Canadian Immigration Minister Promises to Push Work Permit Processing

Sean Fraser, Canadian immigration minister promised to improve processing times for work permits in his latest meeting with the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

Last week, IRCC (Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada) are planning to use $85 million to reduce processing times that have been aggravated due to the pandemic. The Canadian immigration minister has announced to return to normal processing time by 2022 for work permits, study permits, proof of citizenship, and permanent resident card renewals.

Last year, Canada issued around 420,000 under the International Mobility Program and Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The TFWP allows foreign nationals to fulfill labour market shortages in Canada. On the other hand, IMP promotes Canada’s economic, social and cultural growth.

The standard processing time for work permits outside Canada is 60 days, except for International Experience Canada (IEC) work permits, which processes within 56 days. The extensions submitted in Canada have a processing standard of 120 days. Pre pandemic, IRCC met more than 87% of standards. In 2020 when the pandemic hit the world, more than 85000 work permits applications were halted.

IRCC Assistant Deputy Minister Daniel Mills mentioned in the meeting that $85 million isn’t enough to improve the processing time but it will certainly allow IRCC to create tools such as electronic application systems and online application trackers.

Importance of Fast Work Permit Processing

According to the job vacancies report, Canada had approximately 900,000 job openings last year. Immigration has always been pushed to fulfill labour market growth in Canada. Employers from certain industries long for foreign talent, in order to fulfill the gap there are some work permits that have expedited processes for workers in certain sectors. The Global Talent Stream has a processing time of 10 business days.

The province of Quebec offers a list of occupations that are exempt the employer from putting the requirement of the LMIA process. Although, they still require an LMIA for most of the positions, they can get one faster without publicizing the job posting.