Canada Announces A Temporary Pause On FSW Visas

02 Jul 2012

With effect from July 1st 2012, the Immigration Minister, Jason Kenney, announced a temporary pause on the Federal Skilled Workers (FSW) visa for Canada. This shut down will halt further new applications from the individuals under the skilled worker and the investors program. The pause will further help better addressing the submitted applications and at the same time open up doors to other immigration programs for applicants to come to Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada reached its cap of ten thousand applicants under the skilled workers program for July 1 2011 to June 30, 2012 and thus halt the process. However, certain streams under the skilled worker scheme welcome new applications from individuals who have positive labour market or those pursuing under PhD stream.

According to the new law, all applications filed after Feb 2008, either destroyed or returned to the applicants including the application fees. Following the temporary pause, around 25, 000 applicants for investors program and approximately 1, 10, 000 applications under skilled workers visa are yet to be processed.

With the temporary freeze, the government plans to reform the existing immigration rules. Despite the changes, the government will create an Application Management System for employers. This system enables the employers to search and select potential applicants.

Kenney also said, the skilled worker applicants can start applying from earlier January onwards following the necessary changes. Besides, applicants under investors program will be facing the halt until new changes is in action.