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ANNOUNCER. This episode of the Canadian immigration podcast is sponsored by the Canadian immigration Institute, one of the best sources of video content on Canadian immigration to help you navigate your way through the Canadian immigration process. Head on over to the YouTube channel, where there's tons of video content, and you can join mark yes myself in a number of live video streams, Q and A's all designed to help you navigate your way through this crazy Canadian immigration process. When you're done there, like and subscribe and then head on over to the Canadian Immigration institute.com where you can find all those awesome DIY courses that I've been talking about. Thank you, Canadian immigration Institute. You are the sponsor of this amazing little podcast. You
Speaker 1 1:05
i The Canadian immigration process can be complex and frustrating with the Canadian Immigration Department making it virtually impossible to speak to an officer. There are few places to turn to for trusted information. The Canadian immigration podcast was created to fill this void by offering the latest on immigration law, policy and practice. Please welcome ex immigration officer and Canadian immigration lawyer Mark Holthe as he is joined by industry leaders across Canada sharing insight to help you along your way.
Mark Holthe 1:51
Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Canadian immigration podcast. My name is Mark Holthe, and I am the host, and I have along with me my co host, Alicia Bachman Bahari, as always, this is episode 172 and it's all about the levels plans that have just been released. How are you doing Alicia?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 2:09
I'm doing well mark, and I think this is a good time to talk about the levels plan, because the dust has settled a little bit. There was kind of a scramble in the release of the levels plan this year. It was atypical, to say the least, in terms of the fact that normally these levels plans, as we know, have to be released and tabled to parliament before November 1. And that did not happen this year. So we had an interesting release of immigration announcements with the budget, and then we had kind of a bare bones framework of the levels plan that was included into the annual report to parliament, with just a very kind of brief sketch of what was going on. And then Only later did we actually get the full supplement. So so this is a good time to talk about it, because we now have all the information.
Mark Holthe 2:57
Indeed, I know we were trying to release as much information as possible last Wednesday, or I should say, after we saw what was released on the Tuesday. And so this is actually 2.0 for Alicia and I. We recorded an awesome episode last week, only to realize that the levels, plans, the more detailed supplemental information, had finally been released literally while we were recording. So we're happy to do this. And one of the main purposes, you know, for us doing this is just talk about how it impacts you. So we're going to go over this. And obviously everything in the future with immigration is driven by what happens with these levels plans. When they decide how many people are they're actually going to admit in temporary for temporary residence or for permanent residence. That then determines the size of draws for Express Entry. It determines what Provincial Nominee programs can do. It determines how hard it's going to be to get your study permit. And all of these things impact your future. And those of you who are here in Canada, this kind of as important, because some of you are looking at the clock tick and your time here in Canada, wondering if you're going to have an opportunity. Because right now, Alicia, these are definitely tough times for people who are looking to remain
Alicia Backman-Beharry 4:13
definitely we're seeing people who, you know their work permits are coming to an end, but they probably came here, most of them, or many of them as students or spouses of students, and then they had a PG, WP, and now they're trying to figure out, how do we get PR
Mark Holthe 4:27
Exactly? All right, we're going to suspense people. They got a sneak peek at what we're going to talk about. But why do we have these levels plans in the first place? Alicia, I hinted at it a little bit, but like, is it really that big of a deal? Can the government not just kind of go with what they intend to go? Why do they actually have to release it and tell us what they're going to do?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 4:48
Well, I mean, it's a good thing for transparency. It shows where the policy is headed for the future. They do change. So even though it's a three year levels plan, it's a rotating or rolling three year. Levels plan. It does change quite a bit. So last year, when we had the 2025 levels plan announced at the end of 2024 there was a major shift, and we could see that instead of increased overall numbers, we had a dramatic shift to decrease overall numbers of permanent residents. And for the first time, last year, we actually had temporary residents and targets for temporary residents included in the levels plan, which was new, and that was largely because of pressure from various groups to to account for what's going on with all of our visitors and our students and our workers and people who are here temporarily. Because that really matters. When we look at overall numbers.
