Canada is committed to economic growth by offering qualified temporary foreign workers more pathways to become permanent residents. On March 12, 2019, Canada's IRCC announced that it is creating 2,000 additional spaces for temporary workers at the intermediate skill level to become permanent residents under the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). Economic immigrants will make up almost 60% of new permanent residents admitted to Canada in the next 3 years; PNP allows participating provinces and territories to nominate a set number of economic immigration candidates for Canadian permanent residence to address local labour market needs where qualified Canadian candidates are not available.
The increase in spaces means that existing temporary foreign workers at the intermediate skill level (National Occupation Code C) will have more opportunities to become permanent residents, which will help to address worker shortages as well as worker vulnerability due to the short-term status of their job. Skill Level C are intermediate skilled jobs that call for high school and/or job-specific training, including:
- industrial butchers
- long-haul truck drivers
- food and beverage servers
IRCC's press release to announce the new 2,000 new program states:
“Temporary foreign workers fill long-term labour market needs and contribute to the growth of our economy. We recognize the need to provide opportunities for them to transition to permanent residence – and these additional spaces under the Provincial Nominee Program will do just that.”
– The Honourable Ahmed Hussen,
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
79% of Canada's temporary foreign workers have difficulty attaining permanent residence status. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for immigration streams through the Provincial Nominee Program. Under Canada's 3-year plan to admit 1,000,000 new immigrants, the 2019 PNP admissions target is 61,000. In announcing the new spaces, IRCC committed that the added spaces will not impede IRCC’s progress in decreasing processing times for the PNP, and that this will provide a net increase in the number of Temporary Foreign Workers who become permanent residents.
You should discuss the how to moved to Canada as an intermediate skilled worker and to obtain Permanent Resident status with a legal expert familiar with how the PNP System works.
