UAE expat alert: Canada Federal Skilled Worker Class re-opens from May

The Canadian government has announced the opening date of the intake of applications for the new Federal Skilled Worker Class (FSWC), which will be on May 4, 2013.

 

Some changes were made to the selection criteria of the programme. In the new programme more weight is given to language skills.

 

“The revised selection grid gives more weight to proficiency in one of the two Canada's official languages (English or French),” said Deepak Kohli, immigration consultant and president of Canada-based Transcend Consultants.

 

Whereas the previous point system allocated 24 points for official language proficiency the new system requires the applicant to score 28 points.

 

“Applicants will have to demonstrate that they meet the minimum language threshold, which is level 7 of the Canadian Language Benchmark assessment system,” is reported on the website of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

 

Meanwhile, the new programme gives lower weight to work experience outside Canada and more points for the age factor, with a revised age range for the highest bracket. “The revised selection grid prefers younger applicants,” comments Deepak.

 

However, the revised grid hides some other underlying modifications as well, he explains.

 

“For instance, the points allocated for adaptability are now distributed based on partially modified factors. These include higher points for the applicant's previous work experience in Canada and points allocated for spouse's proven language abilities, rather than highest education, as before.”

 

The FSWC is the most popular category among migration aspirants to Canada, but intake of applications has been on hold due to amendments made to the immigration policies.

 

Earlier this year, ‘Emirates24|7’ reported that the expected re-opening of the intake for the category, as well as the re-opening of the immigrant Investor Program (IIP) on July 1st had been postponed, because both programmes were under review.

 

At that time, the Government of Canada announced that the re-opening of the programmes were expected no sooner than January 2013.

Indeed, a new category, the Federal Skilled Trade Class (FSTC) was introduced and its opening to applications was announced to be on January 2nd, 2013.

 

This new category will accept up to a maximum of 3,000 applications of skilled tradespersons with experience in selected occupational areas in the first year. For a more detailed account of this category this website refers to its earlier report.

 

However, for the application to the FSWC migration aspirants will have to wait a little longer. This allows the applicant considerable preparation time, as the programme is known hard to get into.

 

Although the Canadian government has not announced the exact number of applicants that will be accepted under the program, it has said that the number will be limited.

 

As in previous years, the number of applicants is capped as per occupation and for some occupations the cap is reached within days, meaning the applicant will have to wait another year to apply.

 

On a positive note, the government has announced that processing of the applications is expected to take months, instead of years.