Archive - September 2020

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Saskatchewan conducts EOI selection round draw

New Brunswick had the Progressive Conservative government back in power on September 14, 2020. The policies of the government and a 5-year action plan for population growth are expected to result in an increased influx of immigrants to the province.

The government has already announced the goal of attracting 7,500 immigrants every year by 2024. This is the maximum number of immigrants allowed by the federal government of Canada under Canada immigration rules.

By the year 2027, the Progressive party is aiming to welcome 10,000 immigrants to the province. Another agenda of the province is to increase the number of immigrants who speak French. This is intended to be achieved through the PNP. The result will be the growth of the francophone culture.

The Progressive party has set a goal of making 33% of its population to be francophone immigrants. This is now aimed to be achieved by 2024.

The Progressive party also will be working with professional institutions and institutions of higher learning to attract international students. Even skilled workers and professionals will be welcomed and the young population of the province will be maintained and flourished.

There are plans to invest in experiential learning initiatives. To solve the shortage of labor and an aging population New Brunswick is now depending on improving the immigration scene with more skilled immigrants coming into the province. In fact, immigrants have created the longest period of sustained growth since the 1990s.

The data from Statistics Canada estimates that the population of the province is approximately 780,900.

New Brunswick’s Premier has also revealed plans to open offices in Europe and India to promote immigration to the province. The initiative will attract investors too along with foreign workers willing to work in Canada.

In the years to come, the province will also attract companies in emerging sectors like digital health, cybersecurity, and energy innovation via Opportunities New Brunswick. This is the business development agency of the province’s government.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate to Canada, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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New EU migration pact to make immigrant movement easier

September 28, 2020

Europe

Stuck Schengen visa holders must leave Germany in September

To attract more skilled and brilliant immigrants into Europe, the EU has proposed a new Migration Pact. This pact is made to enable bright people from third-countries to live and work in the EU.

The new pact intends to update the EU regulations applicable to regular migration. This is to make it easier for more skilled migrants to arrive in Europe. The new move is significant for Europe as it has to improve its capacity to attract such migrants in comparison with countries like Australia, Canada, and the USA. Considering that Europe has an aging population that’s shrinking and facing an acute skills shortage, addressing the issues on priority is of greatest priority.

The EU Blue Card scheme enables highly-qualified workers from non-EU/EEA nations to live and work in any EU member country. Now, it’s been planned to make it attractive and easier for highly-skilled third-country nationals.

Something similar is planned for EU’s Single Permit Directive, which is a regulation aimed at establishing a procedure of application for a single permit for nationals of third-countries to live and work in EU member states. It will provide a common set of rights for third-country workers who are legally residing in a member state.

With the new measures in the pipeline, the shortcomings and inconsistencies in the implementation of the directives will be identified to streamline, simplify, complete, and improve the EU legislation.

Long-term residence directive will be revised to strengthen the residents’ rights to work and travel in EU member states. Also, work will be done on an EU talent pool that was proposed by OECD in 2019. The obstacles standing in the way of making the pool an attractive one for international migrants will be removed.

The European Union Labor Force survey has revealed that close to 31% of working-age immigrants form the EU’s key workforce. Hence the new reforms will be taken to improve the situation in the EU’s migrant performance area.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate to Europe, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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Saskatchewan conducts EOI selection round draw

September 26, 2020

The Canadian province of Saskatchewan conducted its EOI selection rounds of the draw on 24th September 2020 through the Saskatchewan immigration nominee program. International skilled workers can submit their application which is not an is not an application to the SINP. Rather it is a pre-application process where candidates fill out an online application form which indicates their interest in the SINP and highlights their qualifications.

The information provided by the candidates is used to assess their eligibility and if candidates are eligible their names are entered in the International Skilled Worker EOI system.

The eligibility criteria include connection to the province, work experience, and language proficiency. However not all skilled workers who submit the International Skilled Worker EOI can get an invitation to apply to the Saskatchewan PNP nor is there a limit on the number of candidates who can submit an EOI but candidates can have only one EOI profile.

Applicants who can successfully complete an EOI profile receive a rank score based on several criteria which is based on the below points assessment grid.

