CANADIAN IMMIGRATION NEWS

Canada Announces New pilot project to speed up skilled worker applications

Tuesday, 16 September 2008

The Government of Canada has announced a new pilot project to help speed the processing of new applications.

The Canadian 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 in a new centralised office in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Starting in October, the centre will provide faster processing of Canadian skilled worker visa applications.

"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."

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

If you are interested in Visas to Canada, contact Migration Expert for information and advice on which visa is best suited to you. You can also try our visa eligibility assessment to see if you are eligible to apply for a visa to Canada.