Canadian Immigration News

Canada Considering Increasing Visa Caps for the PR Pathways for International Graduates

2.25 minute read
"Given the ongoing pandemic, the Canadian government introduced temporary permanent residence (PR) pathways for temporary foreign workers and international graduates. The PR Pathway for International Graduates with a visa cap of 40,000 applicants was launched on May 6, 2021. As was expected, the visa cap for the temporary PR pathways was met in the first 25 hours."
Written by My Visa Source Team
Published on:  Jul 8, 2021
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Author info:

Given the ongoing pandemic, the Canadian government introduced temporary permanent residence (PR) pathways for temporary foreign workers and international graduates. The PR Pathway for International Graduates with a visa cap of 40,000 applicants was launched on May 6, 2021. As was expected, the visa cap for the temporary PR pathways was met in the first 25 hours. 

While thousands of international graduates were successful in applying for the stream on time, many were unable to apply due to several reasons. Some international graduates were unable to complete their application due to lack of complete documentation, some faced technical difficulties.

In any case, Canada’s immigration minister, Marco Mendicino offered a sliver of hope to international graduates who want to immigrate to Canada by suggesting that the visa cap for the temporary PR pathway may be increased. He said that he will be open to discussion on whether or not to review the current visa caps. However, he also indicated that any decision will be made after reviewing the quality of the current applications. 

How Would Increased Visa Caps for New PR Pathways Help?

Canada recently launched 3 new PR pathways for English-speaking temporary foreign workers in healthcare and non-healthcare occupations and another for international graduates. These PR pathways had a combined visa cap of 90,000 applications: 40,000 for international graduates, 30,000 for temporary workers in non-healthcare essential occupations and 20,000 for temporary workers in healthcare occupations.

At the time of the pandemic when inviting applicants from overseas for permanent residence has become increasingly difficult due to the imposed travel and border restrictions, the Canadian government has shifted its focus to temporary residents. The government recognizes that transitioning temporary residents to permanent residence is the way to meet Canada’s immigration levels target for 2021.

Since its launch, the PR pathway for non-healthcare essential workers has received 28% of its quota while the PR Pathway for healthcare workers has only received 6% of its quota. Therefore, it is expected that any revision in visa caps will only affect the PR Pathway for International Graduates.

Why Is An Increase in Visa Caps Required?

An increase in the visa cap for the PR Pathway for International Graduates will be beneficial to those who were unable to apply for this stream during the first round. Many of those applicants are eligible but were unable to apply due to lack of proper documentation, technical issues, lack of access to certain documents, etc.

International graduates who just graduated this spring or summer will also be eligible for this stream by the time visa caps are revised. Therefore, it is an effective way for Canada to meet its immigration levels target of inviting 401,000 new immigrants in 2021.

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