Canada Immigration News

Ontario’s streamlined assessment program that recognizes the competence of internationally-trained family doctors and general practitioners will open a second intake period in early January.

After being announced in December last year, Practice Ready Ontario (PRO) streamlined the process for internationally-trained physicians hoping to practice in Canada’s biggest province with an intake of applications from June 21 through to July 19 this year.

The application results were then sent out during the second week of August.

Those who either missed that first intake or who failed to get a positive result and have since improved their applications and now meet the requirements are being welcomed to apply for the second intake.

It starts on Jan. 8 and will run through to March 1 next year.

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The program, which includes a 12-week clinical field assessment in a designated Ontario community, considers qualifications and experience to determine the readiness of applicants for independent practice in Ontario.

The three-month program to recognize the foreign credentials of physicians could be was approved by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) and put into place earlier this year.

“Practice Ready Assessment (PRA) programs are used in seven provinces across Canada to support the licensure of internationally-trained physicians who have already completed their training and practiced independently abroad,” noted the CPSO in a brief to Ontario’s ministry of health last year.

Through such a program, the regulatory body can:

• rapidly assess the qualifications of foreign-trained physicians over a 12-week period through supervision and direct observation;
• deploy successful candidates to underserviced communities, and;
• provide a path to independent licensure for these foreign-trained physicians.

“With government funding and coordination among key system partners, a program could be implemented immediately and begin injecting a new supply of IEPs into the system as early as spring 2023 and onwards,” noted the CPSO in its submission.

Regulatory Body Also Wants More Residency Spots For Foreign-Trained Physicians

It was presented to Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones in mid-August 2022.

The regulatory body also advocated for more residency positions for internationally-trained physicians.

“As only a small number of residency positions are accessible to internationally-educated physicians, Ontario is essentially limiting the opportunity to quickly grow our base of future physicians and support (them),” noted the CPSO.

“We ask government to immediately increase the number of residency positions available to internationally-educated physicians.

“With consideration to how this increase in positions may impact other jurisdictions facing their own health human resource shortage, government should create targeted or additional spots for internationally-educated physicians already in the province, including Canadians who have studied abroad and are looking to complete their residency in Ontario.”

Those who study medicine outside Canada, including both foreign nationals and Canadians who choose to study medicine in other countries, are often stymied in practicing medicine in Canada because of a lack of sufficient residency spots for them.

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“The messaging for so long has been that it’s nearly impossible to get a bloody residency in Canada if you’re an international graduate,” Peter Nealon, chief executive officer of the Atlantic Bridge Program, reportedly told The Globe and Mail national daily newspaper.

“These people are the cream of the crop and they’re simply going elsewhere because they’re in demand. You tell people to go away long enough, and eventually, they go away.”

In Ontario, the CPSO wants to turn the tide and prevent that brain drain by putting in better ways to recognize foreign credentials of physicians.

“The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the College of Family Physicians of Canada have training assessment programs to streamline credentialing for internationally-educated physicians from specific jurisdictions who have completed training in approved jurisdictions deemed equivalent to Canadian education standards,” noted the regulatory body in its submission to the Ontario government.

“In turn, CPSO facilitates streamlined pathways to licensure for internationally-educated physicians who are undergoing these processes. In consultation with other regulators and system partners, CPSO is re-evaluating whether additional equivalencies and pathways could be explored in lieu of completing national examinations based on, for example, years of practice.”

Once a newly-graduated applicant has passed the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination (MCCQE) Part 1 exam and the National Assessment Collaboration (NAC) Examination, the latter of which accesses their readiness for a Canadian residency program, he or she has to apply for a Canadian work permit with the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and apply for a post-graduate residency spot.

Physicians can also apply for permanent residence through the Federal Skilled Worker Program or the Canadian Experience Class.

Canada Offers Many Immigration Programs To Help Foreign Physicians Come And Practice Here

Under the Provincial Nominee Program, provinces and territories can also nominate physicians for permanent residence if they meet particular regional labour market needs and intend to settle in that province or territory. Provinces can recruit candidates from the Express Entry pool or they can nominate individuals under their non-Express Entry paper-based streams.

Before a physician can practice in Canada, he or she needs to have his or her qualifications recognized.

The national organization that sets standards for physicians, including immigrating physicians, is the Ottawa-based Medical Council of Canada (MCC). It does not confer or issue licences to physicians. That responsibility belongs to the provincial and territorial medical regulatory authorities.

Those who are successful in obtaining one of the few residency spots for international grads will then be supervised by a Canadian medical school for at least two years before taking their certification exam in family medicine and getting their certification to join the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC).

The last step is to apply for a license from a provincial or territorial medical regulator to practice family medicine there.

