Dallas – November 21, 2011 – Our Firm has formally given up trying to understand the Citizenship Immigration Canada (CIC) reporting tool for monitoring incoming “complete” Category 1 – Federal Skilled Worker (FSW1) applications. (“Arranged Employment”, “Canada Experience” and “Ph.D. Skilled Workers” are exempt from the annual cap.)
The stated purpose of the tool is to provide visa applicants an estimate of “total complete applications” received by the Centralized Intake Office (CIO) in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Supposedly, it is used to assist applicants to schedule the timing of their application to Canada.
We would encourage all prospect and current clients to disregard the CIC cap link as well. The CIC cap link is found here for your personal reference: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/complete-applications.asp.
The CIC cap link reminds me of Betelgeuse, one of the brightest stars in the Orion constellation. It is about 640 light years from earth. If you could catch a glimpse of a Betelgeuse resident sipping orange juice on his porch, you would be looking at events that occurred in the year 1371; right about when Robert II became the first Stuart king of Scotland.
By our calculation, the CIC cap reports are based on events that occurred between one and three months previously. In the July 21, 2011 report management consultants (NOC 1122) were reporting 52 while Registered Nurses (NOC 3152) were reporting 26 “applications received”. In actuality, 1122 was capped by approximately July 8, 2011 with RNs following at most one month later.
How do we know this? One of our esteemed clients submitted her 1122 application just three days from the July 1, 2011 cap opening. The carrier took 48 hours to deliver the packet. Her application was returned, with her bank draft, three months later (beginning of October) on the basis of cap retirement. Since her application was delivered within 5 days of opening how could it have been already excluded? The report showed that cap was reached as of August 22, 2011. In this instance the reports did not accurately report the numbers received, only what CIC had accepted out of the applications received up to 500. It leads us to believe they received 10x the number of applicants for the occupation over the course of the one month that the cap report was showing space available.
For nurse applications the situation was not as immediate, but still similar. On August 10, the CIC cap report declared 148 nurse applications received. We submitted a prominent Filipino nurse a week before the August 10 date; confident that it would be accepted for processing. Her application was returned two months later (October 10) due to cap attainment. Between August 10 and September 20 (when the cap was reached it jumped 350 applications)! We can only assume that by the August 10th date CIC had already received all of the applications it could fit into the cap but had not processed them completely and so did not update the report accordingly.
This is not the case for all occupations, but certainly for many of the high volume ones. How can we truly know when an occupation has reached their cap? Which applications can be said to be high volume for sure? As of today four occupations have reached the cap. One did so within one month, another within two and the others just over four months from opening. Three more are already in the 400 range and two or three are in the 200-300 range. When would be the best time to have filed those applications? It is really hard to determine and someone could likely spend much time and energy presenting statistical analysis to find out. We don’t have those resources.
As these applications get returned, our office policy is to prepare for a prompt July 1, 2012 filing. We suspect that most professionals will do the same. As professionals and clients stockpile applications for a giant July 1, 2012 filing, CIC has, to all intents and purposes, produced a lottery system. There’s no doubt that over 500 RN and management consultant applications will be received on July 1 – and we bet that CIC will have to scratch their heads to figure out how to vet out applicants with a reasonable regard to fair play. Will a time-stamp be introduced? Will they just randomly select applications until the 500 number is reached? Or will a more thorough review be made in an effort to weed out the weaker applicants – perhaps a more detailed examination of Schedule 3 (and specifically Question 10 of Schedule 3).
We have no idea. CIC has only stated that they are aware of the problem and are designing “office procedures” at the intake office.
What To Do if Your Occupation is a High Volume FSW1 Application?
Our office is operating on the assumption that all high-volume occupations are likely to be full within a week from the July 1, 2012 date. These include: management consultants (1122), nurses (3152), restaurant managers (0631), physicians (3112), dentists (3113), pharmacists (3131), biologists (2121) and even psychologists (4151) and licensed practical nurses (3233).
While we can’t guarantee the availability of the occupation on the Federal Skilled Worker list next year, our office is recommending that all applicants assume it will remain on the list. There’s no time to be a perfectionist by waiting to find out what CIC will announce on July 1.
If you’re in a high-volume occupation as listed above, assume that the cap will open and close on July 1, 2012. Start the process of assembling your supporting documentation, including language proficiency tests, employment verification letters, forms completion in March. Waiting in June will virtually guarantee that your application will either not be ready or will be returned on the count of caps.
