The last Express Entry draw for Immigration Refugees & Citizenship Canada (IRCC) under the Federal Skilled Worker category was on February 2, 2023. IRCC sent 3,300 invitations to apply, and the lowest cut-off score in this draw is 489.
A majority of community members holding Post Graduate Work Permits (PGWP) also spoke out. A majority of the PGWP community is making claims that the cut-off scores are way too high and are almost unachievable.
They further claim that the scores were high since there had been a high inflow of candidates, being a result of pauses in Express Entry draws that were said to be because of technical hitches and also the impacts of COVID-19 on delivery of IRCC’s services.
All these circumstances lead to a large number of PGWP holders experiencing difficulties during their transition to permanent residency, eventually running out of time on their work permits. The members of the Post Graduate Work Permit-holding community were seen protesting in different parts of Canada.
Recently, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, approximately 200 PGWP holders were protesting and imploring the Manitoba Government to remove the risk factor from the Manitoba PNP stream, which deducts 200 points from a candidate’s eligibility and thus pushes them behind in the race for securing a nomination from the Province of Manitoba. They, too, request the federal government to extend their post-graduate work permits like their other fellow students, whose status is due to expire in 2022.
On the other end of the country, those who immigrated to the federal government through Express Entry also demonstrated in Toronto. Protesters here were calling for the government to extend their post-graduate work permits and resume Express Entry draws in the Canadian Experience Class category.
Many said that desperation in the community of those holding a Post Graduate Work Permit is at an all-time high, and the uncertainty of their future is eating them alive.
In light of the above, I have therefore drafted this letter to the Minister of Immigration & Citizenship, the Honorable Sean Fraser, on behalf of the entire Post Graduate Work Permit community.
Please read the Open letter below.
Text version of the open letter for better viewability:
Feb 6, 2023
The Honourable Sean Fraser
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
Confederation Building, Suite 733
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
Email: sean.fraser@parl.gc.ca
Subject- URGENT: Request to Extend the PGWP for Candidates Expiring in 2023 & Conduct CEC Specific
Draws
Dear Minister Fraser We represent hardworking members of the Post Graduate Work Permit holding community across Canada, highly skilled and representing a significant percentage of the workforce currently employed in Canada. We fulfill the needs of Canadian employers and businesses through various professions.
Among us are healthcare professionals, engineers, pest control technicians, food service supervisors/managers, and many other jobs that are key to making the Canadian economy recover and serve the needs of ordinary Canadians. Honourable Minister Fraser, these last couple of years have been difficult for all Canadians and for those who are here on a temporary basis due to the unprecedented challenges that we have all experienced because of COVID-19 and the resulting Global Supply Chain crisis.
Canadians and all temporary residents across many nationalities did a phenomenal job in sticking together to put us on the right track to a strong economic recovery under your government’s leadership. I congratulate your leadership and achievements in the immigration sector and for majorly reducing backlogs and reaching record numbers of permanent residents in the year 2022.
I also commend the numerous policies you rolled out in 2022 to address critical labor shortages across Canada; including allowing international students to work beyond part-time hours to ensure they can survive in these hard times when the cost of living has skyrocketed. Also, your action in granting an 18-month extension to PGWP holders of a status expiring before December 31, 2022, allowed them an increased opportunity to acquire more valuable Canadian work experience while helping Canadian businesses meet labor demands and shortages, among others.
This letter, therefore, wishes to address your attention to the tens of thousands of temporary workers in Canada whose work permit was not extended for the same amount and time as their peers in 2022. Those are the PGWP holders with work permits expiring in 2023. We have worked extremely hard and have helped a plethora of Canadian businesses survive in the direst of times. As you are aware, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine have impacted the delivery of services by IRCC.
I commend your leadership in addressing these backlogs and would like to congratulate you on your achievements thus far. However, through these chain of events, the PGWP holder community was one of those that was seriously affected and their view of being able to graduate into permanent resident status disappeared because of the high number of applicants in the Express Entry system as a result of applicant accumulation over the time during which draws have been on pause.
For many of us, getting an invitation to apply for permanent residency through Express Entry is the place where life-changing experiences begin. It’s extremely important and time-bound. Since we get only a limited amount of time on our PGWP without extension, these pauses have a huge effect on a PGWP holder’s ability to transition to be permanent residents and to achieve our Canadian dream, all the while to give back to this amazing country. We kindly do the needful to investigate this issue and provide us with some resolution.
We have suffered mentally and emotionally from the unprecedented times everyone went through. and have worked hard to make sure that different services that are important stay open during the times of need.
I believe in your leadership and I trust that you will give us all a chance to succeed in this country most of us now consider home. Here are some of our recommendations we think would be useful in solving our issue:
- Provide a PGWP Extension similar to that of 2021 and 2022, to afford us more time to gain valuable Canadian work experience and increase our time to be eligible to transition to Permanent Residency.
- Conduct separate Canadian Experience Class draws to prioritize the inland candidates who have Contributed to the growth of Canada and helped fill shortages in labor when it was needed.
- Create new streams for international students to obtain permanent residency. We We have invested life savings, hard work, and sweat to grow this beautiful country.
- It would be beneficial as well if the PGWP were renewable, based on a permanent job offer in Canada (without the need of a LMIA). This would significantly reduce How the rampant black market for LMIAs in Canada abuses the integrity of the system Present in cases wherein the design aims to provide an easier way for businesses to hire foreign workers.
I am hopeful that you will find our offers to be suitable so that we are able to continue contributing to the Canadian economy, secure our future in this nation, and allow us to gain permanent status to put an end to all our Worrying about what tomorrow holds for us. Regards,
Yogesh Tulani
PGWP Community Member in Canada
