Reduces Immigrant Visa Quota By 3,000 For 2010
Canada will keep its 2010 permanent resident visa quota at current levels of 240,000 to 265,000, but will drastically cut immigrant visa quotas by 3,000.
A spokesman for Immigration and Citizenship Canada said the lower number of immigrant visa quotas is based on the 18 months it takes to process the application of a refugee status claimant. However, the quotas may go up again in 2011 and 2012 because all the vacancies on the Immigration and Refugee Board will soon be filled.
Canada has recently been tightening its borders by requiring visas from Mexican and Czech Republic citizens before they could enter the country as tourists. Ottawa is currently holding 76 Sri Lankan males who attempted to enter Canada illegally through the port of Vancouver in British Columbia.
However, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney – who submitted the ministry’s 2009 yearly report to Parliament last week – pointed out that while other nations have reduced their immigration levels as a short-term response to the global financial crisis, Canada will take in new residents in numbers even higher than its average yearly acceptance rate in the 1990s.
Kenney explained in a statement, “The focus of the 2010 plan is on economic immigration to support Canada’s economy during and beyond the current economic recovery.”
The 2010 plan will result in higher admission rates for immigrants nominated by provinces and territories and applicants under the federal skilled worker program who could expect to receive a decision within six to 12 months under the new Action Plan for Faster Immigration.
As a result, the backlog of federal skilled worker applicants went down from more than 630,000 to 240,000 or a cut by more than 30 percent.
