Given the ongoing pandemic, the Canadian government introduced temporary permanent residence (PR) pathways for temporary foreign workers and international graduates. The PR Pathway for International Graduates with a visa cap of 40,000 applicants was launched on May 6, 2021. As was expected, the visa cap for the temporary PR pathways was met in the first 25 hours.
While thousands of international graduates were successful in applying for the stream on time, many were unable to apply due to several reasons. Some international graduates were unable to complete their application due to lack of complete documentation, some faced technical difficulties.
In any case, Canada’s immigration minister, Marco Mendicino offered a sliver of hope to international graduates who want to immigrate to Canada by suggesting that the visa cap for the temporary PR pathway may be increased. He said that he will be open to discussion on whether or not to review the current visa caps. However, he also indicated that any decision will be made after reviewing the quality of the current applications.
How Would Increased Visa Caps for New PR Pathways Help?
Canada recently launched 3 new PR pathways for English-speaking temporary foreign workers in healthcare and non-healthcare occupations and another for international graduates. These PR pathways had a combined visa cap of 90,000 applications: 40,000 for international graduates, 30,000 for temporary workers in non-healthcare essential occupations and 20,000 for temporary workers in healthcare occupations.