Applicants to Canada’s skilled-worker immigration program will soon face 36-month wait times, documents reveal

Since the onset of the pandemic, Canada has prioritized the processing of skilled applicants already in this country, such as international students and temporary foreign workers.

Although the strategy helped the Liberal government to welcome a record 401,000 new permanent residents — 62 per cent of them as economic immigrants based on the skills and education of the principal applicants — in 2021, the backlog of overseas skilled applicants has ballooned.

The Immigration Department’s internal memo said the current inventory of high-skilled candidates — in skilled workers, skilled trades and Canadian experience streams — has provided enough candidates in the pipeline to meet its 2021-23 targets.

Officials say immigration is essential to Canada’s short-term recovery and long-term prosperity and the government is committed to welcoming newcomers who bring the skills our economy needs.

“The already existing robust inventory of skilled candidates to process means that there won’t be a reduction in 2022 of the number of new skilled permanent residents arriving in Canada to work and settle,” said department spokesperson Rémi Larivière. “It is a temporary pause on issuing invitations to apply to the inventory.”

Larivière said Canada’s labour market needs have continued to be met through candidates recommended by provincial governments and the temporary foreign worker programs, and added that the 2021 federal budget commits $85 million to addressing the backlog and reducing processing time.

“Invitations to apply under the FHS (federal high-skilled) streams will resume once the processing inventory is reduced enough to create space for new intake,” he said.

Candy Hui, a Regina-based immigration consultant, said the pause of the federal skilled program has forced some applicants to scramble and submit new applications under different programs, moving the backlog from one stream to another.

“This halt on FHS is going to increase the processing times of all other permanent and temporary programs as people seek alternative strategies to come to Canada. So will this really help with the already big backlog?” asked Hui.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the skilled worker program is an important immigration stream for Canada and the current pause “will not only put people’s lives in limbo, but result in missed opportunities for Canada, risking that applicants may choose to emigrate to another country that recognizes their talent and experience.”

“Failing to address the backlogs will ultimately create more work for immigration as documents expire and the circumstances of applicants change. It will also fuel additional inquiries by applicants because they are concerned about a lack of progress in their applications. All of this serves only to further tie up the department’s resources.”

Conservative immigration critic Jasraj Singh Hallan said the overall immigration backlog had reached 1.8 million applications by December and the Liberal government still doesn’t have a plan to tackle it.

“It’s not just as simple as we’re going to throw this much money toward it. We want to see a plan. We want to see how they are going to actually reach that. Again and again, we keep seeing great announcements, pretty words, but no plan,” said Hallan.

“These applications are stuck in the mud right now. The Liberal government needs to take the backlog seriously and help families reunite, help businesses fill the labour shortages and help Canada succeed through immigration.”

Sharma is one of 500 people abroad who applied after being invited to do so, only to find their applications on hold. He said that’s forced him and many others to put their lives — starting a family, taking up a new job and seizing new opportunities — on hold.

“We understand that this pandemic is not an easy time and it has disrupted so many lives and systems. All we are requesting is to clear the backlog of (overseas) applicants,” he said.

“Please show some compassion towards us. We will be Canadians in the very near future.”