I: LABOUR MARKET SUCCESS
A: EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Master’s or Doctorate degree, Canadian equivalency	23
Bachelor’s degree OR a three or more-year degree program at a university or college	20
Trade certification equivalent to journeyperson status in Saskatchewan	20
Canadian equivalency Diploma that requires two but less than three years at a university, college, trade or technical school, or other formal post-secondary institution	15
Canadian equivalency Certificate or at least two semesters but less than a two-year program at a university, college, trade or technical school, or other formal post-secondary institution	12
B: SKILLED WORK EXPERIENCE · The work experience claimed must be relevant to the single occupation you’ve selected in your application. · One year of work experience refers to 12 full months of work experience.
a) In the 5-year period prior to application submission date
5 years	10
4 years	8
3 years	6
2 years	4
1 year	2
b) In the 6-10-year period prior to application submission date
5 years	5
4 years	4
3 years	3
2 years	2
Less than 1 year	0
C: LANGUAGE ABILITY
CLB 8 and higher	20
CLB 7	18
CLB 6	16
CLB 5	14
CLB 4	12
English or French speaker without language test results	0
D: AGE
< 18 years	0
18 – 21 years	8
22 – 34 years	12
35 – 45 years	10
46 – 50 years	8
> 50 years	0
MAXIMUM POINTS FOR FACTOR I	70
II: CONNECTION TO SASKATCHEWAN LABOUR MARKET & ADAPTABILITY Points are available for having a strong connection to the Saskatchewan labor market, which shows a genuine intent and ability to successfully settle and economically establish in Saskatchewan as a permanent resident.
The following points are for the Employment Offer subcategory only:
High skilled employment offer from a Saskatchewan employer	30
The following points are for the Occupation In-Demand and Saskatchewan Express Entry subcategories only
Close family relative in Saskatchewan (The applicant or accompanying spouse has a family relative that is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident living in Saskatchewan.	20
Past work experience in Saskatchewan (A minimum of at least 12 months of work in the past five years on a valid work permit)	5
Past student experience in Saskatchewan (A minimum of one full-time academic year of study at a recognized Saskatchewan post-secondary education institution on a valid study permit)	5
MAXIMUM POINTS FOR FACTOR II	30
MAXIMUM POINTS TOTAL: I + II =	100

How does the Expression of Interest system work?

Candidates who successfully submit an EOI will have their names entered in the EOI pool of eligible candidates.

The profile will be valid for one year from the day of submission.
Candidates are allowed to have only have one active EOI profile in the system at any time and under only one category- Express Entry or Occupations in demand.
Candidates will be ranked based on the information they provide.
The highest ranked candidates will be invited to apply to the SINP.
Invitations to Apply are given based on Expression of Interest Draws.

Here is a breakdown of the invitations issued under the International Skilled Workers subcategories:

Express Entry

Total invitations issued: 278

Minimum rank score for invitation: 82 Points

Occupation In-Demand

Total invitations issued: 257

Minimum rank score for invitation: 82 Points.

Canada’s call for 74 tech workers in latest BC PNP Tech Pilot

September 26, 2020

Canada waives the need for biometric with conditions

British Columbia held another round of Tech Pilot draw on September 22, 2020. It invited 74 immigration candidates to apply for a provincial nomination for PR.

The invitations went from British Columbia PNP to candidates from the Skills Immigration and Express Entry categories. The subcategories involved were International Graduate and Skilled Worker. These candidates needed a minimum provincial score of 80 points.

BC’s Tech Pilot draw gives a fast-track opportunity for immigration to tech workers and international students from around the world. Its pilot project was launched in 2017. Its extension happened many times. The latest extension is until June 2021.

Only candidates who are registered in one of BC’s existing provincial nomination streams were eligible for this program. They also needed to hold a valid job offer of a minimum period of 12 months. The job should be one listed in Tech Pilot’s 29 eligible occupations.

The candidates have to get registered under BC PNP’s SIRS along with creating a profile via the BC PNP’s online portal. A score is assigned to the candidates that decide if one gets an invitation to apply in a given invitation round. The score is determined by considering factors like education level, work experience, and an offer of employment in BC.

A candidate who gets a nomination from BC will be awarded 600 extra points to their CRS score. It effectively guarantees an ITA in a future federal Express Entry draw.

