Canada’s New Plan To Help Foreign Students And Workers Become Permanent Residents

After much hype over the new strategy for helping immigrants to become permanent residents, Sean Fraser, the Immigration Minister have delivered a plan for immigrant students and workers restoring the policy changes made during the pandemic.

Fraser has came up with a comprehensive strategy within 120 days after the Parliament unanimously passed a motion that has allowed temporary foreign workers and international students having all levels of skills pathways to become permanent residents in the maple country.

The Purpose

Aidan Strickland, Fraser’s press secretary, has expressed that many measures are already in place and upcoming with reference to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada that will continue to find ways to find ways to support the transition of immigrant workers and foreign students to become permanent residents. This plan is designed to meet the country’s economic needs as Canada is going through labour shortages.

The Plan

The plan has been designed on the ad-hoc changes made by the immigration department because of the challenges presented by the pandemic hampering global travel and the immigration system’s processing capacity due to lockdowns and travel restrictions between borders. The plan includes:

• Raising per annum targets of permanent residents in Canada to 431,645, 447,055 and 451,000 in 2022, 2023 and 2024 (levels announced in February 2022);
• Twitching the immigration selection system with relation to skilled labour providing more power to the minister to pick permanent residents manually- authority embedded in the federal budget bill passed in summer;
• Enhancing programs regarding economic immigration programs like skill type of the national occupational classification system that is used to assess the eligibility of immigrants applying for permanent residency; improving foreign credential recognition; offering support to the migrants and international students studying or working in the health sector for becoming permanent residents of Canada; and
• Supporting the transition of immigration system to a digitalised and modernised one to accelerate processing time.

The Importance of the Plan

International students assist Canada's workforce to be enriched, more productive and counteract the effects of an ageing population, as claimed by Sean Fraser.

It is claimed in the report that a two-step immigration process aimed to transition temporary workers and international students into permanent residents can help in matching job-skills as aligned with labour demand persistent in the country.

International students seeking to have a PR (Permanent Residency) in Canada can make use of the plan to improve their career and residency prospects.