Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has issued ministerial instructions that change the way Federal Skilled Worker applications are submitted tothe Canadian immigration visa office.

There are three distinct ways to qualify for a Canadian Immigration (Permanent Resident) Visa under the Federal Skilled Worker category and each wayfollows its own submission process.

1. Applicants with Arranged Employment are to submit their applications directly to the Canadian immigration visa office responsible for the applicant's country of nationality or residence (if the applicant has been legally residing in that country for at least one year).
2. Applications made by Temporary Foreign Worker or International Student currently residing in Canada, who have been legally residing Canada for at least one year, are to be submitted to the Canadian immigration visa office in Buffalo, New York, or the visa office serving the applicant's country of nationality.
3. All other Federal Skilled Worker applications are to be submitted to the Centralized Intake Office (CIO) at CPC-Sydney in Nova Scotia. As per CIC'sinstructions, these applicants must meet new ministerial work experience requirements. These applicants will submit a new set of forms, along with certain basic documents to the CIO, which will forward applicants who meet the basic work experience requirements to the appropriate Canadian immigration visa office abroad. At that time, the CIO will notify qualified applicants that they must submit their complete application to the visa office abroad in a 120 day period.

Those who do not qualify based on the CIO review of work experience qualifications will have their applications returned and their processing feesrefunded.

These new parameters were put in place with the goal of reducing Federal Skilled Worker processing times to 6-12 months.

They do not affect the processing methods of other Canadian immigration categories.