Ray of hope - FSW - 1

[Frisk]

I think the government knows a lot of people are going to end up being retrained and reallocated to different occupations when they come to Canada.

That's the difference between Canada's and Australia's system, Canada want skilled people but it's not necessarily that they will work in their field, they expect new immigrants to adapt to professions and roles which are in demand. They're more interested in getting young people with strong language skills, who are educated but who can also shift to other professions if needs be. Basically they have transferrable skills and are retrainable. With Australia, they look at the job market and see where there are shortages and allocate ceilings based on the numbers they need to fill in different occupations. They're not bothered with losing well educated people with Australian qualifications or work experience if they're not employed in an occupation with a labour shortage. But that's also because Australia's demographics are more favourable, and because immigration is increasingly unpopular there because of the congestion in their major cities.

If I recall, the original premise of EE was proving an immigrant could fill a job position, to do that they considered employability and adaptation capacity based on education, language, age and work experience. With the current job market and pandemic I think it makes a lot of sense they want to attract people with certain occupations that experiencing a shortage of workers now, but that'd make EE very unpredictable.

Covid has exposed EE's flaws, why bring doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc if they won't be able to work on their field due to the difficulty of getting a valid license in Canada? Or are looked down upon because of their lack of Canadian Experience? We all know the infamous "Uber driver with a PhD" story, or ultra skilled professionals that end up working in professions well below their educational level.

Those major reforms might implement a NOI system in the whole pool, not just for PNP eligible people, and everyone with an in-demand occupation might get a significant point boost without going through the entire PNP process. Just speculating, but the gap between regular immigrants and "in-demand" immigrants will become very notorious.

I feel like the new streams, the "90k" is both a pilot to test the profiles of in-demand workers (age, professional profile) and the last chance for many non-essential graduates to get PR before a major reform that won't favour highly educated people as much as highly employable people.

 

[willapp]

If I recall, the original premise of EE was proving an immigrant could fill a job position, to do that they considered employability and adaptation capacity based on education, language, age and work experience. With the current job market and pandemic I think it makes a lot of sense they want to attract people with certain occupations that experiencing a shortage of workers now, but that'd make EE very unpredictable.

Covid has exposed EE's flaws, why bring doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc if they won't be able to work on their field due to the difficulty of getting a valid license in Canada? Or are looked down upon because of their lack of Canadian Experience? We all know the infamous "Uber driver with a PhD" story, or ultra skilled professionals that end up working in professions well below their educational level.

Those major reforms might implement a NOI system in the whole pool, not just for PNP eligible people, and everyone with an in-demand occupation might get a significant point boost without going through the entire PNP process. Just speculating, but the gap between regular immigrants and "in-demand" immigrants will become very notorious.

I feel like the new streams, the "90k" is both a pilot to test the profiles of in-demand workers (age, professional profile) and the last chance for many non-essential graduates to get PR before a major reform that won't favour highly educated people as much as highly employable people.

The PNP program is already there to let provinces pick the NOC they feel in demand. If in the future they want to target certain NOCs in the FSW program, eventually it depends on how well the government can predict the demand, which is not an easy thing to do at all. Alternatively, the market will work itself out because people who are not good fit to Canada will drop out even when the FSW program is open to everyone. Both options have limitations and it's really not clear which one is more efficient. But I will not be surprised if Canada moves to what Australia is doing, having separate invitations for different occupations.

 

[shank15]

This was very much expected

I don't know about that... there must be a reason why they waited till the last day to announce it.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they wanted to see whether covid cases came down before announcing an extension.

I'm hopeful they will reopen borders if cases reduced significantly by May 21... even though there is a very little chance of happening.

 

[FurioGiunta]

My biggest fear is that they will cancel all outland applications currently being processed under FSW if they can't keep up with the backlog.
I don't mind waiting but just this thought makes me very anxious

That would be incredibly cruel, but also incredibly unlikely. Pandemic is going to end with widespread vaccination, it's a question of when. I still stand by my prediction that Canada will be in a good state by mid July. Not sure when they will start processing our applications though. With so many new CECs and new streams for inland applicants, what even is the motivation for approving outland applications if they can meet their yearly target using just inland applicants. It's disheartening but what are we supposed to do. There is no recourse for us, we can't complain anywhere, even social media campaigns or writing letters to ministers can't be that effective since it's a relatively small number of people. We are absolutely at the mercy of IRCC and the immigration minister.

 

[Deleted member 1006777]

That would be incredibly cruel, but also incredibly unlikely. Pandemic is going to end with widespread vaccination, it's a question of when. I still stand by my prediction that Canada will be in a good state by mid July. Not sure when they will start processing our applications though. With so many new CECs and new streams for inland applicants, what even is the motivation for approving outland applications if they can meet their yearly target using just inland applicants. It's disheartening but what are we supposed to do. There is no recourse for us, we can't complain anywhere, even social media campaigns or writing letters to ministers can't be that effective since it's a relatively small number of people. We are absolutely at the mercy of IRCC and the immigration minister.

