Canada invited 424 young foreigners under the International Experience Canada

Over the last week, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held new rounds of invitations in the pools of the International Experience Canada (IEC) program. From May 24 to May 28, the government issued 424 Invitations to Apply (ITA) for an IEC open work permit. As of May 28, there are 16,386 candidates registered in the pool, waiting for the invitation. In this round, there were 21 ITAs for Australia, 5 ITAs for Belgium, 4 ITAs for Costa Rica, 1 ITA for Croatia, 47 ITAs for the Czech Republic, 107 ITAs for France, 10 ITAs for Greece, 59 ITAs for Ireland, 6 ITAs for Italy, 3 ITAs for Japan, 3 ITAs for South Korea, 19 ITAs for the Netherlands, 15 ITAs for Slovakia, 38 ITAs for Spain, 6 ITAs for Sweden, 14 ITAs for Switzerland, 35 ITAs for Taiwan, and 31 ITAs for the United Kingdom. In total, Canada issued 9,490 ITAs under the IEC in 2021. #IRCC, #IEC, #ITA, #Working_Holiday, #Young_Professionals, #International_CoOp, #work_permits, #work_in_Canada

May 31, 2021

A new report shows how pandemic impacted immigration to Canada

Conference Board of Canada introduced a report studying the impact of COVID-19 on immigrant admissions. According to the report, permanent resident (PR) admissions were down 56 percent compared to 2019. Refugee and family class admissions were most hard-hit with a 72 and 63 percent decrease, respectively. At the beginning of the pandemic, Canada considered only the candidates of Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) in Express Entry invitation rounds. However, from the second half of 2020, Canada began considering all candidates, including those from the Federal Skilled Worker Program and the Federal Skilled Trades Program. But since the start of 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is again prioritizing those already in Canada and focusing on CEC and PNP candidates. #Covid_19, #IRCC, #FST, #FSW, #CEC, #PNP, #Express_Entry, #family_class, #economic_class, #refugees

May 31, 2021

Canada is in need of an immigration ombudsman

According to the House of Commons’ standing committee on citizenship and immigration’s report on the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on immigration to Canada, an immigration ombudsman is needed to keep tabs on the decisions made by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) officials. The report also suggests creating an office of the immigration ombudsman that will ‘address status checks, disputes or errors in visa officer decisions, persistent processing errors and delays in certain classes of applications and overall oversight of IRCC and Canada Border Services Agency issues,’ and prevent applicants to go to court. #IRCC, #CBSA, #ombudsman

May 28, 2021

IRCC’s department has been flooded with access to information requests

Foreign nationals who applied to immigrate to Canada have to file access to information requests to know the status of their application or the reason for denial. To see that information, applicants must file an access to information request (ATIP). According to a new report by the Information Commissioner, IRCC experienced a 670 percent increase in complaints to the commissioner’s office in 2019 and 2020. The GCMS modernization announced in Budget 2021 is considered to make this possible through an expanded MyAccount portal with increased functionality to both improve applicant service and reduce ATIP requests. #IRCC, #ATIP

May 28, 2021