Canada opens global immigration processing centre in Philippines and Romania

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has announced the expansion of global operations centres outside Canada. These new centres are being launched to complement Canada’s processing network, extend the workday over multiple time zones, and help boost IRCC’s overall processing capacity for the benefit of applicants and reduce overall delays.

Manila, Philippines

On March 3, 2023, a new application processing centre was launched in Manila, Philippines. Given the importance of the Indo-Pacific region and its impact on Canadians, this initiative supports Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy and fosters ties between Canada and the region as part of its Indo-Pacific Strategy. The initiative will not only helps boost immigration application processing within Canada’s centralized network, as well as abroad., but it will also provide a comprehensive and inclusive strategy that is crucial to guide Canada’s actions.

The new centre is located within Canada’s Embassy in Manila and will be supported by 37 new employees. The efforts plan to add capacity to accommodate the high volume of visa applications from around the world, and will support ongoing efforts to also improve client service and help achieve Canada’s planned increases to immigration levels in the years to come.

Romania, Bucharest

Now, 9 months later, IRCC has launched a second global operations centre in Romania on December 6, 2023. The new centre is located within the Embassy of Canada in Bucharest and will be supported by 20 new employees, including both Canada-based and locally-engaged staff.

Canada is a top destination for people looking for a new place to work, study, travel and build their lives with their families and with the high volumes of applications from around the world, IRCC is committed to reducing wait times and finding ways to better serve our clients by adding resources, embracing new technology and streamlining processing to build the next generation of Canada’s immigration system.

With its expanded presence overseas, Canada is making strategic investments, with the goal of bringing more people to Canada —whether to visit, study, work or immigrate permanently. Especially, with the shortage of labour force, it is crucial to Canada’s economic growth and prosperity to improve immigration processing capacity and client service as the search for global talent increases.

• With the 2024–2026 Immigration Levels Plan, the Government of Canada is maintaining its target of 485,000 permanent residents for 2024 and plans to increase to 500,000 in 2025. Starting in 2026, the government plans to stabilize permanent resident levels at 500,000, allowing time for the successful integration of newcomers, while continuing to augment Canada’s labour market.
• Immigration accounts for almost 100% of Canada’s labour force growth and, by 2032, it’s projected to account for 100% of Canada’s population growth. Immigrants account for 36% of physicians, 33% of business owners with paid staff, and 41% of engineers in Canada.

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact us via email at info@poonahimmigrationlaw.com for further information.