Canadian Immigration Plan 2014

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander announced the Canadian Immigration Plan 2014. The main target for 2014 is to drive economic growth and position Canada for success in the future.

In 2014, Citizenship and Immigration Canada plans to welcome 240,000 to 265,000 new permanent residents, with record admissions under programs: Canadian Experience Class  and the Provincial Nominee Program.

The Economic Class will be the main focus

It is expected for the Economic class to increase to 63% in 2014, which totals 164,500 new immigrants. 37% will consist of the Family class immigrants, refugees and others under humanitarian programs.

New Intake System for Economic Immigration

The Citizenship and Immigration Canada is moving from passive economic immigration to active recruiting by introducing a new intake system named the Expression of Interest System (EOI) tentatively. This system will be examined in the year of 2014, with expected launch in 2015.

The EOI is similar to New Zealand’s immigration program and consists of two steps. Applicants will submit details of their experience, skills and other attributes electronically to Citizenship and Immigration Canada. If they meet the eligibility criteria, they will be part of a pool of candidates and ranked against others under “Expressions of Interest”.  Immigration Canada will invite the best candidates to apply for visas, including those with in-demand skills or job offers. Those that are not chosen will be removed from the pool over time. The aim is to choose the best economic class applicants, while avoiding backlog and minimizing processing times.

Canadian Experience Class

It is expected up to 15,000 economic class immigrants will become permanent residents under the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) in 2014. The Canadian Experience Class allows people who meets the minimum language requirement and have at least 1 year of skilled work experience in Canada to apply for permanent residency.  CIC has welcomed more than 25,000 permanent residents through the program.

Provincial Nominee Program

Canada plans to welcome 44,500 – 47,000 permanent residents under the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) in the year of 2014. The PNP is Canada’s second-largest economic immigration program and grown from around 1,250 landed immigrants in 2000 to close to 41,000 landed immigrants in 2012. 42% of all economic immigrants in 2012 intended to settle outside of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

More details of the plan of 2014 will be released soon. For more information, please contact us.

Backgrounder:

News Release — Planning for Success, Putting Canada First

CIC: Expression of Interest (EOI): Preparing for Success in 2015

CIC: Provincial Nominee Program: Record Levels Planned for 2014

CIC: Canadian Experience Class: Reaching for New Heights in 2014