I don't know, people have tweeted at the immigration minister and IRCC in the past and gotten responses. I don't have a twitter, but I would want to tweet at him and ask him to just confirm that FSWs will eventually come back.

 

[FurioGiunta]

In progress applications aside, do you guys not think that this restriction on post 18 March 20 COPR holders is long in the tooth now? It’s starting to make less sense by the day because cases/variants are already on the rise despite such strict restrictions. And expired COPRs will only increase IRCC’s burden later.

It never made sense from a public health perspective. They could have relaxed this rule incrementally over the months, and they would have cleared the backlog with marginal impact on the virus spread. However, it makes sense from an economic (less competition in the labour market) and political (low public support for immigration when Canadians are facing so many restrictions) perspective, and maybe that's why they made it, who knows.

 

[FurioGiunta]

I don't know, people have tweeted at the immigration minister and IRCC in the past and gotten responses. I don't have a twitter, but I would want to tweet at him and ask him to just confirm that FSWs will eventually come back.

Lol just go to Marco Mendicino's twitter and look at the replies to any of his tweets. It's usually filled with different groups of people pleading him to make concessions to their group. I honestly don't think they play a role in his decision making process. But maybe once I hit the year mark I will create an account and start tweeting my sob story every day.

 

[Uncle Yayo]

Lol just go to Marco Mendicino's twitter and look at the replies to any of his tweets. It's usually filled with different groups of people pleading him to make concessions to their group. I honestly don't think they play a role in his decision making process. But maybe once I hit the year mark I will create an account and start tweeting my sob story every day.

I think it does ( to a little extent though) caregivers have been crying for the longest of times, and well, their prayers have been answered.

 

[EscoBlades]

Don't know if any of you saw the Canada 2021 budget, but there were a couple of interesting points in there related to Immigration and Express Entry

1. The Government plans to replace the GCMS
2. In future, there may be a specific consideration for gender in Express Entry. The wording (below) is vague in the Budget, but it could mean additional points for women, or even gender-specific draws in the future.

This legislative amendment directly benefits newcomers looking to make Canada their home. From a gender perspective, the impact of this amendment will depend on the criteria used to qualify applicants for the Express Entry process. For example, men have historically accounted for a larger proportion of Express Entry candidates (59 per cent) than women (41 per cent). However, if gender is chosen as a selection criteria, it could result in a more gender balanced selection of applicants.

 

[Uncle Yayo]

Don't know if any of you saw the Canada 2021 budget, but there were a couple of interesting points in there related to Immigration and Express Entry

1. The Government plans to replace the GCMS
2. In future, there may be a specific consideration for gender in Express Entry. The wording (below) is vague in the Budget, but it could mean additional points for women, or even gender-specific draws in the future.

Ain’t this a b***h ... lol

 

[Frisk]

Don't know if any of you saw the Canada 2021 budget, but there were a couple of interesting points in there related to Immigration and Express Entry

1. The Government plans to replace the GCMS
2. In future, there may be a specific consideration for gender in Express Entry. The wording (below) is vague in the Budget, but it could mean additional points for women, or even gender-specific draws in the future.

Oh god, this reminds me of the Japan's "breeding visa" prank

 

[NavjotS123]

I am convinced beyond doubt that the govt plans to do away with all program draws. The budget statement is very clear IMO.

 

[Frisk]

I am convinced beyond doubt that the govt plans to do away with all program draws. The budget statement is very clear IMO.

A while ago it was speculated that separate program draws might continue, perhaps being held once a week (with less ITA's sent per round) and rotating each program. One week for FSW, one for CEC, one for FST and one for PNP.

I think it'd make more sense, someone might be an excellent welder but because of having a basic level of education and intermediate English might never get an ITA... While there's a shortage of welders in X.

 

[ashu2111]

FSW isn’t going anywhere. The pandemic has highlighted that Canada needs also to focus on lower wage immigration in some lower skilled professions as well. We still need the highly skilled young immigrants as well. The program is in place because most of the applicants are already living in and working in Canada which is much easier to process versus immigrants that would have to move and find a new job in Canada. The pandemic makes it much more risky for applicants outside Canada because they will have to find jobs and housing on arrival which is much more complicated and difficult due to covid.

Thanks for the optimism. I was getting depressed reading this thread. Consider how much energy and time I spent on learning French and increasing my scores.

 

[NavjotS123]

A while ago it was speculated that separate program draws might continue, perhaps being held once a week (with less ITA's sent per round) and rotating each program. One week for FSW, one for CEC, one for FST and one for PNP.

I think it'd make more sense, someone might be an excellent welder but because of having a basic level of education and intermediate English might never get an ITA... While there's a shortage of welders in X.

EE seems to be heading that way now. But it will very tough to manage for IRCC.