From Far and Wide Immigration Consultancy

Adjusted for Inflation To finance its programs, the Government of Canada follows an approach where most of the costs are the responsibility of those who receive the services and benefit directly from them. To account for inflation, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) increased permanent residence (PR) fees in 2020 for the first time since 2002. It was announced then that most fees for permanent residence would be adjusted by the cumulative Consumer Price Index (CPI) every 2 years. The most recent increase came into effect on April 30, 2022. As it is now required by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR), fees are increasing for all permanent residence applications on April 30, 2024. This includes economic, family, permit holder, and humanitarian classes. The fees do not increase for permanent resident cards, permanent resident travel documents, and certification or replacement immigration documents. Fee Increases For most applicants, fees are increasi...

In response to the crucial need for more healthcare workers and early childhood educators (ECEs), BC has implemented changes to their Provincial Nominee Program (BC PNP) to prioritize these occupations, effective March 10, 2022. Priority Access for Care Occupations Targeted invitations to apply will give priority access to select occupations in the care economy, specifically registrants whose occupation is on a pre-determined list of in-demand health occupations as well as early childhood educators. The Health Care Professional category has been renamed Health Authority category and is open to all occupations employed by a health authority. Targeted invitations to apply (priority access) replaces the registration points awarded for high demand occupations in the Labour Market Outlook. The total registration points and total points for economic factors have been adjusted accordingly. Periodic general draws will be conducted for other skilled and semi-skilled workers who meet program cri...

In most cases, applicants for permanent residence in Canada need to prove their language skills in English or French. To do so, they must take an approved language test. There are five language tests accepted for immigration to Canada; three for English and two for French: •   Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program ( CELPIP) •   International English Language Testing System ( IELTS) •   Pearson Test of English ( PTE)  •   Test de connaissance du français ( TCF) •   Test d’évaluation de français ( TEF) IRCC will use the test results as proof of an applicant's language skills. In order to be valid, test results must be less than two years old at the time of application for permanent residence. There are provisions if a candidate cannot complete one or more sections of the language test because of a disability. The Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) (or Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadien (NCLC) for French) was crea...

The Federal Skilled Worker Program is one stream under the Express Entry system for Permanent Residence in Canada. Immigrants are selected based on their education, work experience, knowledge of English and/or French, and other criteria that have been shown to help people succeed in the Canadian labour market. Spouses and children are included on the application. In addition to minimum requirements for skilled work experience, language skills and education, candidates are assessed on a 100-point grid based on six selection factors for eligibility for the Federal Skilled Worker Program. These factors are: age education work experience a valid job offer English and/or French language skills adaptability Candidates must meet all the minimum requirements AND score 67 points or higher on the selection factors to be eligible. These points are separate from the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score used to rank people in the Express Entry pool. A higher score under the six sel...

The Express Entry online system is used to manage applications for Permanent Residence under three separate programs: Federal Skilled Worker Program Federal Skilled Trades Program Canadian Experience Class Each program has its own eligibility criteria. Candidates need to meet all requirements for at least one program to apply under Express Entry, and can't mix and match criteria from different programs. The following table shows the eligbility requirements for each of the three programs: Eligibility Criteria Canadian Experience Class Federal Skilled Worker Program Federal Skilled Trades Program Language skills English or French skills CLB 7 for TEER 0 or TEER 1 occupations CLB 5 for TEER 2 or TEER 3 occupations English or French skills CLB 7 English or French skills CLB 5 for speaking and listening CLB 4 for reading and writing Type/Level of work experience Canadian work experience in an occupation...

A recent  internal IRCC memo   revealed that there won't be any Express Entry invitations for the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSW), Federal Skilled Trades Program (FST) or Canadian Experience Class (CEC) for the first half of 2022, at least. One of the reasons is that IRCC wants to tackle their backlog of applications which doubled amid their strategy to focus on providing permanent residence to candidates in Canada (e.g. the TR to PR pathway). Data from December 2021 revealed a backlog of more than 1.8 million applications in the queue. Currently, only provincial nominees are invited to apply under Express Entry. With FSW and FST on hold since the beginning of the pandemic and the last CEC draw in September 2021, there are now close to 200,000 candidates in the Express Entry pool. These numbers suggest that minimum scores for invitations could rise well above 500 points under the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS), once invitations restart for the three regular streams. ...

New immigration streams were introduced under the Alberta PNP, now renamed the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP). Existing entrepreneur streams were also renamed. Eligibility criteria did not change for existing programs.  The two new streams, the Rural Renewal Stream and the Rural Entrepreneur Stream, are intended to settle skilled and talented professionals and entrepreneurs in rural Alberta. To be eligible, rural communities with populations under 100,000 must be located outside the Calgary and Edmonton metropolitan areas. The Rural Renewal Stream targets candidates inside or outside of Canada with a job offer from an Alberta employer to work in a designated rural community. Communities with the capacity to attract, recruit and welcome newcomers have to apply to the Government of Alberta for designation. A limited number of communities will be initially selected to participate in this program. A candidate must be endorsed by a designated community and meet all cr...