Canada cracks down on immigration applicants over spouses

Not surprising as applicants are generally pretty savvy at understanding systems and ways to improve their chances:

Ottawa is cracking down on skilled immigration applicants who manipulate the point system to boost their ranking scores for a spot in the increasingly competitive permanent resident draws.

Since 2015, the Immigration Department has used the current system to score and rank skilled immigration candidates based on their age, education, language proficiency, work experience and adaptability. Periodic draws are conducted and candidates with the highest scores in the pool are invited to apply.

There are two scoring grids: for candidates who are single, and for those who have spouses and get points for the partner’s qualifying attributes. To balance out this potential advantage for married candidates, singles can earn more points for the same attributes (education, language proficiency, etc.). The potential maximum is 600 points, whether married or single.

However, married candidates have the option to exclude their spouses in the application and be assessed as if they were single, and benefit from the additional points as an individual applicant. It could bump up their score by up to 40 points and make a difference in the current immigration landscape.

Due to the influx of study and work permit holders after the pandemic ended in 2022, the pool of candidates in the system has grown, and new priorities arose for applicants in occupations experiencing skill shortages to bypass the score ranking system. 

That has resulted in higher passing scores and more competition for those who aren’t in a prioritized occupation in areas such as health care, education, STEM and skilled trades.

To outscore others, married applicants have increasingly excluded their spouses in applications and opted to sponsor them later, after they themselves secure permanent residence….

Source: Canada cracks down on immigration applicants over spouses