If you ordered police reports and are still waiting for results come by the July date, file anyway. Recommendations on the CIC website of obtaining a police report to include in the initial application have no basis in law and may do a lot more harm than good.
While this last piece of advice will sound self-serving, we urge all applicants to have a licensed practitioner prepare your Federal Skilled Worker application or at least review it. Given the high volume of applications expected, there’s a lot pressure at CIO to eliminate the intake by returning “incomplete” applications under almost any pretext. One female application was returned because she forgot to insert “not applicable” in the question regarding military service (where military service is not possible for women in her country.)
If a high volume occupation is returned this year due to incompleteness, assume you won’t have time to refile (given the cap will be attained by then) until next year. (As a policy, our firm recommends that you refile anyway, especially if the number of applications is under 400.)
For those on a tight budget, our firm does provide an “assessment” service whereby we essentially act as a CIC officer in reviewing your case file. Our “assess and review” product starts at $499. At the very least, it will help ensure that CIO won’t return your application under some pretext.
August 8, 2011. Dallas. Effective today, Marc Laforce, CCIC is a full member of the newly created Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC) as required by Bill C-35, an amendment to the Immigration & Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).
Bill-C35 has introduced important safeguards to consumers who utilize a representative for a fee to file a visa application before an authorized agency.
One of the changes, which our Dallas-based firm fully endorses, consists of the tightening up of loopholes by unlicensed and unscrupulous agents who prepare an immigration application only to forward the application without declaring themselves – essentially passing off the application as having been exclusively prepared by the consumer (hence the term “ghost consultants”).
The new rules also increase the scope by which penalties may be applied when a licensed or unlicensed person circumvents the IRPA.
Lastly, Bill C-35 gives the minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) more authority to appoint and manage a watchdog for regulating immigration consultants.
Until June 30, 2011, the official regulator supervising the activities of immigration consultants, such as the activities of this firm, consisted of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (CSIC). CSIC is an independent federally incorporated body that was responsible for regulating the activities of immigration consultants.
Pursuant to the new bill, the new designated regulator that CIC has appointed is called the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC). Effective July 30, 2011, CSIC no longer has any jurisdiction over regulating the activities of immigration consultants.
To allow CSIC members time to register before the new regulator without service interruptions, CIC has unilaterally declared all CSIC members who were in good standing on June 30, 2011 (such as our firm), to be automatically members of ICCRC on a transitional basis until October 29, 2011.
If, however, a CSIC member hasn’t formally registered with ICCRC by October 29, 2011, he will cease to have any rights to intervene before the CIC on a consumer’s behalf. This means that while a CSIC member may have prepared and filed your federal skilled worker application to the Centralised Intake Office in June 2011, he will not be able to advise you of any official CIC action by the time the application is forwarded to the appropriate visa post if he hasn’t since registered with ICCRC. From October 29, 2011, onwards, only ICCRC members shall be recognized as immigration consultants.
As an informed consumer, you will be pleased to know that our firm had no intention of postponing our registration with ICCRC until the last minute. It is our great pleasure to inform you that as of today (August 8, 2011), ICCRC has granted our firm with full membership to the new regulatory body.
We’re now official members of ICCRC – my order. In the previous link, my name was under the transitional membership listing. It now needs to point to the full membership page.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011, Dallas. The offices of Marc Laforce, CCIC, received official notice from the Ministère de l’Immigration et Communautés culturelles (MICC) du Québec that it had completed the last hurdle to meeting the licensing requirements for representing clients before the immigration ministry. As with a handful of immigration practitioners outside Quebec, Mr. Laforce had only received a temporary license until completing all the Quebec requirements. The Quebec requirements include passing a French proficiency test and immigration practitioners exam.
Upon meeting all the state requirements, Mr. Laforce, CCIC, is now a fully licensed firm in the United States that can represent clients, employees and companies before Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and the Quebec immigration ministry as required by law. At this time, no other immigration consultant in the United States can offer customers the full gamut of immigration and visa services spanning both government branches.
“A great deal of customers who don’t qualify for the Federal Skilled Workers without a company sponsor, such as a number of young IT professionals and engineers with master degrees, are going to be thrilled when we present viable options under the Quebec stream”, declared the firm’s principal, Marc Laforce. “This full-fledged license will give skilled workers, entrepreneurs and even investors welcome immigration relief and, in some cases, faster processing times.”
