The New International Graduate Stream in Canada Reached its Limit

The 40,000-application cap for Canada’s latest International Graduate pipeline for English speakers has been surpassed.

At 1:01 p.m. Eastern Standard Time today, May 7, the quota was met. At about noon EST, this and five other new streams for critical staff and French-speaking foreign graduates were introduced.

The six streams will be launched on April 14 by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The streams aim to provide more immigration options for foreign graduates and critical workers in Canada during the pandemic.

The IRCC hopes to see 90,000 people achieve permanent residency across the streams. The emphasis on providing more permanent residency pathways to Canadians stems from the fact that they do not face the same degree of coronavirus-related disturbances as immigration applicants from other countries.

CIC News has put together a detailed FAQ on the various immigration sources, which you will find here.

This year, the IRCC plans to process 40,000 applications. In 2021, the department wants to welcome 401,000 new immigrants.

The quotas for the streams were set as below:

• Workers in Canada – Stream A for health care workers (20,000 applications)
• Workers in Canada – Stream B for essential non-healthcare workers (30,000 applications)
• International graduates (40,000 applications)
• Workers in Canada – Stream A for French-speaking health care workers (no cap)
• Workers in Canada – Stream B for French-speaking essential non-healthcare workers (no cap)
• French-speaking international graduates (no cap)

The English-speaking Staff in Canada streams have received over 5,000 applications (out of a total cap of 50,000 applications). The French-speaking streams have had a poor take-up so far, but this is due in part to the streams’ lack of limits and a generous deadline of November 5, 2021.

The English-speaking streams will be available until November 5th or until the maximum number of participants is reached, whichever comes first.

Why is the English-speaking International Graduate stream in such high demand?

Because of the high number of temporary residents in Canada and the lower selection requirements, the graduate stream was in high demand.

There could be up to 1.5 million people in Canada with job or research permits right now. A significant number of them have work permits, but there are still around 530,000 people with research permits.

Candidates with a Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) of 5 met the eligibility requirements. In comparison, most Canadian Experience Class (CEC) applicants need a CLB 7. Furthermore, graduates were not required to have one year of work experience to be qualified for the stream that has now reached its limit.

In general, graduates must have at least one year of work experience in Canada to be qualified for other visa programmes like the CEC.