Mark Holthe 5:40
You bet. And if we look at this here, like just so people can see who are watching the our podcast here on the YouTube channel, the reality is, this is last year's numbers, and they were really hard for us. They were really hard for provinces in particular, because one of the things that they did was they drastically reduced the number of spots for the provinces in half. They had 110,000 the previous year planned for 2025 and then they made the decision, no, we're going to reduce it for in half. And then what they did was they took some of those and reallocated them back into two new categories, the federal economic priorities, which was really our category based draws, and then the in Canada focus, which was CEC. So this year flashing forward, and we'll get to this a little bit. Many people looked at this, at these levels plans, and they saw that now, if we go down to the permanent category, that there's just the federal high skill. So people thought, Oh no, what happened to our in Canada focus are the CEC is gone. And of course, that's not the case. The Federal high skilled is how it has, for at least quite a few years, been classified express entry. So that includes the Federal Skilled Worker, CEC, Federal Skilled Trade. So this is kind of the the world that we're in right now. And as we go through, you know, talking about this a little bit more, what I'd like to do Alicia is just highlight one most important thing with all of this is that although numbers have gone down, generally, there has been an increased emphasis and priority on economic immigration. Now no one can, you know, no one can. Can discount the fact that these are still dark times for people who are in Canada, just because the number of people that are temporary residents have risen so so drastically over the last few years that it's it's made it very difficult for people to transition where, in the past, if you came studied, got a good job, you were skilled worker, there were pathways, either the PNP or the federal program, that's just not the case right now. But with Notwithstanding that, they have increased the levels, I think, Alicia, to a large extent, to to numbers that we've never seen before in immigration for economic, economic PRs.
Alicia Backman-Beharry 7:56
Yeah, and this is so proportionally so Canada is trying to figure out what proportion of permanent residence do we want, coming through an economic pathway versus coming through the family class, which is the other big category of admissions. And then, of course, we have the refugee protected persons, and then unique cases like humanitarian and compassionate and other temporary public policies. So when we're looking at these big kind of bucket areas, the proportion has shifted over the years between economic and family. We used to have a little bit of a higher emphasis on family reunification. So these are family spousal sponsorships, sponsorships for parents of their children. That is slightly decreasing, so that the economic numbers can slightly increase. In terms of percentages, we're looking at almost 65% economic.
Mark Holthe 8:47
Yeah, if we look at the overall totals, so this year, 239,800 we compare that to last year's numbers, which were 232 150, so you can see we do. We have had a little bit of an increase if we focus on the thing that most of our viewers and listeners are attentive to is the overall economic priorities. And in Canada, focus these combined, essentially our Express Entry numbers you can see here combined for last year, there was about 100 and what do we have here? About 123,000 right around there. And this year, if we look at the overall numbers for the Federal high scale, actually, let me just adjust this. Yeah. So if we combine these about 123 and then this year, it's about 109 overall. So, so if we look at the federal high skilled and how it's changed. They have, they have given some of those back to the provinces, essentially. So the numbers are still there. And if we go down to the provinces, you can see it's now gone up to 91,500, which we'll get to in a little bit as we talk a little bit more about that. Okay. Now. Three on our list is a fairly massive reduction in new temporary residents. So last year, once again, we'll take a look at our comparison here. Alicia. So last year with our temporary residents, they had talked about for 2000 we'll focus on 2026 which is what the projections are for the overall arrivals. They were shooting for 516,600 if we look at what they're projecting this year for 2026 overall arrivals. And remember, these are new ones, new people coming in 385,000 so that's a pretty sizable jump from 516 to 385
Alicia Backman-Beharry 10:42
Yeah. Jump downwards.