In anticipation of receiving a Quebec license, the Dallas-based immigration firm hired two American Francophiles who will be assisting clients with their forms and gathering supporting documents. “It is a testament to Texas’s great pool of talent that our office was able to find not one but two qualified immigration assistants who can speak and write the language of Molière”, says Laforce. “We’re obviously going to capitalize on this strength to better serve our US customer base.”
Marc Laforce, CCIC, provides a wide range of visa and immigration solutions to Canada, including temporary resident visas (TRV), temporary resident permits (TRP), student and work permits, permanent resident visas as well as labour market opinions for employers. Recently, the firm obtained a full license to prepare CAQ and CSQ certificates before the Ministère de l’Immigration et Communautés culturelles (MICC) du Québec. Since February 2011, only authorized persons can work with the MICC in connection with immigration applications. Recognized immigration consultants who can practice in Quebec are found in the Registre québécois des consultans en immigration at www.micc.gouv.qc.ca/publications/fr/dossiers/Registre_Consultants.pdf.
For more information about obtaining a Canadian visa or a Quebec CSQ/CSAQ, call 888-827-6605 or visit us on the About Us page at www.marclaforceccic.com.
Dallas – December 28, 2010 – Not to sing our own praises but our prediction regarding the cap for registered nurses, as reported in our Blog entry of Oct-28, 2010, turned out to be on the nose. On Christmas Day, Citizenship and Immigration Canada advised that the annual cap for registered nurses under the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) stream was attained. There are now 1000 complete RN applications received by the Centralized Intake Office (CIO).
Unless an RN applicant has an arranged employment offer from an eligible health facility, registered nurse applicants must wait until July, 1 2011 to submit their FSW application to CIO. In practical terms this means that if your RN Federal Skilled Worker application was not date-stamped by the CIO office by December 25, 2010, the application will be returned.
The following notice will advise clients on what you should do if you’re a registered nurse, and what our Firm is doing on behalf of clients whose application was not received before the 12/25 deadline and what we plan to do in terms of filing strategy.
Do Not Discontinue the Federal Skilled Worker Process!
For applicants who are in the middle of filling out questionnaires or gathering supporting documents, or waiting for language test results, we of course understand, and sympathize, how frustrating it is when the government shuts down an immigration stream.
If you happen to be in this situation, our first advice is not to discontinue the FSW process of gathering your documents and updating your forms. We urge all our clients not to lose their nerve (and we speak for ourselves) and to continue on course as if the cap wasn’t reached. There are a number of practical and strategic and even political reasons for this timely advice:
Hold & FileThe 1000-cap is expected to reset on July 1, 2011. As we complete your application, our Firm will personally hand-deliver your package in Sydney, Canada; before the FedEx and UPS trucks arrive at the CIO office on July 1, 2011.
While cap attainment is considered bad news, Citizenship and Immigration Canada also announced on Christmas day that effective 12/23, your language results will be valid for an additional year from the test date, for a total of two years (from just one). So hold on to your language results!
Stakeholder Negotiations with CICWhile our Firm cannot speak or comment on the lobbying efforts from an association or Law Society, including our own (Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants), there is considerable behind-the-scene discussion with Citizenship and Immigration Canada on what to do next. A number of last-minute developments, and CIC concessions, may play out favourably to RN applicants that are ready to file at any time.
For instance, it is widely expected that the overall FSW cap of 20,000 complete applications will not be attained. In fact, with just over 5000 applications received to date and six more months to go, the global cap has little chance of filling up. There’s thus discussion to allow overflow of one category until the overall cap is reached. Another possible development is that CIC may abruptly announce a “file and hold” policy whereby CIO will accept RN applications before July 2011 but officially process them as of July 2011. If this occurs, there’s a high chance that CIC will implement a first-come-first-serve policy.
The popular saying that “luck happens to those best prepared” might ring true for those who haven’t given up on their RN application and are in position to file at any time.
Re-Route StrategyAll clients affected by the cap will be re-assessed by your practitioner to check if another immigration program or another occupation under the Federal Skilled Worker – Category 1 stream is available. The most obvious example that comes to mind, other than arranged employment via a company sponsor, are those applicants who have experience as an LVN/LPN or even as a CNA in some cases. To date, a mere 29 complete LVN/LPN applications were received. That means there’s 971 to go!