International medical graduates can see if their medical college will be readily acceptable to the licensing body, the medical college, in each province. It is the physician’s responsibility to check whether his or her medical school is listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools, something that can be done by visiting WDOMS.org.

Once a physician finds his or her college in that online directory, the next step is to check the “Sponsor Note” tab and see if it states “Canada Note”. This means medical degrees obtained from this medical school are acceptable to the provincial and territorial medical regulatory authorities in Canada and therefore acceptable to all medical organizations in Canada.

As Canada pulls personnel out of India due to a row over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, immigration is expected to drop.

The Toronto Star cited senior government sources as saying the drop in staff in India will create a backlog of 17,500 “final decisions” across Canada’s global immigration system by the end of this year, over a two-month period.

The latest data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) reveals Canada welcomed 22,460 new permanent residents from India in July and August.

IRCC data also reveals that Canada approved 77,935 work permits for Indians under the International Mobility Program (IMP) and another 5,310 work permits under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) during the same two months.

That’s a total of 105,705 final decisions made about work permits and permanent residents for Indians hoping to come to Canada in July and August.

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A drop of 17,500 in those decisions – if the senior government officials are including work permits in their calculations – would represent a slowdown of 16.5 per cent.

A 17,500-drop in permanent residency decisions over the coming two months – if the government officials were referring only to permanent residency decisions – would be a reduction of almost 78 per cent.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller has made it clear that regardless of the diplomatic tension in Indo-Canadian relationship, Canada will continue to accept and process all immigration applications from India.

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In the latest escalation in the Indo-Canadian diplomatic tug-of-war, India threatened to revoke official protections of Canadian diplomats. Ottawa has responded by pulling out dozens of Canadian diplomats and their families from India.

The spark which started this diplomatic row was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claim in September that Indian agents were involved in the slaying of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia on June 18.

Slain Canadian Citizen Had Been Branded A Terrorist By India

“Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Trudeau reportedly said in the House of Commons.

“Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty. It is contrary to the fundamental rules by which free, open and democratic societies conduct themselves.

“As you would expect, we have been working closely and co-ordinating with our allies on this very serious matter.”

India dismissed the allegations, calling them absurd.

“Such unsubstantiated allegations seek to shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” India’s ministry of external affairs reportedly replied.

“The inaction of the Canadian government on this matter has been a long-standing and continuing concern.”

The victim had been a supporter of an independent Khalistani state, a Sikh homeland, and had been branded a terrorist and leader of a militant separatist group by India

The Toronto Star reports only a third of Canada’s contingent remains at Canada’s High Commission in New Delhi

An anonymous source reportedly told the newspaper that 22 immigration officials have been pulled from India, slightly more than 41 of those Canadian government employees who left.

India The Most Important Source Of New Permanent Residents To Canada

India is the most important source of new permanent residents to Canada, far outstripping the contribution of second-place China in the top ten list of sources of new permanent residents.

The latest IRCC data reveals India provided 118,245 new permanent residents to Canada last year, or more than 27 per cent of the total 437,610 new permanent residents last year.

In 2022 and again this year, the vast majority of Indians gaining permanent residency in Canada immigrated here through economic programs, most notably the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP), Federal Skilled Worker (FSW), and Canadian Experience Class (CEC).

The popularity of the CEC for Indians seeking permanent residency in Canada is a natural offshoot of their high number of international students from India at Canadian colleges and universities and Indians working in Canada under temporary work permits.

Last year, more than 41.1 per cent of all study permits issued to international students in Canada went to Indians. The IRCC issued 225,940 study permits to Indians in 2022 out of a total 549,260 for the year.

The IRCC allows students to work while studying in Canada.

A student may be able to work in Canada during his or her studies under the following categories:

• On campus without a Work Permit;
• Off campus with a Work Permit;
• In Co-op and Internship Programs, where work experience is part of the curriculum, with a Work Permit.

Spouses or common-law partners of foreign students are also eligible for work permits for the duration of the study permit.

Indians Granted 161,295 Temporary Work Permits In Canada Last Year

Upon graduation, a foreign student may apply for a work permit under the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program. Under this program, the work permit may be issued for the length of the study program, up to a maximum of three years.

The valuable work experience gained while an international grad works in Canada under a PGWP can count towards a permanent residence application through Canada Express Entry system.

Under the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) used by Express Entry system programs, applicants for immigration are assigned points based on:

• skills;
• work experience;
• language ability;
• language ability and education of the applicant’s spouse or common law partner;
• possession of a job offer supported by a positive Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA);
• possession of a provincial government nomination for permanent residence, and;
• certain combinations of language skills, education and work experience that result in a higher chance of the applicant becoming employed (skill transferability).

Indians are also a valuable source of temporary foreign workers for Canadian businesses. Last year, 18,980 Indians received work permits under the TFWP and another 142,315 Indians got work permits through the IMP.

