asoo62 said:
Hi Cam,
Please inform me is it for sure that for those who have applied after 26th of June the process is going to be faster? Like you mentioned getting a visa in about 9 months? Cause I've heard that at this date, it's still applicants of June 2009 who are getting their medical requests, don't new applicants have to stand in that queue?
Sadly for the pre-June 26th applicants, the evidence shows that those whose jobs have been struck from the list of eligible occupations for Cat 1 are experiencing significant delays in the stage after their AOR, while they wait for the medical requests (or any news at all). I think this is sad for them because, although they applied in good faith, they now seem to have been put on the back burner.
I deduce from this evidence that the Visa Offices have been instructed to process the new apps as a priority, but continue processing the older apps of now-defunct Cat 1s by drip feeding them into the new stream at a slow rate. This would make perfect sense to Canada, as they would not want to rush through all these apps and find their labour market flooded with people for whom there were no available jobs but they have a duty to process them as they were eligible under the rules in place when they applied and they are past the acceptance stage. I do not think CIC wants to reject these people, but they do not want them to either flood the labour market or delay the flow of those applicants that they are now interested in through the immigration system. Obviously the Cat 2 avenue is exempt from this as they already have secured a job. The fact that Temporary Work Permits are now being issued routinely for only 1 year (rather than 2 or even 3 ears being common before) also suggests that the processing time for these applicants will be under 1 year.
You could see it as actually being fairer to the previous Cat 1 applicants ( as well as much better for everyone applying since) - I would not want to land in a strange country to find that my profession was so over-subscribed that I spent all my savings before I had found a job. That would be a disaster.
Many people think that the process will be a lot faster now - guesses are in the 6-12 month range - and the above strategy would accomplish the aims of CIC quite well and fit the facts.
NO PROOF of this is yet available, however and we will have to wait and see what happens to our friends who have received the first PER. All eyes will be on asaif!