Canada to limit immigration of skilled immigrants

This decision of Canadian government is aimed to reduce the backlog of applications for Canada immigration by skilled immigrants. 

The government says that it will fix the annual limit of 20,000 Canada visa applications to bring down the piling up backlog of visa applications. 

Also, as per the latest rules of Canada immigration, all applicants desirous of moving to Canada will be required to pass a compulsory language test to prove their proficiency in either of the two official languages of Canada. 

This was stated by Jason Kenney, Canadian immigration minister on Friday. 

Prior to this announcement, applicants having knowledge of either French or English were permitted to show a written proof of their language ability and were not required to undertake any such language tests in either French or English.

Kenney made it clear that candidates will have to show test results of language proficiency from any third-party testing agency.

Apart from skilled immigrants seeking Canada immigration, the new Canada immigration rules will be applicable to applicants seeking immigration to Canada the category of Canada Experience Class. 

Results of the language tests from TEF (Test d’evaluation de francais) and IELTS (International English Language Testing System) will be deemed to be valid for showing to Canada immigration officials. 

Another noticeable change in the Canada immigration rules as part of limiting the annual number of applicants to be allowed entry into Canada include reduction in the total occupations to 29 for the federal skilled worker program. The earlier annual limit for occupations under federal skilled worker program was 38. 

Canada has been seeing an increased supply of available workforce in Canada labor market following which 20 job categories have been removed from the total 38 categories of jobs in Canada. These include managers in construction, finances, health care and computer and information systems, vocational instructors, college and university professors.

And, a total of 11 new job categories are being added including dentists, architects, dental hygienists, psychologists, social workers, biologists, related scientists, primary industry production managers(excluding those in agriculture), professions in management and business services, insurance claims examiners and adjusters. 

In order to qualify for immigration under the above mentioned job categories, candidates also need to possess one year work experience of either full time continuous or paid employment in a minimum of one occupation.