Recent elections have given us a sense of what Canadian immigration developments we can anticipate in the coming months. The federal election on September 20th will undoubtedly shape Canada's immigration system for the next four years.
Since the federal government is largely responsible for the policies that affect the system, the election result is the most important event in Canada's immigration system.
IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) is guided by the political party that forms government following each federal election. As a result, the party that governs the country after September 20 will have a long-lasting impact on the immigration system.
Following the announcement of the immigration minister and the mandate letter for IRCC, the next major immigration system event will be the postponement of the Immigration Levels Plan for 2022-2024. The levels plan outlines the number of immigrants that IRCC will seek to welcome each year, the categories under which newcomers will be welcomed, and the allocation of newcomers to each province and territory. This announcement is usually made by November 1st of each year, so we can expect to receive this news around a similar time this year.
Following the September election, we should have the new levels plan in place by March 2022, at the latest, but the announcement should simply be a continuation of ongoing efforts to welcome over 400,000 new immigrants to Canada each year.
Budget 2022 is expected to be released around the same time as the levels plan announcement. The budget frequently includes new policy announcements that greatly affect the immigration process. Budget 2021, for example, stated earlier this year that the federal government intends to spend nearly $430 million to update its IT infrastructure in order to improve application processing for the immigration system.
We should then see the new government gradually hit its stride and introduce new immigration policies and programmes throughout the rest of 2021 and the following year, 2022. Regardless of the outcome on September 20, there is no doubt that IRCC and the provinces and territories will continue to invite and process new immigrants.
This is undoubtedly an exciting time to begin the process of applying for a Canadian visa, so if you have yet to take the bold step of getting started, there is no better time than the present to contact a consultant and find out if you truly have what it takes to become Canada's newest and hottest property.