Federal Express Entry draws held twice a month typically invites 4,000 immigration candidates to apply for PR.

So far in 2020, IRCC has issued 74,150 ITAs and is working with the ambition of welcoming many more new immigrants to work in Canada in the years to come.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate to Canada, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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Note:

PR – Permanent Residence

BC – British Columbia

PNP – Provincial Nominee Program

SIRS – Skills Immigration Registration System

CRS – Comprehensive Ranking System

ITA – Invitation to Apply

Canadians will meet loved ones faster with new measures

September 25, 2020

Canada offers unmatched opportunities to tech talent

Canada is working on an ambitious immigration task of processing and finalizing 6,000 spousal sponsorship applications every month from October to December 2020. IRCC has increased the number of staff members who review applications for spousal sponsorship. The volume of staff is up by 66%, which will reduce the time taken for processing applications which will result in reducing wait times of applicants.

The move to digitize the applications is also another direction in which IRCC is working to improve the efficiency of Canada immigration processes. IRCC also has plans to implement facilitative biometric measures.

The technology to conduct interviews with applicants remotely is also in line to be tested on a pilot. With the successful implementation of these measures, it’s intended to accelerate, prioritize, and finalize about 6,000 applications for spousal visas each month from October through the current year.

Achieving this goal will result in getting decisions made on 49,000 applications by the end of 2020.

IRCC has been constantly trying to unite Canada’s PRs and citizens with their spouses through the difficulties created in migration due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has attempted to find innovative and humane ways to unite families.

Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan 2020-2022 aims at bringing in partners, spouses, and children of Canadian residents and citizens constituting 70,000 immigrants from among the 341,000 total immigrants targeted to be welcomed this year.

Blending innovation into immigration, Canada is making it even more possible to stay in the lead on a world level in the years to come.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate to Canada, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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Note:

IRCC – Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

PR – Permanent Resident / Permanent Residence

Canada immigration makes new future plans in October 2020

September 25, 2020

Canada offers unmatched opportunities to tech talent

There are 2 major events lined up to happen in the near future in Canada. These are significant and will influence the course of Canada immigration in the coming future.

One of these is a new mandate letter from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Marco Mendicino. It will have the new immigration priorities of Canada, that’s expected to be released soon within the coming week.

The other one is Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan for 2021-2023. The plan will outline the targets to be achieved in the next 3 years in terms of Canada’s permanent residence. This is due to be announced by October 30, 2020.

What will the new immigration mandate letter bring?

The new immigration mandate letter will cut out the roles and responsibilities of cabinet members as the ruling party manages the government. Trudeau’s letter will guide Mendicino in his efforts with operating IRCC.

It’s indeed interesting to observe that this is the second immigration mandate letter Trudeau has issued in less than a year’s time. The common practice is to issue such a letter once in 2 or 4 years, when a new government comes to power and when a portfolio is assigned to a minister.

Trudeau has already worked towards resetting the government’s priorities with the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Government of Canada has defined its new priorities on September 23, 2020, as the new session of Parliament was started with the speech from the throne. Quite ambitiously, the speech reaffirmed the intent of welcoming more migrants to Canada to maintain its competitive economic standing.

COVID-19 has already toppled Mendicino’s plans to implement the government’s agenda for immigration when he announced Immigration Levels Plan of Canada for 2020-2022 in March 2020.

This time, the mandate letter is expected to emphasize the pandemic. The concerns as to how to adapt Canada’s immigration policy and how to process applications in the future during the COVID-19 crisis will be addressed.

Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan for 2021-2023

The IRPA stipulates that the Levels Plan must be announced each fall towards the last week of October. In March 2020, Mendicino has already announced Canada’s 2020-2022 Levels Plan. By October 30, 2020, another announcement will very possibly come on 2021-2023 Levels plan.

What has to be seen is the impact of COVID-19 on Canada’s Immigration Level plans. As Canada is largely dependent on immigration to sustain and develop its economy, it’s expected of the country to go back to high immigration levels.

