The Canadian Government may raise its allocated caps on temporary immigration programs leading to permanent residency in Canada, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino has hinted.
Mr Mendicino said that the Canadian Government could be open to having discussions on the possibility of reviewing and raising the current cap of 90,000 temporary residents being given permanent resident status in Canada.
However, he was careful not to confirm raising the caps, saying that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) must first thoroughly assess the early results of the new program launched by the Canadian government at the beginning of this month.
Earlier this month, Canada launched the ambitious immigration program which will aim to admit 90,000 new permanent residents to Canada.
The new program has already proven to be a hit among prospective permanent residents to Canada, with the International Graduates stream – one of six streams under the new program – already reaching its cap of 40,000 places in just over 24 hours.
Two other streams, which target health care workers and essential workers, have also received around 10,000 permanent residence applications.
This program was announced as part of Canada’s commitment to welcoming more than 400,000 permanent residents to the country every year for the next three years, as it looks to meet its target of welcoming 1.2 million new permanent residents by 2023.
Canada has already started working towards fulfilling this ambition, with the Government creating new pathways to Canadian PR and issuing record numbers of invitations to apply (ITAs) to Express Entry candidates in regular invitation rounds.
In addition, IRCC has also conducted several invitation draws with record-low Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) scores for candidates to successfully obtain ITAs for Canadian immigration.
Moreover, the recently tabled federal budget has allocated nearly $430 million to establish a new online platform to process citizenship and immigration applications to Canada faster and more efficiently.
Following the coronavirus pandemic, Canada looks set to meet its target of welcoming 401,000 new permanent residents in 2021, with data released by the IRCC showing that more than 70,000 new permanent residents have already been admitted to Canada in the first quarter of this year.
