While many were excited by the Government's recent announcement of over 27,000 people in Canada invited to apply for permanent residence through the Express Entry program, many us were concerned. Not with the decision, but rather with how is Canada going to process so many applications given the current challenges that are often the focus on Pandemic blame.
Well help is on the way, at least to the overall challenge of dealing with the accumulated volume. Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced today that the expansion of the Case Processing Centre in Sydney, Nova Scotia. In an effort to reduce the current backlog created by the Pandemic. IRCC will add capacity with the addition of new office space and the hiring of 62 new employees.
The new space and additional staff will be primarily dedicated to family class overseas applications. These added resources will help IRCC process more applications and shorten processing times that have been extended during the pandemic.
Due to restrictions related to COVID-19, the Case Processing Centre in Sydney is currently limited to only 30% occupancy. The opening of the new office space will significantly increase this capacity and will allow more employees who are currently working remotely to return to the office.