Question Period Note: TR to PR Pathway

Introduction of a new pathway to permanent residence for certain temporary residents currently in Canada.

• Immigration remains crucial to addressing Canada’s longstanding demographic challenges and labour market shortages, especially as the country recovers from the pandemic.

• Our time-limited temporary pathway to permanent residence for recent international student graduates and essential workers currently employed in Canada will help ensure that Canada has the skilled, educated and experienced workforce needed to fuel its economic recovery and growth.

• We are pleased to see that many temporary residents and international students have taken an interest and applied. In fact, within 25 hours of the opening for applications, we reached our intake cap of 40,000 applications for the recent international graduates from a Canadian institution stream.

• We encourage all eligible candidates to apply as their contributions to our economy continue to be vital.

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• This pathway also includes dedicated spaces for French-speaking or bilingual candidates in recognition of their contribution to the vitality of Francophone minority communities.

The 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Plan outlined an ambitious plan to admit 401,000 permanent residents in 2021, in part to make up for the shortfall of admissions in 2020, with about 60% of admissions to come from the economic class. In light of the extended border closures and to mitigate ongoing challenges in admitting new permanent residents from overseas, Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada has developed extraordinary and innovative measures for foreign nationals who are already physically present in Canada – this pathway to permanent residence from within Canada will help retain the talent of those already here in support of economic recovery.

This temporary pathway has been created using the public policy authority which enables the Minister to grant permanent residence to foreign nationals, where it is justified by public policy considerations. The following public policies target foreign nationals with French or English language proficiency, who are present and working in Canada, and who are likely to succeed in economically establishing themselves in the country and further support economic recovery:

1) Recent international graduates with an eligible Canadian credential from either college or university programs who are currently employed in Canada. This stream accelerates the transition for those likely to have applied for permanent residency over the next few years.

2) Employed temporary foreign workers who have acquired at least one year of eligible work experience in the past three years in Canada, in a health-related or other essential occupation, in recognition of their economic contribution and of the ongoing need that Canada has for workers in these critical occupations.

This new pathway to permanent residence was open for applications beginning on May 6, 2021. IRCC will accept applications under these policies until Nov. 5, 2021, or until a program stream has reached its maximum intake limit. These maximums are:

• 20,000 applications for temporary foreign workers in health care;
• 30,000 applications for temporary foreign workers in other select essential occupations; and
• 40,000 applications for international graduates.

These public policies also include uncapped, dedicated streams for French-speaking and bilingual candidates. Communities across Canada benefit from the economic, social and cultural spin-offs of French-speaking and bilingual newcomers. The Government is committed to supporting the vitality of Francophone minority communities across Canada by increasing Francophone immigration outside of Quebec.

Existing applications for permanent residence previously submitted to the Department will continue to be processed. There is no need to withdraw these pending applications or submit new applications for permanent residence. Applicants can choose to apply to multiple programs, however they must pay processing fees for each application they submit.

Admissions under this new pathway are expected to begin this year and will carry over into 2022.

Mandate Commitment
Delivering the 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Plan is a part of Minister Mendicino’s December 2019 mandate commitment to “ensure the effective implementation of Canada’s increased annual Immigration Levels Plan for 2020-2022, attracting more than a million new permanent residents to Canada over that time”.

This commitment was reinforced in a supplementary mandate letter released on January 15, 2021 stating that the Department should “continue to bring newcomers to Canada safely to drive economic growth and recovery, as recently set out in the 2021-2023 Levels Plan”.

This aligns with the September 2020 Speech from the Throne, which focuses on capitalizing on our pandemic recovery efforts in order to become the world’s top destination for talent, capital, and jobs.

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