While a re-route may be deemed expedient, it is generally not if the LVN/LPN or, in some cases, the CNA experience was duly noted in your Schedule 3 form. CIC will automatically review all your experience for FSW eligibility from the last 10 years from the date your application was received by CIO. In fact, as a precautionary measure, our Firm was requesting CIC for LVN/LPN consideration over RN, if indeed applicable in the Client’s work history; even if the former occurred eight years ago.
Only in rare instances will our Firm completely reroute an application to another eligible permanent resident stream, such as the Quebec Skilled Worker class. With only five months to go before the cap is reset, we simply don’t deem it necessary to pursue a reroute outside the FSW category. A possible exception to this rule is if the client’s status in his country of residency is about to expire and the applicant is absolutely adamant to returning in his country of nationality for an interview. (As a side note, if an applicant moves to another country and advises CIC prior to receiving an invitation letter for the interview, the visa office will accommodate a request to change the venue provided system integrity of the adjudication process is preserved.)
In a nutshell, a reroute strategy is not a good idea for registered nurses.
As a five- to six-month “hang-on period”, while inconvenient, is not overly dramatic, given CIC can implement rule changes without legislation (and therefore quickly), and because rerouting is automatic in most cases, our Firm simply recommends any applicant affected by the cap to continue working on their applications – and then to wait.
Filing Strategy in a 1000-Cap Regime – Lets Beat the FedEx Truck!
Just because the Firm is urging clients to continue on their FSW applications “as if nothing happened”, doesn’t mean that there’s no activity on our part.
As CIC will quickly come to appreciate, the one-thousand cap process has a fundamental flaw. Similar to the US H-1B cap system, CIO is dangerously close to selecting skilled workers on a lottery basis as opposed to its original mission as stated in Section 3 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) which states that the objectives of our economic immigration policies is to “support the development of a strong and prosperous Canadian economy” by means of “consistent standards and prompt processing”.
For the popular FSW occupations, like management consultants and registered nurses, there’s the obvious possibility that professional practitioners will adopt the same “hold-and-file-on-July-1” strategy.
If everybody files on July 1 when the 1000-cap is reset, how will CIO filter out applications if more than 1000 applications are received in one day? How will CIO know which ‘complete’ application came first? Will it revert to a random process thereby replicating the US lottery system for H-1Bs? Will it try to maniacally time-stamp applications – which amounts to a random selection given the FedEx truck pulls up in Sydney at a set hour. Or does CIO intend to accept all applications received up until a certain day irrespective of the 1000 cut-off point; a “date-deadline” scenario whereby, for example, where all “complete applications” received on July 1 will be accepted regardless of the 1000 number?
We don’t have satisfactory answers to any of these legitimate concerns.
What our Firm will do, however, is “beat the UPS” (or FedEx or DHL) truck” by physically hand-delivering all our nurse and management consultant applications to the Centralized Intake Office in Sydney, Nova Scotia at 8:30 AM on the first date that the 1000-cap is reset (July 31, 2011). The strategy may sound odd, but at the moment, this is the only sure-way tactic to ensure that your FSW application is secure.
Rest assured that our offices takes your decision to settle in Canada very seriously and we will do our outmost to make your Federal Skilled Worker application successful.
Dallas – November 5, 2010 – The cap for professional occupations in business services to management (commonly referred to as “Management Consultants” or NOC 1122) as predicted in our Blog entry of Oct-28, 2010, turned out to be correct. Today, Citizenship and Immigration Canada advised that the annual cap for management consultants under the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) stream was attained. There are now 1000 complete NOC1122 applications received by the Centralized Intake Office (CIO).
Unless an 1122 applicant has an arranged employment offer from an employer, management consultants must wait until July 2011 to submit their FSW application to CIO. In practical terms this means that if your 1122 Federal Skilled Worker application was not date-stamped by the CIO office by December 25, 2010, the application will be returned.
The following notice will advise clients on what you should do if you’re a management consultant and what our Firm is doing on behalf of clients whose application was not received before the 11/5 deadline and what we plan to do in terms of filing strategy.
Do Not Discontinue the Federal Skilled Worker Process!
For applicants who are in the middle of filling out questionnaires or gathering supporting documents, or waiting for language test results, we of course understand, and sympathize, how frustrating it is when the government shuts down an immigration stream.
