Due to travel limitations in 2021, the Canadian government focused on measures that allowed temporary residents the ability to proceed with obtaining their permanent status - TR to PR process. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said, these measures were designed specifically to address pandemic-related problems, but could also be helpful to applicants even after the pandemic passes. For example, the “Guardian Angels” program was introduced to grant permanent residency to asylum claimants. These are individuals who are working specifically in the healthcare sector and providing direct care, to patients during the pandemic.
In general, the outcome of these programs has had a positive affect on employment in Canada and it speaks to the governments’ plan on addressing labour shortages. However, some negative impact of the pandemic is the massive backlog of 1.8 million applications that are waiting to be processed. Fortunately, the Finance Ministry has earmarked $85 million to deal with the backlog issue. The digitalization of the application records, has already begun with the target of developing the full cycle systems in the coming years. Minister Fraser said one of the system features is to allow applicants the ability to check their status online.
For the time being, the government continues to look at developing programs to encourage immigration and training, so that there are more skilled workers available. Last year, Canada welcomed 401,000 immigrants. The government hopes to welcome 411,000 new permanent residents by the end of next year. Immigration levels for 2022-2024 will be announced by February 11, 2022.
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