Mark Holthe 10:43
Downwards. Yes, a drop. Yeah, exactly. And so what are they thinking about here? Alicia, like, what are they what are they trying to address? What are they getting at?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 10:52
Yeah. And so we heard a big change in terminology, starting last year. There was a pushback from, you know, various groups to say, well, we're worried about temporary foreign workers and students, affecting housing in Canada, affecting services. So health care services, other social services in Canada, and for the first time, there was a bit of a backlash about there's too many temporary residents in Canada that are straining Canada's resources, and so the Liberal government did a big about face when they came out with the levels plan last year, when they first talked about introducing levels plans for temporary residents, and they said, Okay, we're going to get our temporary residents down to about 5% of our population. And so in order to do that, they really needed to change course. Minister Mark Miller, at the time was really he had to, he had to be the bad guy on this. He had to take a lot of the fall to really change course. They've really tightened up pretty much all the avenues that people had when they're looking at temporary residence. So we know there's now provincial attestation letters for the schools, and we'll talk about students in a minute, but the admission of international students has dropped dramatically, which is probably going to affect a number of post secondary institutions, because historically, they have relied on a lot of their operating budget coming from the large international tuition fees that they've been getting from foreign students, and they're really being deprived of that revenue stream. And so it's going to change things,
Mark Holthe 12:35
indeed. And if we flip back to the annex that was first released, the little pre release. There's a little bit of preamble here that talks about that, Alicia, so you can they talk about how we've been a welcoming country, and, you know, we've done a lot to try to standardize the system and and there's but it's becoming more complex. It's been harder to manage. And then they talk about the numbers. So in 2018 3.3% of Canada's population was a temporary residence, but by 2024 that number had had more than doubled to 7.5% and then they talk about the unprecedented rate of growth that put pressure on housing, the healthcare system, in schools, and so, you know, they're acknowledging this is one of the drivers in making some of the decisions that they're making right now. And you know, ultimately, Alicia, I guess only time will tell how this plays out. But boy, it's really tough when we're doing our consultations with people who have devoted so much time, they've made so many sacrifices to be here and now there just may not be room for them, and it's hard. All right, another development which we hinted at before and which is very positive, is for the PNPs. So you know, when I think back to the trend and the trajectory of provincial nominees that were coming at least, has been happening over the last five years, there's been a steady increase. So with the increased numbers of individuals moving out of BC and Ontario, going to provinces like Manitoba, Saskatchewan, you know, the Maritimes, even Alberta, we're now in a state now where the the demand for those PNP spots is, oh, is just far, far outstripping the supply and programs have had to be created on the fly, like in Alberta, where they were experimenting with first, a first, you know, a race to file kind of system, which didn't work so well, and then most of them have now fallen suit with what British Columbia and Ontario has been doing for years, which is more of an expression of interest system. So as we look at what's happened to the provinces, everybody was just expecting each year that it would go up and up. And then, after the changes that occurred in late 2024 the federal government says, Well, wait a minute. No, we're slowing this down. And. Was all a part of a grander plan. And generally speaking, the provinces take up a lot of those lower wage, lower skill applicants who are coming through, so that you know when you're not scoring high enough with the express entry, with your comprehensive ranking system score, then the province has often had programs that you could go through. So for example, if you're a little bit older and you lost a lot of age points, the there was usually opportunities to then go through provinces. But that just wasn't the case last year, and so provinces had already expected getting the same numbers they had before, and then all of a sudden, it was slashed in half. And by and large, the provinces had already started with taking people in at least accepting applications, expecting that the numbers would be higher in 2025 and they just weren't. So now we're in a situation where some provinces, last year completely suspended the vast majority of their of their programs, except the essential ones, like health care, just because there wasn't room.
Alicia Backman-Beharry 15:57
Yeah, and it's interesting mark, because I think this does dovetail with what's going on with the study permits as well, because we know that because there were so many temporary students and workers and visitors in 2024 the government couldn't really pull very many levers. So they decided, okay, well, we're going to institute these provincial attestation letters. We're going to make each province decide how to allocate those amongst the post secondary institutions, and it's going to really reduce the number of students. And then that also affects the PNP programs. And then, of course, we know there was some issues between the provinces and the federal government with respect to refugee processing, and that might have been one of the reasons why they reduced those PNP allocations as well. But fast forward to now, and so going forward in the future, we still have that huge reduction in students. So we do know that the students are international. New students are going to be smaller than they had been projected for last year. So it's going to be even smaller. But we do have a little bit of good news in that the PNP is from that 55,000 and like 55,000 for all provincial all of Canada, all across like we're not talking about Ontario, we're talking about all provinces. So now we're back up to that range in terms of almost 9291 five. And I guess the other good thing to mention is that keep in mind, these are targets, and so it does have a high range, low range for each of the categories. We know that that PNP number could bounce around anywhere between 82,000 on the low end to 105 on the higher end. And one of the interesting things I'm noticing, and I'm sure you are too, is that some provinces towards the tail end of 2025, you know, they did get a few more allocations, and that might be because finally, now the government's looking back and they're saying, Well, we do have a little bit of room when we look at the ranges, because there's some attrition. Sometimes the provinces will give a nomination and people will fall out of status because they simply can't get their employer to do an LMIA, or they're not able to continue working or, you know, maybe there was something that they claimed incorrectly in their points analysis. I'm seeing a lot of a lot of scrutiny from various PNPs right now, going back and saying, Hey, you claim these points for education, but it's not your highest level of education. And so I see a lot of instances where some people are dealing with nominations that are being revoked, or the government, just provincial government refuses to go ahead and give them a nomination, so there might be extra nomination allocation spots.
