Visas & Advice Detail
Aiming to relieve visa processing
With the average length of time it takes an application for a Skilled Worker visa to be processed, its little surprise that British immigrants are looking at faster ways to get into Canada
Over the past few years, as the processing times for Skilled Worker visas have lengthened considerably, the Provincial Nominee Programme (PNP) which should see an applicant awarded a permanent visa comfortably within a year has become an increasingly popular immigration route.
In 2005, 8,047 immigrants from all around the world entered Canada through one of its PNPs a scheme which gives a particular province the power to welcome the specific migrants it needs compared to just 6,248 the year before. With Ontario all set to become the final Canadian province to sign up to the PNP later this year, and Skilled Worker visa processing times almost certainly going to get longer rather than shorter, this route's popularity is only likely to grow for the foreseeable future.
However, for some of you, even a (roughly) nine-month wait before you can move to Canada is still nine months too long! You want to be in Canada now, or at least as soon as you possibly can be. Little surprise, then, that here at Emigrate Canada we're receiving more and more queries from you every month regarding work permits. While being in possession of a work permit only allows you to stay in Canada on a temporary basis, those who do hold one can live and work in the country while their permanent visa (either Skilled Worker or PNP) is being processed. But even work permit applications take around 12 weeks sometimes longer, occasionally not so long to be processed. However, there is a small glimmer of light at the end of the exceedingly dark processing time tunnel, for those of you hoping to secure a work permit in one of Canada's three most popular provinces for British immigrants Alberta, BC or Ontario.
The introduction of Regional Under Pressure Lists for these provinces will cut the length of time a certain job needs to be advertised in Canada to just one week, providing the job is included on the list for that particular province. "The advertising requirements from Service Canada Alberta for these occupations will be reduced by about three weeks on average, going from four weeks to one, while such positions now only need to be advertised on the Government of Canada National Job Bank," explains employment agent Warren Green of Albertaimmigration.com.
At present, a vast number of occupations are included on the BC and Alberta versions of these lists, while there is a much smaller selection for Ontario. Occupations are listed under ten different headings Management; Business, Finance and Administration; Natural and Applied Sciences and Related; Health; Social Science, Education, Government Service and Religion; Art, Culture, Recreation and Sport; Sales and Service; Trades, Transport and Equipment Operators and Related; Primary Industry; and Processing, Manufacturing and Utilities with the highest number of jobs in Alberta and BC included under the Trades, Transport and Equipment Operators and Related category (see table on page 15). There are currently a total of 100 occupations each, included on the BC and Alberta in demand lists, and 25 in Ontario, where Health Occupations take up the bulk of the list. "This is a really positive step as before an employer [in these listed occupations] would have had to place their recruitment adverts in local papers and national papers, tech colleges, etcetera," says Green. "This was very time consuming, confusing and expensive to the average employer and usually ended in delays or refusals for a validated job offer," he adds.
The reason a job needs to be advertised in Canada is so that the employer can prove that there are no Canadian citizens available to take the position themselves, hence they have had to look elsewhere for a suitable employee. It is essential that the job has been advertised in Canada for the required time in order for you to then obtain a positive Labour Market Opinion (LMO) from the Service Canada office for that particular province. However, while a job may no longer need to be advertised in such a stringent way, the introduction of these lists will still not speed the process up immensely. "The Bottleneck still continues for Alberta Services Canada and indeed for the other provinces in the processing of the actual LMO application, which still takes, on average, between eight and 12 weeks to process providing the application is filled out correctly," explains Green. "Mistakes on the application or a lack of required information will cause further delays."
While the average processing time for an LMO in Alberta is eight to 12 weeks, in both BC and Ontario the procedure should be slightly quicker, taking between eight and 11 weeks, or three to four weeks respectively.
Only once you have been offered a job and received an approved LMO will you be able to apply for the work permit itself this alone will take around four to eight weeks to be processed. "Any application done correctly, with an occupation included on the province's in demand list, will at best, experience a three-week saving time from start to finish," says Green. "Alberta's Service Canada is stretched by the workload, thus the long processing times. "That said, they have come a long way in changing there policies for the better and getting more trained officers to administer the immense demands for their time," he adds. Of course, there is a danger that as more people apply for work permits as an alternative to waiting for permanent visas, the processing times will lengthen even further for them, just as they have for Skilled Worker, and even some PNP, visas. So only time will tell just how much difference these occupations under pressure list will make to the overall processing times for work permits. "So far it's all good news, though," states Green. "Service Canada has come a long way, but they still have a way to go to get things as good as they could be."
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