By the end of November this year, Canada had processed a record 4.8 million immigration applications, according to the Immigration Department the numbers are nearly twice the 2.5 million processed during the same period last year.
Reducing Backlogs Of Applications
The progress that has been made this year was highlighted by Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Sean Fraser in reducing backlogs of applications.
It appears that IRCC has reduced its overall inventory by nearly half a million applications since August.
Not only that, the department seems to be setting the bar higher and higher for processing.
The IRCC had processed approximately 4.8 million applications at the end of November which is twice the 2.5 million processed during the same period last year.
How Did This Happen?
This all could be possible with the help in strengthening our immigration system as IRCC has digitized applications, hired and trained new employees, streamlined processes, and harnessed automation technologies to increase processing efficiency while protecting the safety and security of Canadians.
With the latest updates, the department remains on track to meet its goal to process 80% of new applications within service standards for most programs.
Further, it continues to make strides in improving processing, resulting in shorter wait times for our clients.
Besides this, Canada is on pace to set a new record for study permit processing this year.
IRCC had processed over 670,000 study permits, as of November 30 this year.
This is much more compared to 500,000 during the same time period last year.
Now, most new study permits are being processed within the 60-day service standard as a result of these efforts.
This has also affected the Work permit processing as it has also seen vast improvements, with nearly 700,000 work permits processed by November 30, compared to about 223,000 during the same period in 2019, before the pandemic.
A Quicker Response
In order to respond to the growing number of people who want to visit Canada, IRCC continues to reduce backlogs and process visitor visas more quickly.
They are trying to do it on a monthly basis as Canada is now processing more visitor visa applications than it did prior to the pandemic.
For instance, over 260,000 visitor visas were processed in November alone.
Earlier, the monthly average in 2019 was about 180,000 applications.
During 2021, Canada allowed 405,000 new permanent residents further surpassing the previous record from 1913.
Now, Canada remains on track to reach its target of more than 431,000 new permanent residents for 2022
On Monday, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said, “Immigration is critical to Canada’s economy and our communities. Newcomers helped build our country, were on the front lines as we battled the pandemic, and remain key to our success,” in a press release.
Sean Fraser stated, “Our government has reduced its pandemic backlogs by nearly half a million, while also processing a record-breaking number of immigration applications this year.”
