Immigrant applications of South Asian countries face major setback in respect of Canada.

A Toronto Star article by Lesley Taylor for 13 June 2008 reflects the view that the immigrant applications from South Asia face an undue setback due to quotas/targets and massive backlogs.

The target in case of New Delhi office is 9,245visas in one year, but when one talks of backlog, it was 145,556 on April 10. This backlog is so immense that it would take more than 16 years tom clear, keeping the new applications aside. The article sites an example of an Indian skilled worker, Anil Ahulwalia, and his application took 10 years to get finalized. The backlog in Islamabad has reached 43,000, against the target of 3,600.

There are certain changes brought about by Immigration Minister which will take an off from the traditional way of just filing and application and wait for further. This year onwards, only those applications will be verified which comes fulfills the requirements of the Minister. It is still to show whether this step of Canada proves beneficial in the current era of world wide competition for skilled immigrants or not.

The idea of having criteria such as age, education, work experience, adaptability etc was to pick up the apt skilled labour as per the need of Canada. Now, leaving the selection on the choice of Minister might do away with such apt skilled individuals.

The backlogs of application must be dealt with some method or the other. Either additional resources should be added to the visa offices, or the backlogs should be dealt first, instead of taking more fresh applications. Keeping the present condition of Canada in mind, South Asian countries should put their effort in getting into accessible countries such as Australia or the H1B process in the US.