doug Ford wrote letter after letter about the labour shortage to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saying the province needs more people and asked the Government to speed up Ontario’s plan to recruit more new immigrants. …

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Canada processed and accepted more international students in 2021 and reaches pre-pandemic levels. This year, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) processed about 730,000 new student permit applications by August 2021, which means a 27% increase over the same period from 2019. In 2020, due to the pandemic, the amount of new study permit applications fell by nearly half – from 847,852 applications in 2019 to just under 442,000 in 2020. Approximately 20% of all applications in 2021 were from India as well as other major countries, …

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Spotify – an online audio streaming service is planning to hire hundreds of more employees in Canada, expanding its workforce by 15,000 in 2021. Spotify’s head of advertising business Lee Brown said that the company is “increasing its business marketing workforce by over 70 percent in Europe, Australia, and Canada, … investing in the advertising business.” The increase in the number of tech job opportunities can contribute to the highly-skilled tech workers gaining permanent residency (PR) in Canada, …

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Newfoundland and Labrador have a declining birth rate and shortage of people to fill job vacancies all over the province. According to the province’s Minister of Immigration, Population Growth and Skills, Gerry Byrne’s statement in the House of Assembly, the province needs to respond to serious demographic challenges by increasing the level of immigration into the province. The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador aims to reach the goal of receiving 5,100 newcomers a year by 2026, …

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A recent survey by IRCC found that in August 2021, the employment rate for recent immigrants who have been living in Canada for five years or less reached 70.4%, a 6.1% increase compared to August 2019. Business groups are calling for more immigrants to increase labour market flexibility. 80% of foodservice employers were finding it difficult to fill vacancies for kitchen staff, while 67% were struggling to find front-of-house employees (servers, bartenders, and hostesses) that make Canadian employers hire immigrants to fill the labour market gaps. …

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