Immigration Canada has set a target of 411,000 new permanent residents for the year 2022. With the astounding success of having brought in 401,000 residents in 2021, Immigration Canada has already made history.  With new threats being posed by the Omicron variant of Covid 19 and looming measures of closure of borders yet again, the year of 2022 is another challenge for Immigration

The success story of 2021 is particularly celebratory since the pandemic posed many hurdles, and Immigration Canada could not meet set targets in 2020. It was the genius of a change in strategy that helped Immigration Canada in 2021. The massive historic CEC (Canadian Experience Class) Express Entry draw of February 2021 that concluded in the intake of more than 27000 permanent residents was indeed a game changer.

Apart from focusing on larger draws of Canadian Experience Class and Provincial Nominee Programme, CIC also introduced new TR (Temporary Resident) to PR (Permanent Resident) pathways. These pathways had a target intake of 90,000 new permanent residents. The Healthcare workers stream did fall short by 14000 even till November. If it had completed the full intake, CIC would have surpassed its set target of 401,000 permanent residents in 2021. Though former Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino had mused about being open to extending this stream, and not letting the 14000 spots go waste, but the new Immigration Minister Sean Fraser did not extend it beyond the Nov 5 deadline. All of these new TR to PR pathways allow applicants to extend their open work permits till their applications of Permanent Residence are being finalized

Also commendable is the fact that CIC changed and brought out many processes online. For applicants inside Canada, the Permanent Resident portal was introduced, which made pervious system of in-person interview or flagpoling redundant. IRCC also realized that most of the applicants who will sometime in future become permanent residents, were already present inside Canada as students and workers. And the new pathway targeted this talent pool

For 2022, out of the total set target of 411,000 new Permanent Residents, 108,500 is the target for Federal High Skilled Workers which includes Federal Skilled Workers, Federal Skilled Trades and the Canadian Experience Streams. The Federal Business Intake of 1000 Permanent Residents includes the Start Up Visa and the Federal Self-Employed person’s programme. The total intake for Economic Pilots like Caregiver, Agri Pilot and Northern Immigration Pilot is 8500 and for the Atlantic Immigration Programme (Previously Atlantic Immigration Pilot Programme) is 6000. The Provincial Nominee Programme will have an intake of 80,800 new immigrants. The total intake through the Economic Streams is set at 232,500. Intake under the family class is 103,500, Refugees and protected persons is 59,500 and Humanitarian and others is 5500.