Mark Holthe 18:34
Yeah, and just to kind of give a little visual for those who are watching, you can see we did have 55 was the original number. And then they, you know, they have the possibility of increasing it to 65 so we take a province like Alberta here, where originally their number dropped from, I think, was 9750 down to 4875 well, just recently, they gave them a little bit more of a boost, another 17 128 for Alberta. So you look at the number of provinces, and I don't know if every province has got a little bit of a boost, but that has definitely helped Alberta, where many of the programs were basically stalled out. And so then this used to be 2000 some, so they added some to Alberta opportunity stream. And all of the provinces are, you know, to a large extent, did get a little bit of a kickback. So we'll see how this, you know, how this unfolds. But if you look and Alberta, I use it as an example, because it's really a demonstration of what's happening nationally. If we look at the the we go to the expression of interest information you can see here, overall, we have totals of 49,203 and it's interesting, Alicia, because these totals, just, I would say, last month, had actually climbed over 60,000 and it's not that they processed all of these, but what what is happening Alicia here, what do you think is causing the drop in numbers here?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 20:01
Yeah, I think part of it is people are realizing that they're not actually eligible for the points that they think that they're claiming. I think now that Alberta got a little bit of an uplift in terms of their nomination allocations, I've seen a lot of people who've come to me for consults saying, oh, you know, my profile was stalled out for six months a year, and right away they're going, I just had somebody I helped submit their application after their notification of interest, and they just got a nomination like instantly. So Alberta is really moving and processing these, but they're also weeding people out who have incorrectly claimed points, or they're looking at employers when they've got job offers of support that they've claimed in their work or EOI, and they are scrutinizing, is that employer at the business address that they said they're at? Do they have an active registration with their corporate registries? Have they failed to file annual returns? Is it a zoned for commercial premises rather than residential premises. There's all sorts of things. You've got to be really careful if you're claiming these points, because the risk is the provinces can say you've misrepresented if you haven't properly claimed your points.
Mark Holthe 21:11
Yeah, absolutely. And on that note, excuse me, on that note, we look at Ontario here the most recent notification that they had about two weeks ago, the recent update, it was all about trying to deal with the fraud and things like that. And so they're instituting changes that will allow them to basically return applications or make decisions to return before a nomination is issued based on a number of different factors and grounds. And so they're all looking to tighten up. And one other thing I'll add for Alberta. Alberta is really big on people maintaining their work status. So they, you know, they don't recognize maintain status. So individuals whose work permits are expiring, which our federal government is really restricting the ability of people to extend their work permits, this is also having effect on the individuals that are eligible, because if you don't have a valid work permit and it's expiring, well, you're no longer eligible to participate in the expression of interest system in Alberta and other provinces are to some extent like that as well. All right, so it's overall. It's positive news for the Provincial Nominee programs, and we'll see, hopefully, there will be more nominations issued. Those of you who have been waiting that are right on the cusp, you know that you're really close. You know you're probably going to have a greater opportunity now in this year, as long as you can maintain your work permit. Okay, next on our list is the h 1b. Are back on the table. So I'll touch on this just a little bit. So number of years back, we the government decided they were going to do an H 1b open work permit for H 1b holders in the US who 10,000 work permits they offered. It was a race to file system. It was a crazy, crazy I remember 3am in the morning. I think we got up to help some of our clients. And as a firm, when we have these race to files you know, each of us only assist one client. We don't do more, because the reality is, by the time you get one done, the quota is full, and you're basically prejudicing someone if you take more than one client. So that's a little point. If there's ever a race to file, you guys and a firm is you're hiring a firm to help you or a lawyer or consultant or whatever. Make sure that you're number one on that list, and if you're number two, don't retain them. You're better off filing your own because the system feels so quickly so H, 1b, our Prime Minister's indicated that they're looking to try to bring in the best and brightest and all of these things. And understand, don't shoot the messenger. Alicia and I are here just telling you what's happening, whether or not the decisions are best for Canada or those who are in Canada. Well, we leave that up to our government, and then you guys can all express your views on it. But the reality is, they're they're looking, once again, at each one bees, and part of it is being driven by the relative animus that the current government in the US has towards skilled workers. In fact, we know that recently, they've indicated they're going to increase the processing fee to over 1000 Well, $1,000 US, 100,000 $100,000 US for a new H, 1b and so this now is resulting in Canada saying, hey, if the US doesn't want you we do. And more details on this will follow. What do we know about this? Alicia,