If you happen to be in this situation, our first advice is not to discontinue the FSW process of gathering your documents and updating your forms. We urge all our clients not to lose their nerve (and we speak for ourselves) and to continue on course as if the cap wasn’t reached. There are a number of practical and strategic and even political reasons for this timely advice:
Hold & FileThe 1000-cap is expected to reset on July 1, 2011. As we complete your application, our Firm will personally hand-deliver your package in Sydney, Canada; before the FedEx, DHL and UPS trucks arrive at the CIO office on July 1, 2011.
While cap attainment is considered bad news, Citizenship and Immigration Canada has extended the validity of your language results by an additional one year from the test date for a total of two years (from just one). So hold on to your language results!
Stakeholder Negotiations with CICWhile our Firm cannot speak or comment on the lobbying efforts from an association or Law Society, including our own (Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants), and not to mention business interests in Canada, there is considerable behind-the-scene discussion with Citizenship and Immigration Canada on what to do next. A number of last-minute developments, and CIC concessions, may play out favourably to management consultant applicants that are ready to file at any time.
For instance, it is widely expected that the overall FSW cap of 20,000 complete applications will not be attained. In fact, with just over 5000 applications received to date and six more months to go, the global cap has little chance of filling up. There’s thus discussion to allow overflow of one category until the overall cap is reached. Another possible development is that CIC may abruptly announce a “file and hold” policy whereby CIO will accept management consultant applications before July 2011 but officially process them as of July 2011. If this occurs, there’s a high chance that CIC will implement a first-come-first-serve policy.
The popular saying that “luck happens to those best prepared” might ring true for those who haven’t given up on their applications and are in position to file at any time.
Re-Route StrategyAll clients affected by the cap will be re-assessed by your practitioner to check if another visa stream is available. The most obvious example that comes to mind, other than an arranged employment company sponsorship, are those who have business administration degree, are less than 35 years of age, hold a master degree, and preferably have young children; all eligible Quebec Skilled Worker applicants if a Client is not fluent in French.
Only in rare instances will our Firm completely reroute an application to another eligible permanent resident stream, such as the Quebec Skilled Worker class. With only five months to go before the cap is reset, we simply don’t deem it necessary to pursue a reroute outside the FSW category. A possible exception to this rule is if the client’s status in his country of residency is about to expire and the applicant is absolutely adamant to returning in his country of nationality for an interview. (As a side note, if an applicant moves to another country and advises CIC prior to receiving an invitation letter for the interview, the visa office will accommodate a request to change the venue provided system integrity of the adjudication process is preserved.)
In a nutshell, a reroute strategy is not a good idea for management consultants and if it is, your practitioner will be in direct contact with you.
As a five- to six-month “hang-on period”, while inconvenient, is not overly dramatic, given CIC can implement rule changes without legislation (and therefore quickly), and because rerouting is rare, our Firm simply recommends any applicant affected by the cap to continue working on their applications – and then to wait.
Filing Strategy in a 1000-Cap Regime – Lets Beat the FedEx Truck!
Just because the Firm is urging clients to continue on their FSW applications “as if nothing happened”, doesn’t mean that there’s no activity on our part.
As CIC will quickly come to appreciate, the one-thousand cap process has a fundamental flaw. Similar to the US H-1B cap system, CIO is dangerously close to selecting skilled workers on a lottery basis as opposed to its original mission as declared in Section 3 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) which states that the objectives of our economic immigration policies is to “support the development of a strong and prosperous Canadian economy” by means of “consistent standards and prompt processing”.
For the popular FSW occupations, like management consultants and registered nurses, there’s the obvious possibility that professional practitioners will adopt the same “hold-and-file-on-July-1” strategy.
If everybody files on July 1 when the 1000-cap is reset, how will CIO filter out applications if more than 1000 applications are received in one day? How will CIO know which ‘complete’ application came first? Will it revert to a random process thereby replicating the US lottery system for H-1Bs? Will it try to maniacally time-stamp applications – which amounts to a random selection given the FedEx truck pulls up in Sydney at a set hour. Or does CIO intend to accept all applications received up until a certain day irrespective of the 1000 cut-off point; a “date-deadline” scenario whereby, for example, where all “complete applications” received on July 1 will be accepted regardless of the 1000 number?
We don’t have satisfactory answers to any of these legitimate concerns.
