CIC Introduces A Cap Of 12,000 Applications For Canadian Experience Class

09 Nov 2013

Chris Alexander, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration announced changes to develop the CEC (Canadian Experience Class) so that the program keeps attracting top quality candidates to the country.

Alexander said that the CEC has allowed more than 25,000 people to stay permanently in Canada to contribute their talents and skills, and the government is taking tough measures to reduce processing times and backlogs. He added that by making these changes to the CEC, Canada is moving toward a more efficient and effective immigration system.

On the number of new CEC applications, CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) is introducing an annual cap in order to prevent a backlog from developing, manage intake and maintain reasonable processing times in the CEC.

Effective 9^th November, 2013, CIC will accept not more than 12,000 CEC applications per year and in certain skilled occupations, CIC will accept not more than 200 applications each.

However, the department will accept around 15,000 individuals in 2014 under the CEC despite the annual cap on applications.

Also, due to an overrepresentation in the program, effective 9^th November, 2013, the following 6 occupations will no longer be eligible for the CEC:

• Food Service Supervisors (NOC 6311);
• Cooks (NOC code 6322);
• Administrative Assistants (NOC 1241);
• Administrative Officers (NOC 1221);
• Retail Sales Supervisors (NOC 6211);
• Accounting Technicians and Bookkeepers (NOC 1311).

In these occupations, CIC already has a large inventory of applications and will keep processing them to a final decision.

In addition, for NOC (National Occupational Classification) B occupations, CIC will establish sub-caps of 200 applications each. These are mostly those in the skilled trades or administrative and technical jobs. NOC A and 0 (professional and managerial) occupations will not be sub-capped. However, the overall cap of 12,000 applications will be applied to them.

Lastly, the language criteria for applicants will not be changed, but, as of 9^th November 2013, CIC will verify them upfront. At present, for NOC 0 and A occupations, language requirements are CLB (Canadian Language Benchmark) 7 and for NOC B occupations, it is CLB 5. According to this new measure, processing resources can be settled on those who are more likely to qualify by screening out applicants who fail to meet the minimum language requirements earlier on in the process.

Simultaneously, CIC says that this process is more client-friendly as applicants who do not meet the necessary language proficiency will get back their applications along with the processing fee.