That was a total of 161,295 temporary foreign workers from India who got their work permits last year.

The mismanagement and changing priorities of immigration officials has caused an inventory backlog and resultant extension of waiting times, Canada’s Auditor General has reported.

“Most of the delays were really being caused by inefficient management practices around applications and managing the inventory,” said Karen Hogan at the release of her audit of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada.

“There’s a backlog of inventory that, at times, is greater than the immigration level for a given year.

“The department has the ability to improve how they process applications, but also to be more transparent with the applications about what their wait time might actually be.”

With Canada’s record immigration levels targets for the upcoming years, at 465,000 this year, 485,000 in 2024, and 500,000 in 2025, the Auditor General’s findings hint at a systemic incapacity to handle the additional workload.

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The audit was conducted to establish IRCC’s efficiency – or lack thereof – in processing permanent residence applications.

Eight permanent residence programs were focused on under the economic, family, and refugee and humanitarian classes.

All of those programs remained backlogged at the end of the previous year.

“On average, privately sponsored refugees waited 30 months for a decision while overseas spouses or common-law partners waited 15 months to be reunited with their partners in Canada,” Hogan says. “While processing times improved in most of the programs we examined, they continued to exceed the department’s service standards for most applications in 2022.”

Moreover, the Auditor General reported that some applications waited in the queue for longer periods of time after they were initially submitted by applicants. This was most common with refugee applications, which waited an average of 15 to 20 months before receiving an initial assessment.

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Differences in size and age of application backlogs by country of citizenship existed in seven of the eight permanent resident programs examined by the Auditor General.

While improvements have been made, the report said that the length of time some applications spent in the system is increasing, especially for refugee and spousal sponsorship applications from overseas.

In response to the audit, IRCC Minister Marc Miller said that his department has continued reducing backlogs by digitizing applications, hiring and training new staff, and relying on automation to increase processing capacity and efficiency.

“Immigration is critical to Canada’s long-term success, and we recognize the importance of ensuring that our systems operate efficiently,” he said.

“I am optimistic, considering the progress made by IRCC despite all the challenges it faced over the past few years.”

The report said that by the end of 2022, 99,000 refugees were still waiting their applications to be processed.

The processing time for refugee applications is 3 years on average, and many applicants spend years waiting on a decision.

Privately sponsored refugees waited 30 months on average for a decision, while overseas spouses or common-law partners waited an average 15 months to be reunited with their partners in Canada, compared to the 12-month service standards.

PNP Processing Time Increases

In the family class, upwards of 21,000 applications were finalized within six months of being received – ahead of at least 25,000 older applications that were in the backlog at the end of 2022.

In the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), the backlog time increased from 12 to 20 months from January to December of 2022.

The age of applications for in-Canada spousal sponsorships increased from 27 to 47 months.

The report further demonstrated that backlogs vary by country in seven out of eight audited programs, especially for government-assisted refugees, federal skilled workers, and sponsored spouses who applied from out of country.

In the government-assisted refugees program, for example, more than half of the applications submitted by Somalian citizens and the Congolese citizens were backlogged.

In comparison, only one-third of Syrian applications were in backlog.

While these three countries have the most applications for government-assisted refugee sponsorships, their visa offices are also the most under-resourced.

“The department continued to assign application workloads to offices without assessing whether they had enough resources to process them,” said the audit.

The report’s overall point – Canada is taking more applications than it can handle under the current immigration targets the government has set.

Another contributing factor is the failure of the Immigration Minister to exercise his authority to “apply intake controls” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Auditor General’s Recommendations: 

• To provide applicants with clear expectations about timelines for a decision, IRCC should establish “achievable and reliable” service standards for PR application processing. This includes refugee applications. Additionally, online information on expected processing times should be provided for all permanent resident applications and consider the volume and age of applications in its inventories.
• IRCC should take steps to identify and address the differential wait times to support timely processing in all PR programs, as it works within the annual admission targets set by the Immigration Levels Plan. Moreover, it should develop and implement a plan to collect race-based and ethnocultural information from applicants directly to address any racial disparities in wait times.
• IRCC should examine backlogged applications to identify and action processing delays within its control, including waiting for officer actions or follow-up. Older backlogged applications should also be prioritized while working to achieve the annual admission targets set by the Immigration Levels Plan.
• To improve consistency of application processing times across its offices, IRCC should match assigned workloads with available resources, and it should support these decisions with reliable information on the available capacity within its offices. Immediate action needs to be taken by it to address application backlogs that have accumulated in certain offices with limited capacity.
• To support timely processing for all applicants, IRCC should examine differential outcomes in processing times related to the implementation of automated decision-making tools and reduce these disparities to the extent possible, including by reallocating sufficient resources to the applications directed to the manual processing.
• IRCC should implement – without further delay – online application portals for its refugee programs, while also working to complete its Digital Platform Modernization Initiative.

