Skilled Worker Immigration Program to be re-launched by the mid of 2013

Jason Kenney announces the re-launch of Skilled Worker Immigration Program in May, 2013  May, 2013 is likely to bring “good news” for the immigrants, as this is the time scheduled for the announcement of re-launching “Skilled Worker Immigrant Program”.      The federal Government will be re-launching the program and there is an assurance from immigration Minister Jason Kenney that this time well qualified professionals will not land up serving as a “driver” in order to survive in Canada.   The program which was halted sometime in June this year will now be launched with a change in the selection criteria.  The changes in the selection criteria  • Preference will be given to younger applicants and also to those who are proficient in the official languages of the nation. • An applicant should be well conversed with either French or English for standing a better chance for getting the visa. • Also, the spouse of any applicant will also be judged on the basis of language proficiency. • An applicant holding Canadian Work Experience will be scoring more points than the one with no Canadian Work Experience. • The credentials earned by an applicant will be cross verified and checked against the Canadian standards.  The suggested outcome of the changes  Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says, “The reforms are designed to dramatically improve the economic outcome of newcomers and to help the productivity of the country.” He also adds that the workforce in the nation has been shrinking due to an aging population.  He assures that “an Engineer will be working as an Engineer and a Doctor as the same; this will help the country to meet its national goals too.”  He also informs that steps would be taken to ensure that the earnings made by the immigrants are quite close to the native burns, even if it can’t be made the same.  He is aware of the fact that the ultimate decision to employ and pay an immigrant will be taken by the regulatory agencies, yet every effort will be taken to place the immigrants in the right kind of jobs within a year of their arrival.  The scores earned by an applicant will also decide his or her eligibility for becoming “permanent resident” of the country.  The impact of freezing the application process  Ever since the applications under this category have been frozen, the Department could clear as many as 100,000 backlogged applications. Apart from this, the Government had already returned as many as 280,000 applications submitted before February 2008. Along with this, the government had to make a refund of more than $1 Million in the form of application fee which was submitted by eh applicants.