The greatest concern the pandemic has brought up is the number of immigrants who will be arriving to live, study, and work in Canada during these crisis days. Nevertheless, Canada is keeping its immigration programs running, which includes Express Entry and PNP draws.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate to Canada, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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Note:

IRCC – Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

IRPA – Immigration and Refugee Protection Act

PNP – Provincial Nominee Program

Canada waives the need for biometric with conditions

September 25, 2020

Canada’s new rules for foreign workers benefit them even more

Here’s news about submitting biometrics as part of the PR application process. Canada has made it a rule that PR applicants needn’t provide their biometric information in case they have submitted their biometric information as part of making another application in the last 10 years.

IRCC has already have taken measures to help applicants who had issues with submitting biometric information by granting delays in doing so. But the question does remain when many of the service points in Canada and abroad collecting biometric information will resume operations as normal.

With the closure of VACs and services points, many PR applicants have faced difficulty in going ahead in the process timeline, especially with the submission of biometric information.

That is exactly why IRCC has conditionally waived the requirement for submitting biometric info in the course of applying for PR in certain cases.

This new policy came into effect from September 10, 2020. It was brought into operation from September 22, 2020. This rule has no expiry date either.

This new rule is applicable to Canada PR applicants who:

Have a new or pending application for PR
Have previously submitted their biometric information within the 10-year period counting back from the day of submission of their current PR application

Canada immigration is indeed making it irresistible for potential immigrants to set their sails for Canada. The current move is just one step in that direction.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate to Canada, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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Note:

PR – Permanent Residence

IRCC – Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

VAC – Visa Application Center

Canada offers unmatched opportunities to tech talent

September 23, 2020

IRCC services make a comeback to in-person mode in Canada

Canada is emerging as a major provider of opportunities for talents in the technological field. This was reaffirmed by the findings revealed by a US media report given by CGTN America. Tech talents the world over is increasingly discovering the potential of Canada, especially amidst the restrictions on immigration imposed by the USA.

Canada is keen on offering great opportunities for tech workers willing to work in Canada and looking for a PR or a work permit. There are many pathways that Canada is offering today to techies who are aiming for PR.

Canada Express Entry

The most popular and major pathway for tech-savvy individuals to get a career started in Canada is Express Entry draws. The process starts with the candidate submitting his/her profile to the Express Entry system via the IRCC website.

There, in the Express Entry pool, those profiles are graded based on factors like age education, work experience, and language proficiency. The higher your score, the earlier your profile will be picked up in Express Entry draws conducted every 2 weeks in Canada. This is the opportunity for a candidate to apply for PR.

During the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, Express Entry draws have been the most consistent and significant contributor to Canada in terms of skilled immigrants.

Canada PNP

If Express Entry is a federal level immigration system, PNP caters to the need of immigrants in each province of Canada. Every territory and province of Canada has the constitutional power to choose and invite immigrants who they feel shall fulfill the province’s economic needs.

The profiles taken up in a PNP could be ones directly submitted into the particular province’s PNP mechanism, or ones that are taken from the Express Entry pool. After the province issues a nomination for a candidate, he/she can apply for a PR to live and work in that province.

The major pullers of tech talents among Canadian provinces include British Columbia and Ontario.

Start-up visa

The Start-up visa is meant to bring entrepreneurs in who are ready to start a new business in Canada. Given that tech related enterprises have high rates of start-up possibility, tech-skilled candidates with an entrepreneurial mindset and intent will find the Start-up visa pathway highly suitable and beneficial.

The candidates who get this visa must be endorsed by an angel investor, business incubator, or venture capital firm in Canada. These endorsers must be designated by the IRCC. Once the candidate receives the endorsement letter, he/she can submit the application for a PR.

Work permits

Coming to work permit options, there are plenty of such options that are available to tech talent. Temporary workers including tech workers are exempted from travel restrictions in Canada during this COVID-19 crisis time.

For the tech workers, a leading option is the Global Talent stream. Its advantage is the speedy processing time (4 weeks) to get a work permit. The importance of this stream is understandable from the fact that since its launch in 2017, it has helped in bringing an additional 40,000 tech workers in Canada.

Canada immigration is thus an active booming sector that is contributing to the mutual progress of skilled immigrants and Canada’s labor market and economy.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate to Canada, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

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Note:

PR – Permanent Residence

IRCC – Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada

PNP – Provincial Nominee Program

PEI’s latest draw aims to bring in 345 candidates

September 23, 2020