How to Apply for the PR Pathways for International Graduates That Speak French and for Those Who Don’t

How to Apply for the PR Pathways for International Graduates

3.5 minute read

"Are you an international graduate who wants to transition to permanent residence in Canada? The Canadian government launched 6 new immigration streams for foreign workers in healthcare and other essential occupations and international students on May 6, 2021."

Written by My Visa Source Team
Published on: Jun 19, 2021

Are you an international graduate who wants to transition to permanent residence in Canada? The Canadian government launched 6 new immigration streams for foreign workers in healthcare and other essential occupations and international students on May 6, 2021.

These streams also include immigration pathways exclusively for French-speaking applicants. Temporary foreign workers employed as essential workers played an important role in Canada’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since one of the main objectives of immigration is to ensure the development of minority language communities outside of Quebec, these immigration pathways were introduced to ensure that Canada meets its objectives for its immigration levels target in 2021.

The PR Pathways for French-Speaking and Non-French Speaking International Graduates was also launched on May 6, 2021, with a visa cap of 40,000 new immigrants for the non-French speaking applicants and no visa cap for French-speaking applicants. However, due to the high demand among English-speaking international graduates in Canada, the quota for the English-speaking pathway was filled within 25 hours of the stream being launched.

This undoubtedly led to hundreds of international graduates being disappointed as they weren’t able to submit their application due to not having all the documents like an approved language test result or payment receipts, etc. Many complained of a technical glitch on the morning of May 7, 2021. Several others were unable to apply due to being unemployed at the time due to various reasons.

The purpose of this blog post is to remind international graduates to not lose hope as they still have various opportunities to transition to permanent residence in Canada. It is also possible that Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) may increase the visa cap for the PR Pathway for International Graduates.

Is the IRCC Reconsidering the Visa Cap for the PR Pathways for International Graduates?

As of now, there has been no indication from the IRCC that they may reconsider the visa cap for the PR Pathway for International Graduates. However, a similar consideration was made for the Parent and Grandparents Sponsorship Program lotteries. Several applicants chose not to follow through with their permanent residence application leading to the IRCC inviting new applicants.

If an applicant has applied for more than one immigration stream, then the IRCC may choose to process that application under the second stream, given they weren’t able to land the graduate's stream. This is particularly probable as the PR Pathways for Temporary Workers in Healthcare and Other Essential Occupations has generated much less interest compared to the graduates' stream.

If the IRCC fails to meet the visa cap for the PR Pathways for Temporary Workers in Healthcare and Other Essential Occupations of inviting 50,000 applicants, they may issue these invitations to eligible applicants from the graduates' stream pool. Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan has always been flexible in the past.

The plan is treated more as a guideline as there are many factors outside and under the IRCC’s control that affect the immigration levels. These include the IRCC’s processing capacity, the processing capacity of various Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), the applicant’s ability to submit all required documents on time, etc. However, the biggest factor today is the Covid-19 pandemic. As long as the pandemic continues, the immigration levels plan will remain variable as the IRCC will be required to transition the maximum number of temporary residents to permanent residents due to the imposed travel restrictions.

How Can International Students Prepare for Upcoming Changes?

Many international graduates who failed to apply for the graduates' stream due to the unavailability of certain documents will likely abandon their efforts to get their documents together once the stream is over. This could be because they aren’t eligible for other immigration streams and see no purpose in gathering documents. However, these documents will come in handy in the future in case the IRCC decides to increase the quota.

There is no harm in still getting approved language test results and other important receipts. It will help you be prepared to submit a completed permanent residence application in the future. There are also over 100 immigration pathways available to foreign nationals in Canada. It is not likely that you would not fit in one of them. This includes Express Entry and the various Provincial Nominee Program streams.