New Delhi: The students who have planned to stay a long time in Canada after finishing their studies, the government of Canada has come up with good news for them as the authority has decided to extend the work permit of international students.
International students, whose permits expired or will expire between September 20th, 2021, and December 31, 2022, will be able to avail the new extension. These students will receive an additional open work permit of 18 months.
Canada has announced that it will extend post-graduate work permits for some international graduates.
Canada’s immigration minister Sean Fraser tweeted, “Tens of thousands of former international students will receive an additional open work permit of 18 months, giving them an opportunity to stay in Canada longer, and helping businesses find the workers they need while allowing us to continue to attract global talent,”
We're now extending post-graduate work permits to international graduates whose permits expired or will expire between September 20th, 2021 and December 31, 2022.
— Sean Fraser (@SeanFraserMP) June 24, 2022
The move is part of the government’s ongoing strategy to fill the country’s labor shortages, which grew during the pandemic.
According to the IRCC, international student enrollment fell by nearly 17 percent, from 638,960 in 2019 to 530,540 in 2020. Last year, Canada welcomed 450,000 new international students.
According to Global Affairs Canada, foreign students contributed almost $22 billion to the Canadian economy in 2018 and supported about 170,000 jobs in 2016.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) earlier this month said 55 percent of small businesses are experiencing labor shortages. And after recently surveying 1,200 entrepreneurs and 3,000 members of the working-age population, the Business Development Bank of Canada also found that more than a quarter of Canadian employers are having a hard time retaining their employees.
Among the hardest hit sectors are the trucking industry, which estimates a shortage of about 55,000 drivers by the end of 2023; the health care sector, which accounts for nearly one in five job vacancies in Canada; and the resurgent hospitality industry, which has 210,000 fewer employees now than it did in February 2020.
IRCC also announced that it has doubled the number of permanent residence decisions made in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.
(Vinayak)