Alicia Backman-Beharry 24:26
very little. So there's nothing specifically in the supplement on this. This was just released as part of a news article when the budget was getting released. So they have given very little details in what they mean when they talk about this one time Initiative, or some sort of special measure for H 1b and again, we don't know whether that means people who are currently in the US and have H 1b in the US, or whether they're referring to people who had an H 1b in the US came through the Canada open work permit for H 1b holders. And are currently in Canada, hopefully employed, but will it remains to be seen whether this is going to be specifically targeting those H 1b holders in the US who took advantage of that Canadian program and have been working or living, or at least got a valid work permit in Canada, under the open work permit,
Mark Holthe 25:20
and these H 1b visa holders in Canada, some of them may not have gotten the full three years, so they've also extended the deadline once again, for H 1b holders who decide Okay, coming to Canada now, and a border officer issues it for, you know, a month the work permit because they feel it's supposed to expire in three years. Well, they got it approved almost three years ago. If you're an H 1b holder, open work permit holder who has not yet landed in Canada, you have to watch very carefully make sure your visa hasn't expired, because you're going to be pretty close now to it expiring. But those that are in Canada who maybe received a shorter duration, maybe their passports were expiring earlier, they have them until the end of next year to extend, to recapture the full original three years that they're entitled. So you're right. Alicia, maybe these work permit holders could be the ones that they're targeting. Maybe they are actually looking at trying to bring new people in as well. But only time will tell. And if we go to our levels plans, there's no mention of it, like you said, of this, of this, H, 1b, okay, let's shift to our next topic, which is the TR to PR 2.0 so this is the statement that they have announced about doing something to expedite for 33,000 individuals. And I think that's something that maybe we should have put, you know, the 33,000 up here than the tier two PR 2.0 but back in 2021 during the just right in the midst of the pandemic, the government was struggling to hit their levels plans, and so they made the decision that they're going to try to land more people who were in Canada. And in recognition of those essential workers, and primarily essential workers who had been on the front lines, serving, helping during the pandemic, putting themselves at risk, all those kinds of things. They wanted to give back in a way, so they created, I think it was about, I can't remember how many, 30,000 maybe for essential workers. It's all kind of a blur. And then 20 French and then 40 international student. I can't remember, but at any rate, in order to help hit the levels plans, they created a separate TR to PR program, which was quite fun for me. I created a course, and I think at that time, Alicia, I don't think there was anyone else in the country, other than the government themselves, that knew more about the program than I do, serving as the national chair. And it was a it was a really fun time, because I'd learned something, and then I'd share it with our section, and then go live and and share it with the with the rest of the country, because those who were prepared got in, and they got in fast. You know, within a week or two weeks, they were permanent residents, if they were the first ones to get filed, and then other people who are a little bit later. And when we're talking about early or late, we're talking like, some filed at 10am some didn't get it in until noon. Like two hours later. Hours the different? Yeah, two hours difference. It could have meant two years difference in processing. So we'll see how that happens. See what happens. You know, we're not sure if the 33 if the 33,000 right here that they reference, and I'll just bring it up. It says the government will also accelerate the transition. Transition. What does that mean? It means that a worker to permanent residence of up to 33,000 to permanent residency in 2026 and 2027 so next year, this initiative will target workers, and this is key. Who have established strong roots in can in their communities. Well, what is strong roots in their community? Mean, usually it means you've been there for more than a year. So I think these are individuals that have been living in these communities for multiple years, are paying taxes. So you so and when they say paying taxes, I