TODAY I GOT REPLY FROM MINISTER OFFICE:Dear :
This is in reply to your correspondence dated June 2, 2011, addressed to the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, concerning the status of your application for permanent residence (APR) under the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) Program.
We appreciate your wish to become a permanent resident of Canada as soon as possible. Unfortunately, because of the lack of specific information contained in your correspondence (full name with correct spelling, date of birth, county of birth, applicable file number(s), office of application, etc; I am unable to obtain any details on your specific case.
What I can say is that, updated information on processing times can be found at:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-ec.asp.
I would also like to explain that changes to immigration law in 2008 allow Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to set, through Ministerial Instructions (MI), the number and type of applications considered for processing each year, and the order in which these applications will be processed.
Under the first set of instructions (MI-1) CIC used this new authority under immigration law to control the type of applications received, but not the number. The number of applications received exceed the ability to process them in a timely way. CIC introduced caps on June 26, 2010 on the FSW program as part of the second MI. CIC has limited the intake of new FSW applications to better match the number CIC can actually process within the annual levels plan tabled in Parliament. The third set of MI, introduced in June 2011, further adjusted the intake of economic class APRs. FSW applications under the third MI are processed on a priority basis.
Further information can be found at:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/releases/2011/2011-06-24a.asp.
CIC has received enough FSW applications since February 27, 2008 to reach immigration levels for the next two years. Unfortunately, it will take longer to process those submitted under the first set of instructions (between February 27, 2008 and June 25, 2010) than originally projected. This number represents more than twice the number of projected admissions under the program in 2011.
CIC's goal is to make the immigration system more responsive to labour market needs. By giving priority to FSW applications received on or after July 1, 2011, CIC is responding to the most urgent labour market needs first. The length of time it takes to finalize an application under this program varies from one visa office to another since visa offices face different challenges. CIC continues to work towards global service standards and the use of departmental standard forms to minimize such regional variations as much as possible.
I hope that this information is of assistance.
D. Kit
Ministerial Enquiries Division
Immigration Forum
