Eliminating Backlogs and Improving Processing Times
Application backlogs in a number of programs pose significant challenges to the immigration system, and reducing and eliminating them is a priority for CIC. The FSW Program backlog, which in 2008 had peaked at more than 640,000 people, has been particularly problematic as it constituted a major roadblock to Canada's ability to respond to rapidly changing labour market needs. The sizable proportion of CIC's processing capacity for this program was dedicated to clearing applications that were up to eight years old, and this hampered CIC's ability to process applications from persons whose skills are needed today. The continued presence of this backlog was unfair to applicants and delayed the transition to a fast, flexible and responsive immigration system. Since the launch in 2008 of the Action Plan for Faster Immigration, CIC has limited the intake of new applications under this program. As a result of these efforts, CIC reduced the pre-2008 backlog by more than 50 percent and the overall FSW inventory by over 25 percent. However, the size of the backlog demanded further action and CIC introduced three notable measures in 2012.
First, in February 2012, CIC and participating provinces and territories launched the FSW Backlog Reduction Pilot to respond to Canada's labour market needs while also further drawing down the backlog. Under the terms of the pilot, FSW applicants with work experience required by provinces and territories were redirected to these provinces for possible nomination under provincial nominee programs (PNP).
A more significant measure was introduced in the Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, which received Royal Assent on June 29, 2012. Under this law, CIC terminated around 98,000 FSW Program applications received before February 27, 2008, that had not received a decision before March 29, 2012. The law required that all fees paid to CIC be returned to the applicants. This substantial reduction of the FSW Program application backlog is now smoothing the transition to an increasingly fast and flexible economic immigration system.
The third measure was a temporary pause on the acceptance of new FSW applications, apart from those with valid job offers and students pursuing Canadian PhDs. Implemented July 1, 2012, this measure enabled CIC to focus its processing resources for the FSW Program on the remaining applications received since 2008. The pause remained in place until May 2013, and allowed CIC to develop and implement the program changes mentioned above and make considerable progress toward the goal of processing all FSW applications by the end of 2014. As a result of these efforts, the FSW backlog has been reduced to approximately 65,000 persons as of the end of July 2013.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/publications/annual-report-2013/section1.asp
