Canada attained its 40,000 international student graduate intake cap in less than 25 hours of releasing the temporary residence to permanent residence (TR to PR) application program. According to an internal memo, the immigration department received far more applications than expected. As per press briefing obtained by CIC News through an information access request, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) received 7,307 additional applications to the International Graduate stream of the TR to PR pathways.
The TR to PR pathways are a set of six special immigration programs designed to help essential workers, French speakers, and international student graduates apply for permanent residency in Canada. These one-time programs began on May 6 and will end on November 5 or as soon as the intake caps are met. Due to a technical glitch with the electronic operating system, the additional application cases for the international graduate program were also accepted. Applications were counted at the time of submission using a live counter on the government’s website that depicted the number of applications received. Nonetheless, some applications that were submitted at the same time were only counted as one.
To put it another way, if two applicants pressed the “Submit” button at the same time, the system would sometimes treat them as one application. People who needed accommodations to apply, such as people with disabilities, are also expected to submit a smaller number of additional applications, according to IRCC.
Following the error, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino gave approval to a policy that authorized a temporary public policy that would allow the applications to be processed. Alternatively, they would have to be returned to the applicants, along with the fees, as per current policy.
It would also be interpreted as unfair, according to the briefing, because IRCC sent them approval that their applications had been received within the intake cap. On June 28, Mendicino signed the policy, allowing the 7,307 applications to be processed. This does not mean that the stream will be reopened; rather, it means that applicants will not be penalized because of a system error. However, because IRCC had not anticipated the additional volume, resources from other lines of business will have to be diverted.
Moreover, some international student graduate applicants were concerned that if they made an error after submitting their application, they would be disqualified. Therefore, an IRCC spokesperson told CIC News that immigration officers will contact the applicants directly to request missing or incomplete documents.
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