Visas & Advice Detail
Update from the CHC
By the time this appears in print we will have survived one of our busiest times of year in the permanent resident processing side here at the Canadian High Commission.
In November 2007 we issued nearly 2,000 immigrant visas, our highest total since 2002. Our focus is very much on our visa target, which is the performance commitment that we are held accountable to. For 2007 our target was to issue between 15,400 and 16,400 visas.
Where does that figure come from? It all starts around the 1st of November every year with the annual 'Report on Immigration' that is tabled in Parliament by the Minister for Citizenship and Immigration in accordance with section 94 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). The report provides information about the number of new permanent residents in the preceding year, and the projected number in the year to follow. That number of new permanent residents ('landings') will become the basis for the global visa target. Coming up with the global target requires consultations between the federal government and the provinces, and consultations between Citizenship and Immigration and other Departments including Justice, Public Safety and Foreign Affairs. Arriving at a global target each year ultimately becomes a decision for ministers, who must take into account resource issues, processing capacity, labour market needs and how to best balance the principal objectives of Canada's immigration programme: contributing to economic growth, facilitating family reunification, and maintaining Canada's humanitarian tradition of protecting refugees. On 31st October the government announced: "In 2008, the government plans to admit between 240,000 and 265,000 new permanent residents. The 2008 immigration levels are in line with a balanced immigration programme that aims to meet Canada's labour market needs while fostering family reunification and honouring the humanitarian principles of refugee protection."
Once the global target is known, the Operations sector within the Department of Citizenship and Immigration has to determine how best to apportion it between the various missions and inland processing centres. The key factors that must be weighed are inventory distribution (how long is the queue at each office), processing capacity through the overseas network (number of visa officers and support staff deployed globally), and how many landings might be expected within Canada (through the refugee and humanitarian programs and, starting this year, the Canadian Experience class). Managing to targets can be a tricky business for a visa office. There is an overall visa target and then individual targets within the various economic, family and humanitarian categories. Globally, the target is split roughly 60/40 between the economic classes (skilled workers, business applicants, provincial nominees) and non-economic classes (family, humanitarian). The ratio of these targets for an individual visa office will vary depending upon the composition of the inventory and the projected new applications in priority categories such as provincial nominees and persons with arranged employment in the economic classes, and spouses and children in the family class. London's split is 90/10 in favour of economic applicants, reflecting the inventory pressures we face on skilled worker applications. In fact, London issues more visas in the economic classes than any other overseas office (excluding Buffalo, which mainly processes applicants already in Canada).
Once we know the target for London, we can make educated guesses of how many new cases need to be put into process based on our current stocks of 'active' cases, the acceptance rate and the number of people per application in each of the immigrant categories. Historical data can be helpful both in gauging past performance and in anticipating trends. For example, we have seen and expect to continue to see growth in our Provincial Nominee numbers. At the same time, certain categories within the family class have declined slightly. Our medium-to-long term objective is to position London's Immigration programme so that we can take ever bigger bites out of our Skilled Worker inventory within the resources available. Many of the new initiatives and additional resources that we have spoken of in past columns have been geared towards that end. Read the immigration minister's annual report.
The Canadian High Commission in London is currently Processing Skilled Worker applications submitted between June and August 2005. Please note that we give processing priority to files where updated info has been received. If your application was received prior to March 2005 and you have submitted updated information as requested, please contact the High Commission through the email form at . We regularly go back and process any files from previous months for which we have not received updated information, but nevertheless this can be slightly out of sequential order. For this reason it is very important to respond with updated application forms, schedules, and police certificates when requested even if your circumstances have not changed. Doing so will ensure that your application is processed as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Contact details:
The Canadian High Commission
Immigration Division, MacDonald House,
38 Grosvenor Street, London W1K 4AA.
CHC website
Citizenship and Immigration Canada also contains much useful information, including links to Provincial Nominee Programmes.