Canada to make transition to permanent residency faster for immigrants

Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced this week that in order to more quickly meet Canada's labour market needs, the immigration department will make changes to allow highly-skilled temporary foreign workers to transition to permanent residence more quickly.

"Thousands of highly-skilled foreign nationals are working successfully in Canada on a temporary basis," said Kenney. "Expediting their transition to permanent residence would help Canada retain bright and talented people who already have Canadian work experience and the ability to communicate in English or French. In many cases, they already have a job lined up. Such newcomers are set for success."

In order to respond to Canada's growing skill shortages, the department announced they will reduce the work experience requirement for eligible temporary foreign workers applying for permanent residency. Under the current rules, applicants applying for permanent residency under the temporary foreign worker stream of the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) must have spent at least 24 months in full-time job within the last 36 months. Under the proposed changes, the requirement would be reduced to only 12 months of work experience.

These changes follow the department's recent announcement to make Canada's immigration system more efficient while focusing on jobs and growth.

"The CEC is a key part of our plan for the future of immigration in Canada, and so it is gratifying to see the dramatic growth in the program since its inception," said Kenney.

The CEC is a program for temporary foreign workers or foreign students who graduated in Canada to become permanent residents. Currently, in order to be eligible applicants must:

• plan to live outside the province of Quebec.
• be either: a temporary foreign worker with at least two years of full-time skilled work experience in Canada, or a foreign graduate from a Canadian post-secondary institution with at least one year of full-time skilled work experience in Canada.
• have gained your experience in Canada with the proper work or study authorization.
• apply while working in Canada or within one year of leaving your job in Canada.
• include the results of an independent language test with your application.

In 2011, around 6,000 immigrants were accepted into the CEC, a 50% increase from 2010.

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