Canada - considering how to speed up the immigration process

[pampango]

The government is considering all options for clearing a backlog of hundreds of thousands of applications from people who want to immigrate to Canada, Jason Kenney (the minister of citizenship and immigration) said Wednesday.

"We owe it to newcomers to do that. So we haven’t made any decisions, we’re still consulting, we’re looking at all the options, but I do think that we can’t continue to tell people that they’re going to wait for eight years for a decision on whether they can come to Canada," he said.

Critics have accused the government of focusing Canada's immigration system too narrowly on economic factors and limiting the opportunities to, for example, bring in aging relatives.

Kenney says statistics show highly skilled people with prearranged jobs do well when they come to Canada, earning an average annual salary of $79,000. "What we are going to be encouraging prospective immigrants to do more and more is try to get a job lined up before they get to Canada. And that will allow us to help bring them in very quickly in the future. So the doors are always going to be open," he said.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/03/07/pol-immigration-backlog-kenney.html

[MADem]

1. Canada doesn't want "burdensome" immigrants.

You can be fast-tracked if you have half a million bucks in your pocket and you intend to start a business.

It's helpful if you have a relative in place who will hire you to work in said business, or if you're old and that rich relative will care for you (and maybe give you half a million as a gift before you enter). If you have a skill or profession that's needed, you can cut the line as well.

This isn't really new, though--Canada has been pretty strict about this for some time, now.

I don't know how well this particular part of the proposal will go over with the immigrants, though...

"We are launching a pilot project that will allow provinces and territories to 'mine the backlog' — in other words, to review the applications in the backlog and nominate those applicants they think their economies need now. We are also informing some applicants stuck in the federal skilled workers backlog about possible opportunities under the provincial nominee program," he said.

Really--you have friends and family in Ontario, your application is accepted, at long last (!!!)... but you're nominated to emigrate to PEI? That might not be to most people's liking...