2020 was a year of change and uncertainty in Canadian immigration law. The COVID-19 pandemic touched all aspects of immigration processing and there were times when it felt like the rules were changing weekly.
Beginning on December 15, 2020, BC employers looking to hire foreign workers through the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) stream or caregivers through federal the Home Child Care Provider Pilot or Home Support Worker Pilot will need to register online with the provincial government to receive a “certificate of registration”. Although there is no charge to obtain a certificate of registration, BC employers will no longer be able to access these immigration programs to hire foreign workers if they have not obtained one.
As we reach the end of 2020, the effects of COVID-19 on Canadian immigration levels has become apparent: the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has not processed and approved as many permanent residency applications as it expected to in 2020. In many cases, existing permanent residency applications will not be finalized in 2020 because of COVID-19 related shutdowns slowing down IRCC’s standard processing speed and preventing applicants from meeting basic immigration requirements such as obtaining police clearance results or completing biometrics (fingerprinting) enrolment.
On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. A few COVID-19 cases had already been confirmed in Canada by late January 2020, but the declaration of March 11 reinforced the seriousness of the outbreak and the consequences that were likely to follow.
The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the Honourable Marco Mendicino, made a welcome announcement on Monday October 5th that the parents and grandparents (PGP) sponsorship program will be re-opening on October 13, 2020. Interested sponsors will have three weeks from October 13, 2020 to November 3, 2020 to register an online interest to sponsor form for a chance to bring their parents and grandparents to Canada as permanent residents.
Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship announced a new temporary policy on Monday, August 24, 2020 that will allow visitors currently in Canada to apply for employer-specific work permits without having to leave the country. This temporary policy takes effect immediately until further notice and is intended to get visitors with job offers working as soon as possible for the Canadian employers who need them.
Since March 11, 2020 when COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, nearly all aspects of immigration processing have been negatively affected. The closure of many immigration visa offices, visa application centres, and biometrics collection points have exposed some of the flaws and limitations of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) current application processing system. Specifically, IRCC continues to rely on paper-based applications, which are not easily processed in the era of COVID-19 when much of its workforce is working from home. As a result, the processing of paper applications like those made under the Family Class to sponsor loved ones for Canadian permanent residency are expected to suffer from lengthy backlogs.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has announced many new policy changes designed to help mitigate the disruptions that have affected the normal processing of immigration applications. However, not enough is being done to help workers and students who are waiting to come to Canada or who are already in Canada and need to complete the biometrics enrolment process to obtain new study and work permits.
Over the past two months, millions of workers in Canada have lost their jobs or experienced dramatic changes in their working conditions due to widespread business shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. During this crisis, foreign workers who hold employer-specific work permits face additional challenges because they do not have the option to look for new employment if they lose their current jobs or to accept a different position within the same company to stay employed.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced on April 22, 2020 that, effectively immediately, international post-secondary students who are providing essential services will be authorized to work full-time while attending school. This rule change will be in effect until August 31, 2020 and will allow international students to help contribute to the nation’s COVID-19 response in areas of critical need such as health care and ensure that Canadians will continue to have access to critical goods and services during this difficult time.
Sas and Ing Immigration Law Centre LLP
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