The government will make several announcements in the next month, including ones about its Parents and Grandparents Program, Immigration Levels Plan 2023-2025, and Statistics Canada census data.
The coming month promises to be an active one for Canada’s immigration sector.
The coming weeks will be marked by several developments that will influence immigration trends for years to come.
The method for selecting applicants for the PGP 2022 will be announced by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in late October. The immigration levels plan 2023-2025 will be presented on November 1st. Additionally, Statistics Canada will publish new data on immigration in 2021—the first time it has done so in five years.
It is likely that the minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score for the newly resumed all-program Express Entry draws will continue to decrease until it is below 500, as was once again normal before COVID-19.
Canada’s Parents and Grandparents Program 2022
According to an email from IRCC on September 6, 2018, the application intake for the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) will soon be available.
The program allows immigrants to sponsor their parents and grandparents for entry into Canada.
IRCC used a lottery to decide which parents and grandparents of immigrants would be eligible for visas. It is unclear whether the same process will be in place this year, and IRCC will make an announcement at that time. Sponsors must be at least 18 years of age, Canadian citizens or permanent residents (if living in Canada), and meet an income threshold. As a sponsor, you must also sign an undertaking—a legal document in which you promise to financially support your parents or grandparents for 20 years (or 10 years if they immigrate to Quebec). In 2021, IRCC held a lottery to select 30,000 applicants for the PGP. Last year’s figure was higher because it had been lower than the previous year. Because of the outbreak of a pandemic in 2020, IRCC only allowed 10,000 sponsors to apply for the PGP that year.
2021 Census Report
Statistics Canada releases immigration figures every five years. The most recent census data on immigration was released in October 2017.
Statistics Canada collects information from all Canadians each year, which gives the agency a better understanding of what life is like for residents. For instance, they might consider their income brackets, how many people live in the same household (household size), and the languages are spoken by family members. The government uses this data as a way to understand the real lives of Canadians better and then provide policies that meet their changing needs.
The new census data will reveal where immigrants live, how many languages they speak at home, and the size of their households. This will help shape the future outlook for immigration initiatives, such as what levels of immigration Canada should plan for. The data will be released to the public at the end of October.
A Drop in your CRS score is expected
After a period of 18 months in which no Express Entry draws were held, IRCC resumed drawing all programs last summer. The draw on July 6 was for 1,500 permanent residence applications with a minimum score of 557.
Since July 6, the minimum CRS has decreased by 6 points over the last two draws on September 14 and 28, after an initial period of steady declines in which the first five numbers were drawn at values 8 to 9 lower than their previous ones. The trend is clear: the CRS score has declined significantly since September 28th, and it could soon dip below 500 for an all-program draw. Although the score is lower now than it was before the pandemic, 504 is still very high compared to typical scores of 450–500 points.
The number of ITAs has increased as the CRS score continues to lower. In fact, up until the most recent three draws, each draw saw an increase of 250 candidates with each—but in those last few rounds alone there was a 500-person jump from one draw to the next. There were between 3,400 and 4,500 candidates in each draw of all programs before the pandemic struck.
Immigration Levels Plan 2023-2025
Every year, IRCC issues an Immigration Levels Plan to establish the number of immigrants that will be allowed in Canada over the next three years. It details how many people will come through each type of immigration program—from economic class, family class, and humanitarian.
It appears that IRCC plans to break another record this year. The target is to welcome 430,000 new permanent residents in 2022 and over 451,000 by 2024.
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said in June that he can foresee higher targets for immigration—up to 500,000 new permanent residents per year. However, Mr. Frasier did not specify when these quotas would actually be implemented.
Given Canada’s labor shortage and the high number of job vacancies, the target is unlikely to decrease.
Given that the Immigration, Refugees and Protection Act (IRPA) stipulates a November 1 deadline for releasing the new plan, IRCC may unveil it just before Parliament begins its fall sitting—four consecutive weeks after Canadian Thanksgiving. IRPA is the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which is Canada's main legislation on immigration.
Working together with other government departments and stakeholders, IRCC creates an annual Immigration Levels Plan that allocates permanent resident spots among each immigration class.
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