Canada invited 4,000 immigrants in April

The coronavirus pandemic was bound to affect Canadian immigration levels. New IRCC data gives us an idea of how the travel restrictions impacted immigration in the month of April.

Canada issued invitations to only 4,000 immigrants in the month of April, which is an indication of just how damaging the pandemic has been to the economy of the country. In a regular month, Canada welcomes around 25,000-35,000 new permanent resident (PR) visa holders without fail. However, applicants could not complete the process in April because of the widespread disruptions happening due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only 4,100 new PRs managed to complete the immigration process and make a place for themselves in Canada during the month.

The data provided by the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) shows that the country’s PR intake dropped by 78 percent as compared to March 2020. The intake in March 2020 intake had fallen by 26 percent in comparison with February.

Reason for the drop:

IRCC employees have resorted to working remotely because of coronavirus-related disruptions as a result of which Canada’s PR processing capacity is drastically low at the moment. Moreover, the travel restrictions are preventing some PR visa holders from entering the country, and airlines across the world are not functioning as usual.

Monthly immigration data of past decades is not easily accessible, but there is a chance that the April 2020 PR intake is the lowest to be recorded since the 1940s when global immigration was negatively affected by the Second World War. Candidates should not lose hope because the IRCC has shown no inclination to change its 2020-2022 Immigration Levels Plan till now. According to the plan, IRCC wants to welcome more than 340,000 immigrants every year in the coming years. While the 2020 PR target seems unattainable, Canada still has hope.