English-Speaking Essential Workers Pathway Reaches Limit
One of Canada’s temporary streams for immigrants will no longer accept applicants, as it has reached its limit.
The immigration stream for English-speaking essential workers in non-healthcare roles reached its limit of 30,000 people. This number was met on July 16 – just over two months after the temporary stream program was launched in early May.
Specifically, these temporary residence to permanent residence (TR to PR) pathways were introduced by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to make immigration easier – particularly for international graduates and essential workers.
This is the second stream to reach full capacity of the six that were introduced in May. The first was the international graduates stream, which filled its 40,000 application limit quickly upon launch.
These are the remaining pathways with open applications:
- Healthcare workers in Canada (Max: 20,000 applications)
- French-speaking healthcare workers (No maximum)
- French-speaking essential non-healthcare workers (No maximum)
- French-speaking international graduates (No maximum)
These programs will close on November 5, or when the slots fill up.
Recently, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino announced that a new bridging open work permit would launch for TR to PR applicants who are already in Canada. This also applies to international graduates of a Canadian institution. The new option will allow applicants seeking permanent residence to continue to work while they wait for the decision to be made on their application.
“Our new path to permanent residence for 90,000 essential workers and international graduates is a major step forward—the size, speed and scope of which is unprecedented,” he said in a news release. “This new open work permit ensures that those who have been playing critical roles throughout the pandemic can continue their extraordinary service.”
The healthcare worker stream has only received a few thousand applications out of its 20,000 applicant limit. IRCC’s goal is to have 401,000 new immigrants in Canada in 2021 – and they hope to see 40,000 applications from the pathway’s program contribute to this number. Most of IRCC’s focus has been on applicants already living in Canada – with COVID-19 complications considered, it is easier to go from temporary to permanent residence than it is to bring new immigrants to the country.
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Arghavan Gerami
Arghavan Gerami is the Founder and Senior Counsel at Gerami Law Professional Corporation ('PC'), a full-service immigration law firm in Ottawa, Ontario. Since 2011, Ms. Gerami has focused her practice on immigration and refugee litigation. Prior to that, Ms. Gerami worked at the Ministry of Attorney General and the Department of Justice and had the privilege of serving the Honourable Mr. Justice M. Evans at the Federal Court of Appeal on immigration and administrative law appeals. Ms. Gerami contributes to the Immigration Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association, the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Ms. Gerami has also published numerous journal articles and presented at various immigration and refugee law conferences and events across Canada.