On April 14, 2021, IRCC announced three new pathways to PR for people who are presently in Canada (and intend to live anywhere except Quebec):

• People currently employed in Canada who also have one year of work experience in health care or an essential service (cap: 20,000 health stream and 30,000 essential stream)
• French-speaking applicants employed in Canada who also have one year work experience in health care or an essential service (no cap)
• Recent international graduates who are currently employed in Canada (cap 40,000)

The program opens May 6, 2021 in an electronic format and on a first-come, first-served basis. With caps for the non-French speaking programs, we expect these will fill up quickly. The program is set to close on November 5, 2021.

The document requirements, checklists and process details have not been released yet. We only have the public policy information and what we can glean from the IRCC announcements and what Minister Mendicino has stated publicly.

These are the most interesting takeaways:

• No age restriction;
• Low(er) language requirement;
• People here without status but who are eligible to restore their status can apply;
• No Education Credential Assessment (ECA) requirement;
• Many NOC C and D occupations included;
• For the work experience stream, you don’t have to be currently employed in health care or an essential service;
• No mention (yet!) of median wage or proof of recruitment requirement for current job offers.

With the program set to open May 6, applicants need to start getting ready right away. This includes ensuring their language test results are no older than 2 years and getting police clearances, Canadian proof of education and work experience documents ready.  We assume the confirmation of current employment will be a form similar to IMM5983 and IMM5984 used for the home support worker and Agri-Food Pilot programs.

Spring is definitely in the air at IRCC, but there is no time to stop and smell the flowers.

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