What our Firm will do, however, is “beat the FedEx” (or UPS or DHL) truck” by physically hand-delivering all our nurse and management consultant applications to the Centralized Intake Office in Sydney, Nova Scotia at 8:30 AM on the first date that the 1000-cap is reset (July 31, 2011). The strategy may sound odd, but at the moment, this is the only sure-way tactic to ensure that your FSW application is secure.
Rest assured that our offices takes your decision to settle in Canada very seriously and we will do our outmost to make your Federal Skilled Worker application successful.
Dallas – October 28, 2010 Following Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)’s recent publication of the applications received to date for the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program, we estimate that management consultants, or “Professional Occupations in Business Services to Management” (NOC 1122) applicants without sponsors will have reached the cap by Thanksgiving of 2010.
We also believe that management consultant filers without sponsors should start the process without delay and as soon as possible.
To date, about 700 management consultant applications were deemed received by the Centralized-Intake-Office (CIO). As of today, there are 300 positions left.
The average applicant takes four months to complete his documentation. While Immigration practitioners, who have the expertise and know-how, can prepare an application in less than 30 days, the majority of users opt to prepare and file themselves. Non professional filers typically have their application returned at least once due to incomplete or incorrect or missing documentation and that explains the delay. (In an application is returned, it goes back in the queue and it may be deemed ineligible if the 1000-cap is reached.)
If four months is the “average” time it takes for individuals to file a complete application, we can therefore estimate that a barrage of second-wave of applications are to be expected right about now.
Specifically, we estimate that an additional 300 applications will be received by November 2010 and the occupation is earmarked to be the first occupation to shut down in the list of eligible Federal Skilled Worker applications.
Background
On June 26, 2010, CIC introduced a quota system whereby a maximum of 20,000 eligible Federal Skilled Workers without sponsors could be considered for processing. Within the 20,000 cap, a maximum of 1,000 Federal Skilled Worker applications per eligible occupation was allotted under the list of eligible occupations.
Today, CIC published its first count of complete applications received since June 26, 2010.
For more information about the number of complete applications received by CIC, click below:
Dallas – October 28, 2010 Following Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)’s recent publication of the applications received to date for the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program, we estimate that nurse applicants without sponsors will have reached the cap by Christmas 2010.
We also believe that filers without sponsors should start no later than Thanksgiving (November 25, 2010) to prepare a nurse FSW application.
To date, about 300 nurse applications were deemed received by the Centralized-Intake-Office (CIO). As of today, there are 700 positions left.
While the number appears low, one must take into account that the 1000-cap was only recently introduced; specifically on June 26, 2010.
The average applicant takes four months to complete his documentation. While Immigration practitioners, who have the expertise and know-how, can prepare an application in less than 30 days, the majority of users opt to prepare and file themselves. Non professional filers typically have their application returned at least once due to incomplete or incorrect or missing documentation.
If four months is the “average” time it takes for individuals to file a complete application, we can therefore estimate that a barrage of second-wave of applications are to be expected in October – or right about now.
Specifically, we estimate that an additional 600 applications will be received by November 2010 for a total of 900 applications. We thus expect the 1000-cap for registered nurses to be complete by Christmas at the latest.
Background
On June 26, 2010, CIC introduced a quota system whereby a maximum of 20,000 eligible Federal Skilled Workers without sponsors could be considered for processing. Within the 20,000 cap, a maximum of 1,000 Federal Skilled Worker applications per eligible occupation was allotted under the list of eligible occupations.
Today, CIC published its first count of complete applications received since June 26, 2010.
For more information about the number of complete applications received by CIC, click below:
Dallas – October 19, 2010 Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has finally published its first round of self-petitioning Federal Skilled Worker applications received by the Centralized Intake Office (CIO) in Sydney, Canada.
The table is reproduced below.
While the number appear low, one must take into account that the 1000-cap per occupation was only recently introduced; specifically on June 26, 2010.
As the average applicant takes four months to complete his documentation (if done without a licensed professional), we calculate that the first wave of applications will start in earnest in October 2010.
The bulk of applicants are therefore expected to arrive before Christmas where the volumes are expected to rise dramatically.
In effect, we expect that nurses, physicians, restaurant food managers and management consultants will reach the cap before the end of 2010.
