This summer the Government of Canada conducted a number of public consultations. One of them was designed to obtain input from Canadians, stakeholders, and experts regarding the Canadian immigration program. It is a broad topic relating to temporary and permanent immigrant entry to Canada.
Gaining perspective from the real-world immigration professionals
We felt we needed to offer a contribution to present what we believe to be the issues important to our client base, who are predominantly the businesses that bring staff members to Canada and require work authorization. But we felt that while we could guess what was important for business it would better if businesses spoke for themselves.
We thus prepared a questionnaire and surveyed our client base. The survey's questions focused on the needs of business and we requested comments on how the government’s existing programs could be improved. Armed with the survey results, and supplemented by interviews of some clients, we drafted a submission that is our contribution to the government's consultation.
How immigration processes can be improved from a business standpoint
As a general comment, businesses stated that they wanted immigration criteria to be clear and objective in order to make application outcomes more predictable. From the survey group, there was also keen support for a trusted sponsor concept - only accredited businesses could sponsor foreign workers. Respondents see this as being a good mechanism for the government and for business: accreditation would only available to compliant businesses and as a quid pro quo the process could be streamlined and predictability of outcomes increased.
What to expect next
We continue to monitor policy developments being considered by the government. A House of Commons committee will shortly table its report and we are also expecting additional announcements later this year.
For those interested in the submission prepared by Fragomen, please contact [email protected] for a copy.