can't help think Alicia as well, that somehow your your income levels are going to be triggered. Because technically, speaking, if you are in a low wage, well, a lower wage threshold where you haven't hit the what you know, the tax threshold, maybe that's not paying taxes, I don't know. Maybe it's ones you know. Because if every all of your taxes are being refunded, well maybe that's not it, I don't know, and then are helping to build the strong economy Canada needs, which also in that can be that's pretty broad. So this paragraph right here, yeah, so we'll have to see how that plays out. But it's going to be very, very interesting. Are they going to do another TR to PR program, or are they simply going to use the system that's in place, which is express entry and use more category specific draws? So what's your takeaway from this one? Alicia, and if we jump all the way down to the last one, it's going to be, you know how to plan for the future. How do you plan for this?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 29:59
Yeah, and this is one that we emphasize during the TR to PR program. It's one that we emphasize whenever there's uncertainty, is make sure all your ducks are in a row. So make sure that you have a valid education credential assessment. Make sure that your language tests are still valid. If they're starting to get close to that expiry date at the two year mark, go take a new one before that first one expires, because you don't want to have your Express Entry profile be kicked out of the pool for being ineligible. So make sure that all the things for you and your family members, accompanying family members as well, and sometimes even unaccompanied family members, make sure that everybody has their documents so that your profiles are valid they can stay in the pool as long as possible. And if there's a rush, because there might now be a rush on getting your education credentials, getting the language test, getting biometrics, sometimes, getting medical appointments. So have everything ready so that if there is something fantastic that falls from the sky right into your lap, you can capitalize on that.
Mark Holthe 30:58
Yeah, that's exactly right, Alicia. And when I look at the tier to peer pathway, this is the little course that we created. Well, not little, it was actually we whipped this around pretty quick. But ultimately, all of these things, including the document section that we have here, separate videos for every document to make sure that you're ready. One of the areas that was the most problematic for people was their their language tests. Because ultimately, when we when the program was announced, some people could have been eligible, but they didn't have valid language tests, and then all the spots for taking the test filled up, and people just couldn't get their language test in time. So that was a natural kind of choke point for the total number of people that were applying. And so that's we created the TR to PR pathway, because I took one client, you know, we each took one but I was able to assist over 500 people to go through. And it was so, so exciting, like the energy, just the excitement of this. There are different times now, but to know that there's a 33,000 that are going to be coming, it could be something like this, you know. And that's part of the reason as well, Alicia that we created the Express Entry. Course, I've got so many different variations. Of it because we are constantly revising it. And there's going to be a 2026 one that's going to be released that I'm working on right now. Ultimately, the 2024 one is 100% valuable, and anyone who subscribes to it now will get access to the new 2026 but ultimately, it's more just kind of nuance. And you know more, you know there's a little bit of strategy involved with with these programs, but the master classes that are associated with these, these courses, it's all designed for us to be able to help more people all at once. And we have a lot of people that are di wires, the ones that are listening to the podcast right now. So these are the, these are the interesting things that are happening, and we're not quite done with that either. Let's see what else we have on the list. We can't go forward without talking about the golden age of francophone immigration. It's not changing, is it? Alicia,
Alicia Backman-Beharry 32:52
no, no, and so Mark, we've been saying for years that people should learn French, and we continue to say that and amplify that message, because, because we know from the current levels plan, the one that was just released, looking forward for the next three years, they actually want to increase the proportion of francophones outside of the province of Quebec to 12% of our population. And so those figures, those proportions, are just going to go up every year, as far as we can see, which means most of these Francophone applicants. And so the one thing that is a little bit interesting, if you look back in the 2025 levels plan, is it's kind of like your report card in terms of how the government did on their 2024 admissions. And you can see, if you look through there, Francophone was huge. And they actually break down the number of francophone applicants in terms of gender, in terms of type of program, and most of them are coming through economic programs.
