Mohanad Moetaz - 04 May, 2021
New Permanent Residence pathways will be available for essential workers and international graduates this Thursday 6 May 2021.
The new streams are available to 90,000 essential workers and international graduates, plus an unlimited number of French-speakers. The streams will continue to accept applications until November 5, 2021, or until the intake caps are achieved.
Learn more about Canada's new PR streams
Three of the streams will target French-speaking health care workers and other essential workers, as well as French-speaking international graduates. These streams do not have an intake cap.
The other three streams are for everyone. Canada plans to accept 20,000 health care workers, 30,000 essential workers in other occupations, and 40,000 international graduates through these streams.
Canada has set ambitious immigration targets for itself in 2021 and beyond. The country is looking to welcome 401,000 new permanent residents in 2021. This high target is part of an effort to make up for the lack of new permanent residents in 2020, as well as to support the nation's post-pandemic economic recovery.
Candidates who were approved for permanent residents who live abroad are currently unable to travel to Canada because of the travel restrictions in place. The introduction of the six new streams shows that despite this, Canada is still committed to hitting its immigration targets, by targeting people that are already in Canada.
Essential workers including health care workers need to have at least one year of full-time work experience (or the part time equivalent) in an eligible occupation within the last three years. Eligible health care occupations (Annex A), and other essential occupations (Annex B) can be found here.
Candidates need to be currently working in any occupation, and have a Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) of 4 or more in English or French.
In addition, candidates need to be living in Canada legally, and intend to live outside Quebec. Candidates must not be deemed inadmissible to Canada for medical or criminal reasons.
International graduates must have graduated from a Canadian Designated Learning Institution (DLI) no earlier than January 2017. They must have received an educational credential upon graduation. This can be a university degree, a college diploma, a credential from a trade, technical school, or Quebec CEGEP.
Candidates must be currently working in Canada in any occupation at the time of application. They must have authorization to work with a valid work or study permit. The language requirement is a CLB of 5 in English or in French.
Candidates must intend to live outside Quebec, and must not be deemed inadmissible to Canada for medical or criminal reasons.
French speaking health care workers, workers of other essential occupation and international graduates need to meet the same eligibility requirements as their counterparts.
However, for the language requirement, workers must have a fluent basic level of French in the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. This is a Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens (NCLC) of at least 4.
International graduates need to have an intermediate level of French in the four language skills, This is an NCLC of at least 5.
