New 90,000 Immigration Slots for Workers and Students

90,000 workers & students in Canada may apply for permanent residence.

April 14, 2021, Ottawa – A new public policy for permanent residency is now available to over 90,000 essential workers and international graduates already in Canada, and who possess the skills and experience needed during the pandemic and to accelerate economy recovery.

The focus is on temporary workers employed in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other essential sectors as well as international graduates who meet certain criteria.

The primary eligibility criterion for this public policy, in addition to standard immigration criteria, are:

• Temporary workers must have at least 1 year Canadian work experience in a health-care profession or in a pre-approved essential occupation.
• International graduates must have completed an eligible Canadian post-secondary program within the last 4 years, and no earlier than January 2017.

 Effective May 6, 2021, IRCC will start accepting application under 3 streams:

• 20,000 applications for temporary workers in health care professions
• 30,000 applications for temporary workers in pre-approved essential occupations
• 40,000 applications for international students who graduated from a Canadian institution

This will remain open until November 5, 2021, or until they reach their limit, whichever comes first.

3 additional streams with no limit have also been launched for French-speaking and/or bilingual candidates to promote Canada’s official languages.

This new public policy was announced by the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Honourable Marco Mendicino, who said “The pandemic has shone a bright light on the incredible contributions of newcomers. These new policies will help those with a temporary status to plan their future in Canada, play a key role in our economic recovery and help us build back better. Our message to them is simple: your status may be temporary, but your contributions are lasting—and we want you to stay.”

Immigration will remain critical in Canada’s economic recovery in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic. This new accelerated pathway to permanent residency will encourage temporary workers and international graduates to put down roots, help us address labor shortages, and allow us to retain the skilled workers we need. In addition, this will help Canada reach her 2021 Immigration Level Plan of welcoming 401,000 new permanent residents to the country.

DO YOU WANT TO CHECK IF YOU QUALIFY FOR THIS PUBLIC POLICY? You can contact us for an assessment.

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