Immigration Central: Canada announces faster temporary resident visas for spousal applicants; 4 new English language tests approved for Student Direct Stream

Representational image. (Photo: Hermes Rivera via Unsplash)

Canada has announced new measures to strengthen family reunification, with ease of spousal temporary residence visa being the highlight of the revised rules. According to Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, this is a step forward to strengthen family reunification by facilitating temporary resident status (TRV) to spouses, partners and dependent children waiting for permanent residence.

What is a TRV?

A TRV is an official counterfoil document issued by a visa office that is placed in a person’s passport to show that they have met the requirements for admission to Canada as a temporary resident.

Holding a TRV does not guarantee entry to Canada. The admission of foreign nationals into Canada as temporary residents is a privilege, not a right, as stated on the official website of the Canadian government.

If a foreign national meets the requirements of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) and is admissible, an immigration officer may issue a TRV. The expiry date of a TRV is the date by which the visa must be used to arrive at the port of entry (POE) and seek admission to Canada. The expiry date is not the suggested duration of the visit.

The latest measures announced include:

• faster temporary resident visa (TRV) processing times for spousal applicants
• new and dedicated processing tools for spousal TRV applicants
• a new open work permit for spousal and family class applicants
• spousal applicants, along with other open work permit holders, whose open work permits expire between August 1 and the end of 2023, will be able to extend their work permits for an additional 18 months. A similar option was recently offered to many with expiring post-graduation work permits
• most of these applications will be processed within 30 days, and applicants will benefit from processing measures specific to their circumstances as spouses and dependants (the current average processing time is 90 days) spouses, partners and dependants are now able to apply for and receive an open work permit as soon as they submit a complete permanent residence application under the spouse or common-law partner in Canada class (SPCLC) or other family class programmes.

IRCC has just announced that it will accept language test results from four new tests for Student Direct Stream (SDS) applicants. All test results must demonstrate abilities in speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

Prior to this change, IELTS General and IELTS Academic were the only tests approved by IRCC for SDS applicants.

IRCC will begin to accept test results from these four new tests effective August 10, 2023.

The newly eligible tests are:

CELPIP General
CAEL
PTE Academic
TOEFL iBT Test
CELPIP general tests must show a score that is equivalent to Canadian Language Benchmark of at least 7 in each of the four language speaking abilities. CAEL and Pearson PTE Academic test results must show a minimum score of 60.

Educational Testing Service (ETS) TOEFL iBT Test need a minimum score of 83.

Students must take these tests in-person. Online, remotely proctored tests will not be accepted for applicants in the SDS.

What is SDS? Student Direct Stream (SDS) program was launched by IRCC to hasten the visa process. SDS enables applicants to receive their visas within 4-6 weeks. Also, if an eligible student applies through SDS, most likely the application will be completed within 20 days from the date of submission.

What is Non-SDS? Non-SDS is the general visa process for studying, working, and living in Canada. Non-SDS or the general process is a lengthy process and requires more documentation than SDS.

Why SDS is better than non-SDS?
Faster processing times: Study permit applications usually processed in just four weeks, compared to the regular processing time of several months for non-SDS applicants.
Eligibility: Only students from certain countries, including India, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Senegal, are eligible for the SDS program.Online process: SDS can only be applied online while non-SDS is also available offline and is a lengthy process.

1,169 more Indians acquired Canadian Citizenship in first quarter of 2023: The number of new Canadian citizens in the first quarter of 2023 was 84,720, according to the latest data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). Canada witnessed a dip in citizenship numbers from several source countries and the gains with 1,169 more Indians and 1,196 additional Nigerians becoming citizens in the first quarter of this year compared to the same quarter last year were not enough to offset the drops in citizenship from other source countries.

The Canadian government has set a target of 465,000 permanent residents in 2023, 485,000 in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025. In 2022, 375,355 immigrants became Canadian citizens, much more than the 137,119 in 2021.
Immigration accounts for almost 100% of Canada’s labour force growth, and, by 2032, its projected to account for 100% of Canada’s population growth. During the 2021 Census, nearly 1 in 4 people counted were or had been a landed immigrant or permanent resident in Canada, the highest proportion since Confederation and the largest proportion among G7 countries.

It may be noted that in 2022, IRCC set an all-time record in the processing of Canada visa - close to 5 million (4.8 million) applications for Canada visas were processed in 2022. Between April 2022 and November 2022, 251,000 new citizenship applications were approved, and new Canadian citizens were added to the Canadian population.

Canada issued more than 1,075,000 work permits and work permit extensions in 2022.