Canada must boost immigration and bring in more workers needed to build the housing Canadians need, an independent research organization says.

“Construction of new homes is critical to addressing housing affordability and availability in Canada but persistent labour shortages is one of the obstacles slowing progress,” says Stefan Fournier, executive director of the Conference Board of Canada.

“Allocating a small number of immigration places within the existing immigration levels plan to occupations that are core to residential construction could mitigate labour shortages and advance the building of new homes.”

In its latest report, Work In Progress: How Immigration Can Address Labour Shortages In Residential Construction, the Conference Board lays out five recommendations for the Canadian government to resolve the perceived housing crisis.

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Those recommendations highlight the need of immigration to build up Canada’s workforce and include:

1. Ensure that immigration programs support an expanded supply of workers with experience in the trades, such as occupations in residential construction.
2. Monitor outcomes in category-based selection and the pilot for out-of-status construction workers
3. Create a pilot immigration program for people with experience as construction trades helpers and labourers.
4. Reduce barriers to licensing in regulated professions.
5. Work with employers to improve credential recognition for all occupations.

Michael Bourque, chief executive officer at the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) which collaborated on the report along with the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) and Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA), says more immigrants are needed to build the housing Canadians need.

“Each day we see the impact that a lack of housing supply is having on Canadians from coast to coast,” says Bourque.

“Without policy intervention, Canada will not have the workers required to meet its ambitious homebuilding targets and Canadians will continue to face challenges whether they are looking to purchase or rent a home.”

Construction Industry Facing 12,000-Worker Shortage Annually Without Immigration

Ottawa estimates 3.5 million homes need to be built over the coming six years with Canada’s residential construction industry to grow 15 per cent during that period but that could result in a structural labour shortage of 12,000 jobs per year on average.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller has already bemoaned the paucity of people to build homes in Canada, tweeting about the problem in August.

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“With provinces like Ontario needing 100,000 workers to meet their housing demands, it is clear that immigration will play a strong role in creating more homes for Canadians,” Miller tweeted in response to a Global News report that month. “Canada is losing ten of thousands of construction jobs.”

Among the ways, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is trying to meet that need for skilled labourers in the construction industry is through occupation-targeted draws which were announced in May this year.

Among the 82 occupations which now qualify for permanent residence here through occupation-targeted Express Entry system draws are 10 which directly contribute to the construction of housing in Canada, including:

• residential and commercial installers and servicers;
• elevator constructors and mechanics;
• machine fitters;
• heating, refrigeration and air conditioning mechanics;
• construction millwrights and industrial mechanics;
• carpenters;
• plumbers;
• electricians (except industrial and power system);
• welders and related machine operators, and;
• contractors and supervisors, other construction trades, installers, repairers and servicers .

The flagship Express Entry selection system had previously only conducted draws based on immigration programs, not by targeting specific occupations.

Candidates hoping to immigrate through Express Entry occupation-targeted draws will need at least six months of continuous work experience in Canada or abroad within the past three years in one of these occupations to be eligible, experience that can have been gained while working in Canada as temporary foreign workers with a work permits or as an international student with a student visa.

Under the changes announced at the end of May, the Express Entry streams, including the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program, Federal Skilled Trades (FST) program and Canadian Experience Class (CEC), as well as parts of the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) are now more responsive to labour market needs.

Occupation-Targeted Express Entry Draws Eyed As Solution To Resolve Labour Shortages

“Everywhere I go, I’ve heard loud and clear from employers across the country who are experiencing chronic labour shortages,” said then-Immigration Minister Sean Fraser.

“These changes to the Express Entry system will ensure that they have the skilled workers they need to grow and succeed.  We can also grow our economy and help businesses with labour shortages while also increasing the number of French-proficient candidates to help ensure the vitality of French-speaking communities.”

Canada first signalled its intention to start occupation-specific draws through Express Entry in June last year, when changes were made to the Immigration, Refugee and Protection Act to allow invitations based on occupations and other attributes, such as language ability.

The majority of Canada’s provinces have been issuing occupation-specific invitations for several years.

Under the changes to the act, the immigration minister is required to consult provinces and territories, members of industry, unions, employers, workers, worker advocacy groups, settlement provider organizations, and immigration researchers and practitioners, before announcing new categories.

IRCC must also report to parliament each year on the categories that were chosen and the reason for the choices.

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) says the number of occupations facing shortages doubled between 2019 and 2021. From 2018 to 2022, federal high skilled admissions accounted for between 34 and 40 per cent of overall French-speaking admissions outside Quebec, which manages its own immigration intake.