Canada’s Focus to Strengthen its Immigration System
On August 24, 2022, Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship made some announcements regarding the current state of Canadian Immigration. Minister Fraser highlighted ongoing work to strengthen Canada’s immigration system and reduce application backlogs, reunite families, and a focus on addressing labour shortages and
grow the economy.
During his speech, Minister Fraser mentioned that due to the unprecedented interest in coming to Canada, the bar will be set higher for immigration processing. Examples of this are to increase the number of workers, with up to 1250 new employees by the end of the fall to help reduce the current backlog; backlogs created from humanitarian crises and updating aging technology to meet demands.
Focus on Reducing Backlogs
As mentioned, the focus of IRCC is now on reducing the current backlog and return to processing 80% of all new applications within pre-pandemic service standards.
Pre-Pandemic Service Standards
What are these pre-pandemic service standards? Some of the highlighted areas include the following: six-month service standard for the Express Entry permanent residence pathway and a 12-month service standard for family reunification through spousal sponsorship, and permanent resident cards.
Admission Statistics
Despite post-pandemic backlogs, in 2021, IRCC set a historic record by admitting more than 405,000 new permanent residents to Canada. Currently, for 2022 to goal is to welcome 431,000 permanent residents, with approximately 275,000 admissions already completed between January 1, 2022 to July 31, 2022. This number has surpassed any previous year.
New Monthly Data Publications
To follow progress towards reducing the backlog, monthly data will be published on IRCC’s website. More information will be provided in the coming weeks and months on additional measures that will help get workers into the economy, reunite families, and ensure Canada’s immigration system works for everyone.
