Canadian immigration announcements will occur in October as the month will witness an eventful period. New announcements will take place toward the latter part of this year. These upcoming developments will focus on new immigration targets and immigration patterns in the future. IRCC will soon declare the PGP process toward the end of October. Additionally, the immigration targets by Immigration Levels Plan 2023-2025 will come out by November 1 this year. Surprisingly, Statistics Canada will reveal the Census data about immigration in 2021. This is the first time it will publish the data in the last five years.
The Comprehensive Ranking System will continue to decline until it becomes lower than 500. The minimum CRS score will be less, a situation similar to the period before the pandemic broke out.
Canadian Immigration Announcements
PGP- new development in 2022
IRCC revealed that it would continue with the Parents and Grandparents Program’s application intake. Previously, Canada decided on the parent’s and grandparents’ eligibility for a visa via lottery. However, as of now, things aren’t certain whether this practice will continue or not. IRCC is likely to clarify this process while making other announcements.
The ones sponsoring their parents and grandparents must hold Canadian citizenship and permanent residency status. They must be at least eighteen years old. Apart from this, they will also need to sign an undertaking that they are willing to assist their parents and grandparents for the following twenty years. Suppose the sponsors reside in Quebec; they must sign the agreement for the next ten years.
In 2021, IRCC organized a lottery for the Parents and Grandparents Program with 30,000 Canadians who received invitations to apply for sponsorship. 2021 brought forth a high figure to compensate for the lower percentage in 2020. IRCC permitted only 10,000 sponsors to apply for PGP because of the rising pandemic in 2020.
Census report of 2021
The census report revealed the data on immigration five years ago in October 2017. Usually, Statistics Canada announces the information every five years.
As a norm, Statistics Canada gathers all essential details from the Canadians to perceive their lifestyle in a better way. The information they ask from them includes several factors such as their salary income, number of family members or acquaintances living with them, languages spoken by them, etc. The government further considers all these details to analyze Canadians’ living conditions and assess their requirements appropriately.
The latest Census data will display various things, including the immigrants living in Canada, where they prefer to settle, the languages they use at home, and the number of acquaintances they reside with. As a result, all these factors will eventually carve out appropriate initiatives or measures for immigration, including the Immigration Levels Plan.
This data will emerge before the public in the latter part of October.
Express Entry- CRS score to go lower than 500
A long pause of eighteen months existed for the Express Entry all-program draws. However, it resumed earlier on July 6 this year. The first draw since the Express Entry draws resumed witnessed 1,500 candidates receiving invitations to apply for PR, with a minimum CRS score of 557. Ever since July 6, the draws kept declining, with at least eight to nine points reducing in the initial two draws, whereas the recent two draws conducted on September 14 and 28 had at least 6 points lower during each draw.
If this declining pattern continues, the score will be below 500 for Express Entry’s all-program draw. The last time the CRS score turned out to be below 500 was on December 23, 2020, with a CRS score of 468.
Even though there’s a gradual decrease in the CRS score, the initial draw before Covid-19 had even lower CRS scores. Therefore, the recent CRS score of 504 appears higher compared to the previous ones before the pandemic. Per the initial norms, the CRS score would lie between 400 and 500.
With CRS scores declining drastically, ITAs continue to rise. Initially, the draws witnessed a rise of at least 250 candidates. However, the previous three draws experienced a drastic rise of 500 ITAs.
Before the rise of the pandemic, the ITA’s typically went between 3,400 to 4,500 with each draw.
Upcoming Immigration Levels Plan- 2023 to 2025
Every year, the Immigration Levels Plan reveals information about the number of immigrants coming to Canada. This plan will classify immigrants based on economic class, family class, and humanitarian class programs for the following three years.
IRCC looks forward to setting new immigration targets this year. In 2022, the target is to welcome 432,000 permanent residents and increase the figure to 451,000 by 2024. Fraser believes that these targets are likely to rise to 500,000 new permanent residents in the upcoming years. Canadian labor shortage and increased employment vacancies make it clear that the number will not decrease.
According to the IRPA, IRCC requires to table out the new immigration plan by November 1, 2022. However, Canadian immigration announcements will happen sooner than expected. This is because the Parliament plans to sit for a continuous period of four weeks after ‘Thanksgiving’.
The department often partners with other government departments to develop a balanced immigration plan. A balanced Immigration Levels Plan implies the allocation of the number of permanent resident spots as per each immigration class. After this allocation, it further decides the spots for each program.
