Federal Skilled Worker is no longer the only way to go. Both federal and provincial immigration programs have expanded significantly in recent times, offering candidates more than sixty different alternatives for immigration to Canada. This new reality in Canadian immigration is matched by the revamp of Canada’s leading immigration website, Canadavisa.com. By submitting a Canadian immigration eligibility questionnaire on Canadavisa.com, an applicant’s candidacy will be assessed across all the Canada immigration options that currently exist.

In the July, 2009 edition of our Newsletter, we reported that the province of Quebec, which is responsible for its own immigration program as part of an agreement with the federal government, would be making changes to the Quebec Skilled Worker Program. The changes to the program were announced and implemented on October 14, and the new selection system for Quebec Skilled Workers may make it easier for some applicants to qualify.

Earlier this month, the province of Saskatchewan introduced new procedural guidelines for the Entrepreneur category of the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) that will speed up the processing of applications under this program. In recent years, Saskatchewan has been an attractive destination for immigrants to Canada because of the many employment and investment opportunities it offers.

On October 9, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Canada (CIMC) Minister Jason Kenney announced proposed changes to Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program that will strengthen the protection of Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada.

Over the past few years, there has been a gradual but steady shift in the ways that people qualify for a Canadian permanent resident visa. More and more, the Canadian government is relying upon the 13 provinces and territories to come up with their own immigration strategies (Quebec and Provincial Nomination Programs), using selection criteria that best suit local interest. To counterbalance this change in direction, the Canadian government has stifled the national Federal Skilled Worker program by making it available only to individuals with work experience in a short list of 38 occupations or to people who have a Canadian job offer. So what we have now in Canada is an immigration selection system that resembles a patchwork quilt of more than 60 separate and distinct immigration programs that lead to Canadian permanent residence. Talk about confusion!