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Canada may raise caps on temporary immigration programs, Minister Mendicino says

Post by : Admin on May 18,2021

The Canadian government hinted this week that it may raise the current limits for permanent residents admitted under its new temporary program.

About one week after launching an ambitious immigration program that aims to admit up to 90,000 permanent residents to Canada, the immigration minister is hinting at the possibility of raising that cap.

“I’m open to discussion on whether or not to review the current caps,” Canada’s Immigration Minister,  Marco Mendicino, was quoted saying in the Globeand Mail.

The minister remained cautious in his remarks, however, saying his department must first carefully assess the early results of the program, including the quality of applications that have been received, and how quickly the target of 90,000 admissions will be reached.

“At that point, I will certainly have a much greater line of sight on whether or not there may be a need to revisit the caps,” he said.

The new temporary program, which opened on May 6, has so far received an encouraging response from prospective permanent residents.

One of the six streams available under the program, the one for international graduates, reached its cap of 40,000 applicants in just over 24 hours. To date, two other streams targeting essential workers and health care workers have received nearly 10,000 applications out of a total cap of 50,000 applications. There have been far fewer applications submitted under three streams reserved for French-speaking or bilingual candidates, largely because these streams do not have a cap and are open until November 2021.