IRCC to offer refunds to applicants in several programs

On March 31, 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced the implementation of the new policy in accordance with the Service Fees Act. The new policy which comes into force on April 1, will provide partial refunds to applicants for the Right of Citizenship fee, the International Experience Canada (IEC) program participation fee, and certain passports-related fees if the internal IRCC processing standards have not been met. The refunds will be automatically provided to the clients by July 1. The refund for the Right of Citizenship fee will be 25% if the delay is less than 4 months and 50% if more than 4 months. The Right of Citizenship service standard time is 4 months. As for the IEC, the refund will be 25% for the delay of 28 calendar days or fewer, and 50% for the delay over 29 days. The service standard for IEC is 56 days. #IRCC, #Citizesnhip, #IEC, #immigration_policy

April 1, 2021

Service Canada approved 40,690 LMIAs in the fourth quarter of 2020

The Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) has updated the official data on the number of temporary foreign worker (TFW) positions on positive Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) in the last quarter of 2020. In the fourth quarter of the year, Service Canada issued 40,690 LMIAs, 13,792 more compared to the third quarter. This number is almost equal to the last quarter of 2019 when there were 40,863 approved LMIAs. In total, ESDC issued 123,312 positive LMIA decisions in 2020. Despite the pandemic, Canada issued only 6,246 LMIAs less compared to 2019. At the same time, this data includes the number of LMIAs issued in support of work permits and counts only the number of LMIAs and not the number of positions under one application. ESDC also excludes LMIAs in support of permanent residence from these statistics. #LMIA, #TFW, #Work_in_Canada, #ESDC, #Service_Canada

March 29, 2021

British Columbia invited 168 candidates in the new draw

On January 5, 2021, British Columbia held the first draw in the Skills Immigration (SI) and Express Entry British Columbia (EEBC) categories of the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (BCPNP) in 2021. In this draw, the government invited 168 persons to apply for a nomination of British Columbia. The lowest scores in this round did not change compared to December 23, 2020 draw:

•  Skills Immigration - Skilled Worker 95

•  Skills Immigration - International Graduate 95

•  Skills Immigration - Entry Level and Semi-Skilled 77

•  Express Entry British Columbia - Skilled Worker 99

•  Express Entry British Columbia - International Graduate 99

British Columbia keeps excluding the following 31 NOCs from participation in the BCPNP draws (0621, 0631, 0632, 0651, 3236, 6211, 6311, 6313, 6321, 6322, 6341, 6421, 6511, 6512, 6513, 6521, 6522, 6523, 6524, 6525, 6531, 6532, 6533, 6562, 6564, 6611, 6621, 6711, 6721, 6722, and 6731.). In 2020, BC issued 9,528 invitations in the BCPNP.

March 23, 2021

IRCC finally held the 2020 Parents and Grandparents Program lottery

March 23, 2021