Blue Bird Blog

Fall and the lead-up to the Christmas holiday period are typically busy seasons for developments from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Canada’s immigration system in general.
While there are a lot of moving parts to Canada’s immigration system, there are several key developments to watch for as the year comes to a close.
These include potential changes in Canada’s immigration policy priorities and permanent residence levels, and updates to the parents and grandparents, international student, and work permit programs.

With the introduction of category-based Express Entry draws, some candidates are being chosen for Canadian permanent residence with greater emphasis on their professional experience than their Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score.

To attract more global tech talent to Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) recently opened a new three-year Open Work Permit stream for H-1B holders living in the United States (U.S.).
After opening the stream for applications on July 16, the federal government announced that it was closing the program after reaching the intended cap of 10,000 applicants just two days later.

Recent months have seen Express Entry begin targeted category-based draws for candidates in the federal pool who meet Canada’s economic and demographic goals. For 2023, one of these candidate categories is those with French-language proficiency.
Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has already held targeted draws for this group, inviting candidates with French proficiency; and holding draws with noticeably lower Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) scores than other category-based selection draws and all-program Express Entry draws.

Rentola, an online platform for tenants and landlords, recently published a report on Canada’s safest cities. According to the study eight of the top ten safest cities in Canada were in Ontario. The study also found that of the top 20 safest cities in Canada, 10 were in Ontario.