If you are thinking about applying to the Federal Skilled Worker program and do not have a company sponsor, don’t take a chance by “doing it yourself”. The vast majority of self-filers have their applications returned due to incomplete documentation, entry errors and even mundane clerical mistakes. When an application is deemed incomplete, it is returned to the Applicant and he will not only lose precious time but may no longer be deemed eligible by the time his file received (again) by the office.
Table A: Total Complete Applications Received Since June 26, 2010*
Occupation
National Occupational Code #
# of Complete Applications Received
Restaurant and Food Service Managers
0631
83
Primary Production Managers (Except Agriculture)
0811
18
Professional Occupations in Business Services to Management
1122
739
Insurance Adjusters and Claims Examiners
1233
28
Biologists and Related Scientists
2121
95
Architects
2151
125
Special Physicians
3111
93
General Practitioners and Family Physicians
3112
117
Dentists
3113
125
Pharmacists
3131
192
Physiotherapists
3142
34
Registered Nurses
3152
296
Medical Radiation Technologists
3215
5
Dental Hygienists & Dental Therapists
3222
4
Licensed Practical Nurses
3233
13
University Professors
4121
College and Other Vocational Instructors
4131
Psychologists
4154
23
Social Workers
4152
57
Chefs
6241
11
Cooks
6242
32
Pipefitting Trades, Contractors and Supervisors
7213
Carpentry Trades, Constractors and Supervisors
7215
13
Contractors and Supervisors, Mechanic Trades
7216
39
Electricians (Except Industrial and Power System)
7241
22
Electricians, Industrial
7242
28
Plumbers
7251
2
Welders and Related Machine Operators
7265
6
Heavy Crane Equipment Mechanics
7312
11
Crane Operators
7371
0
Drillers and Blasters – Surface Mining, Quarrying and Construction
7372
2
Oil and Gas Drilling and Service, Supervisors
8222
13
*As of October 19, 2010
For a direct link to the CIC announcement, click below:
Dallas – October 13, 2010 Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has recently removed two extremely popular occupations from the list of eligible occupations in the self-petitioning stream of Federal Skilled Workers.
The removal is not the result of reaching the occupational 1000-cap as announced on June 26, 2010. Rather, the occupations were removed when CIC, in consultation with the Canadian labour department (HRSDC), determined that the unemployment rate for professors and college instructors had reached higher levels.
In addition to being subjected to occupational caps, an eligible occupation is also susceptible of being removed when labour conditions in that field deteriorate.
The three occupations removed from the non-sponsored list of eligible occupations, along with their national occupational codes (NOC), are as follows:
University Professors (4121)
College and Other Vocational Instructors (4131)
Pipefitting Trades, Contractors and Supervisors (7213)
Background
Under a series of “Ministerial Instructions” published and passed into law in 2008, CIC took drastic steps to increase the processing time to approve or deny self-petitioned Federal Skilled Workers.
Prior to 2008, decisions were not only years away from the time of application, but were inconsistent from one geographical location to another. European and US-applicants and lawful residents would obtain decisions within about a year. Applicants in India would require two to four years. Applicants in Africa and the Middle East could take up to eight years before a decision was made on their case.
To improve processing times, CIC opted to curtail the high volumes of applications received by allowing only select applicants in specific occupations apply without a sponsor. The list of eligible occupations, therefore, consisted of positions where a labour shortage was found or at least where the unemployment rate was low in comparison to the national average.
Dallas – August 23, 2010 The government of Alberta recently declared that in response to job market conditions in the province, the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP) has temporarily suspended both the Family immigration stream and the US Visa Holder Class.
Under a master agreement signed between Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Government of Alberta, CIC has allotted 5000 Alberta nominees.
As Alberta is reaching close to its unofficial 5000-cap, the ministry has opted to close the US Visa Holder Class and Family stream, both for a “temporary” period. While a date for resuming the streams hasn’t been officially communicated, it will presumably re-open in the new fiscal year with the cap is reset or no later than March 2011. (The date provided here is an estimate from our office.)
Background
The US Visa Holder Class allows US non-immigrant H-1B, H-1C, and other select US-visa nationals , to apply for permanent residency if they have at least one year of experience in an occupation under pressure in the province of Alberta.
The US Visa Holder program, a sub-category of the Strategic Stream of AINP, proved popular for our US-based clients who did not meet the narrow list of eligible Federal workers but had experience in the much wider Alberta list. For comparison sake, the list in demand Federal occupations numbers about thirty compared to approximately seventy occupations in Alberta.