Mark Holthe 33:53
Yeah, absolutely. And just up until this last 6000 draw, so we're probably at about 35,500 around there, total individuals, just with the category based Francophone draws. Well, we know at this stage that those totals make up. Let me just jump back here. Oh, I think I pulled up the wrong one here. This totals make up almost. I'd say now maybe 43 44% of the total invitations to apply are people that have an NCLC level seven in Francophone like their French level abilities. It also doesn't count the fact that with the category based draws, all these bonus points people could be getting through other category based draws. If we go back here some of these other programs that we have, you can see the like CEC, for instance, of these, 19,350 a large portion of these could be, could be Francophone as well. So French has really dominated the world to say, to say, at least, and it's not likely going to change in the future. Like you said, it's only going to increase. So learn French and then just one. Little throw away as we not a throw away but one last little piece to emphasize, if you're an HNC applicant or refugee applicant, you've taken a fairly major hit. And Alicia, do you want to just address that quickly as I pull up the last I'm actually going to increase this size a little bit so we can see a little bit better the the reality for refugees and an agency,
Alicia Backman-Beharry 35:24
yeah, okay, so all of this is pretty bleak, with the exception of in the levels plan, they do say under the one time initiatives to recalibrate the immigration system. A little bit further up in the introductory paragraphs, they are saying that there is going to be the transition of 115,000 protected persons in Canada who are already right there in that first paragraph. So people who are already protected people in Canada, and they're on a pathway to PR that is going to be finalized, and those people will get their status in the next couple of years, because they really want to get that big group processed. So that's good news. Everything else is bad news. So when we look down at the number of humanitarian and compassionate cases, there have been a number of news articles recently about the processing times. And so we have seen that processing times for agency applications are upwards of 10 years. So if you look at the processing times in the IRCC web page, you can find giant processing times. Sometimes it was saying that it was up to 50 years. It depends on when you submitted the application. So they ask you, have you already applied? If you've not applied, processing times are more, more than 10 years, because we have 1000s and 1000s of applicants waiting to get their claims heard, and it's not just the principal applicant. Most of these people have family members, multiple family members, and IRCC is in a really difficult position, because the whole reason we have section 25 humanitarian and compassionate, is that we need to have discretion under the Act officers ought to have the ability to say, look, this person or this group of people, they just don't fit within these strict categories. But there is something so compelling about their case that it just makes our heart sick, and we want to reach out and help them. And there are a number of factors best interest the child, how long they've been established, whether they need something, whether there's potential harm that could come to them if they go back to their their country of origin. There's a number of things officers can consider, but I think a couple of things are happening, one of which is that everybody is just throwing in an HNC application as a last ditch effort. And this is terrible. This is an awful plan. It's messing up the system, and it's an abusive of the process, which means also that the people who really, really have a terrible case where they've seen family members slaughtered, they're at risk for their lives because they're being human trafficked. Those people are in the same processing queue as people who just decide, oh, let's just file it, just in case, the government's in a tough spot trying to deal with this huge backlog of agency applicants. And that processing number for how many we will actually land for 2026 has gone down almost to nothing,
Mark Holthe 38:23
yeah, and if we look here, this is for last year's projections. If we look for 2026 well, even 2025 this is, this is last year you can see for for agencies. It was 10,000 for for 2025 and then 6900 planned. And then 4300 well, they just said, Okay, we got to make some changes. And they just dropped it to 1100 1000 and 1000 so there you have it. You guys, this is, these are interesting times. You know, within our firm, we are constantly helping people to strategize, understand, what can we do? You know, sometimes we tell people, Look, it is in your best interest to return home right now, because staying isn't going to help your cause any now, you may, by going home, actually have better opportunities for permanent residence, which we've talked about before. You may then have opportunities to return when the work situation improves. But the government is very, very serious. They're not retracting on their intention to have a million plus people leave the country in the next couple years, and so your job is to do everything that you can to to follow the rules like you. We know so many of you are doing and if there's anything that we can help, we're here to help you. All right, we'll wrap it up for today. Thanks so much, Alicia, and thanks all of you. We'll see you again on another Canadian immigration podcast episode.
Speaker 1 39:47
Thank you for listening to the Canadian immigration podcast. Your trusted source for information on Canadian immigration law, policy and practice. If you would like to book a legal consultation, please visit. Www.holthelaw.com you can also find lots more helpful information on our Canadian immigration Institute YouTube channel, where you can join mark on one of his many Canadian immigration live Q and As See you soon, and all the best as you navigate this crazy world we call Canadian immigration. You.
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