Canadian Immigration to revamp application processing for post-pandemic demand

An ‘urgent’ tender request posted to the government’s procurement website says:

“When travel restrictions begin to ease, a significant surge of applications and support requirements is anticipated, putting tremendous demand on our global operations and supporting branches. IRCC needs to act quickly to develop (i) updated and new strategies, and (ii) processes and digital systems to cope with the rapid change it is undergoing.”

In April 2020, government figures show that Canada recorded only 4,140 permanent resident admissions. In February 2020 this number was 25,930 - that is a 84 percent decline in permanent resident admissions. The Canadian government is currently working on revamping how Canada processes immigration applications. This system overhaul comes as a result of anticipated high demand for migration to Canada after the COVID-19 pandemic.Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) says they are looking to adapt to a ‘new normal’ which means considering a range of updates to aging computer systems, paper applications and in person interviews.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions put in place by the Cnadian government - only candidates with permanent residence applications approved before March 18 allowed to travel and enter Canada.

IRCC’s plan to develop new strategies, processes, and digital systems to enable more efficient processing of immigration applications will better allow the country to welcome the set quota of over one million immigrants in the coming three years.