In 2021, Canada Wants to Welcome One Million Immigrants

Recently, Canada has announced its 2021 – 2023 Immigration Levels Plan; One which will target the highest level of immigration in history.

According to the Immigration Plan, Canada aims to issue permanent residence to the following level of immigrants over the coming three years:

• 2021: 401,000 Immigrants
• 2022: 411,000 Immigrants
• 2023: 421,000 Immigrants

Welcoming as high as 400,000 immigrants to Canada has not happened in a very long time.

The only time this occurred was in 1913 when Canada admitted 401,000 immigrants. It has never come close to this figure again.

Why Canada Is Maintaining High Immigration

Well, the Canadian Government intends to address economic pressures currently faced by the country through high levels of immigration.

This is largely owing to the aging population and low birth rate in the country.

With nearly 18 percent of its population being age 65 and over, Canada has one of the world’s oldest populations.

Also, Canada has 1.47 births per woman making it a country with one of the world’s lowest birth rates.

Judging by this fact, over 9 million Canadians will be retired in the next decade.

As such, Canada will face challenges growing its economy and supporting government spending in the future.

Therefore, to maintain a healthy economy, Canada considers welcoming more immigrants to support labour force and economic growth.

In furtherance, the Canadian Immigration Minister, Marco Mendicino disclosed that the immigration levels plan was intended to make up for the shortfall caused in 2020 by the Coronavirus pandemic.

The 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Plan aims to welcome about 60 percent of all immigrants under economic class programs, including through Express Entry and the Provincial Nominee Program.

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So, How Can I Immigrate to Canada?

The numbers that will be allocated to the various immigration programs and pilots are yet to be known.

However, an estimated 60% of the annual target will be allocated to economic immigration programs economic class programs and if history is anything to go by, the Express Entry System will take the lion’s share of Invitations to Apply (ITA’s) for permanent residency.

More so, there may be an extension of programs such as the Atlantic Immigration Pilot; a program that has drawn a lot of attraction from immigrants of all skill levels.

Your occupation and where you want to live ultimately determines which program will get you issued an ITA.

So, to give you an idea of where you may fit in, it becomes imperative to discuss some of the immigration programs.

Canada Immigration Programs

Express Entry System

The Express Entry is considered the fastest and most common System for people who wish to process and acquire permanent residence in Canada.

The system, made up of programs, is designed to offer permanent residence through skilled invitations within six months from the time of application submission.

Due to the highly competitive nature of the system, candidates are selected based on the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score (a points-based system used to assess and score your profile and rank it in the Express Entry pool).

Hence, the need to take advantage of your CRS score to get a chance to apply for permanent residency in Canada.

Although getting a job offer greatly improves your chances of earning an ITA, it is not a necessity.

Summarily, the system operates in this manner:

• You create a profile for yourself,
• Provide information significant to your qualifications, work experience, language capabilities, etc
• Your profile is then entered into one of three pools with other candidates,
• You will be selected and issued an ITA if your score is high enough.
• Thereafter, you will be required to provide the documents to back up your application and you will be awarded permanent residency in Canada.

The three programs or pools are:

1. Federal Skilled Worker Program –
   A program designed for People with experience in managerial and professional roles such as lawyers, accountants, and engineers.
2. Federal Skilled Trades Program –
   A program designed for qualified tradesmen with at least two years of experience. The basic requirement is a job offer OR certification from a provincial Canadian regulatory body.
3. Canada Experience Class –
   At least one year of experience working in Canada in one of the categories above makes you eligible for this program.

Atlantic Immigration Pilot

Contrary to the Express Entry System where a job offer is not a necessity, applicants must have an official job offer to qualify for the Atlantic Immigration Pilot Program.

So to say, there are several pilot programs candidates who are ineligible for the Express Entry System or think their CRS score is not worthy to compete in the fierce competition.

The Atlantic Immigration Pilot is one of such programs, created by Atlantic Canada in 2017 was solely for the benefits of economic migration to the region.

The program was initially set to run for two (2) years but was further extended by two (2) years in 2019, shifting its expiration date to March 2021.

While it has been very successful, we can only hope it will be renewed.

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