08 September 2008

Canada announces new pilot project to speed up skilled visa application process

The Canadian Government announced last Friday a new pilot project to centralise the intake of migration applications for skilled migration.

The Government has provided $109 million to fund the improvement of the Canadian immigration system and to help meet the increasing demand for skilled workers.  The pilot project will see 30 new trained staff working alongside pre-existing staff in a new centralised office in Sydney, Nova Scotia.  The centre will provide faster processing of Canadian skilled migration visa applications, and will start reviewing applications in October this year.

"In order to get the people we need to this country, we need to process applications faster," said Minister for Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), Diane Finley.  "This pilot is one of several measures we are taking to help reduce wait times overall. By centralizing the intake of federal skilled worker applications, we are alleviating some of the workload in our overseas visa offices. This allows visa officers to focus more on processing applications."

The CIC is also taking other steps to improve the immigration system in Canada, such as sending temporary staff to help processing offices suffering from visa application backlogs, redistributing applications around the country to ease the pressure of backlogs, and reconfirming the interest of applicants who have had to wait long periods of time for results of their application review.

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The Canadian Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in helping people apply for Canada visa and immigration services.

Article by Jessica Bird, Canadian Visa Bureau.