Canada’s Endangered Species: The Federal Skilled Worker

Faced with a backlog exceeding 640,000 immigration applications under the Federal Skilled Worker Class at Canadian embassies and consulates around the world in 2008, Minister Jason Kenney decided it was time to cull the herd and simple math made for an easy justification.

If Canada were to welcome 250,000 immigrants (not applicants, immigrants, i.e., including family members) in a given year from all classes, that is, from refugees to investors and family sponsorship to skilled workers, a queue of 640,000 in one class alone would take seemingly forever to process.

So what did the Minister do about it? Instead of raising the annual immigration targets or throwing more money at application processing, the Minister acted quite tactfully; he incrementally changed what it means to be a skilled worker. First in 2008, the Minister limited the types of skilled workers that Canada would accept and then in 2010, the Minister tweaked those requirements, making it more restrictive yet to qualify. These restrictions have the effect of reducing the pool of incoming qualified applicants thereby freeing up resources and “spots” for those already in the queue and offering relatively decent processing for those making new applications.

For many who are considering applying as a skilled worker the new rules may give reason to find another category. Those looking to apply now must meet all of the requirements of the class which now includes meeting the definition of a Skilled Worker, having at least 67 points based on education, work experience, language skills, age and ties to Canada AND either having pre-arranged employment in Canada OR having had at least one year of continuous full-time or equivalent part-time paid work experience in at least one position on a list of 29 different occupation groups. The occupation groups range from jobs in restaurants to architects, plumbers, nurses and crane operators. In 2008, the list of acceptable occupations was at 37. A full list is available on CIC’s website.

Further restricting the class, a maximum of 20,000 Federal Skilled Worker applications will be considered for processing in the first 12 months of this new regime. Within the 20,000 cap, a maximum of 1,000 Federal Skilled Worker applications per eligible occupation will be considered for processing each year. Note the use of “considered for processing” and not “approved”. Refused applications appear to count towards the cap.

All of this has led to an impressive decrease in application processing and in the size of the backlog itself. But before we congratulate the Minister, consider this: my guess is that a good portion of those applications were hastily submitted and many don’t qualify. For those who did qualify, many will have found immigration programs and options in places like Australia and the USA. Others will have lost interest in Canada, some will have gotten sick and some will have died.

I hate to say “I told you so,” but I did as it has been readily apparent for some time and I first wrote about this program’s forthcoming demise in my July 2006 column. Now more than ever, it is quite obvious that the future of immigration is not with the Skilled Worker program.

Ryan Rosenberg is am immigration lawyer and partner at Larlee Rosenberg, Barristers & Solicitors, in Vancouver. Contact Ryan at 604-681-9887 or Ryan.Rosenberg@larlee.com or visit his website at www.larlee.com.