By Ali Mokhtari
(read this article in Persian site)
Some suggestions to improve the Federal skilled worker selection system
Given the admirable decision made by Canadian Immigration Office to modify the federal skilled worker selection system, Canpars Immigration Services, INC. with cooperation of a team of experts and benefiting from experience gained by working on hundreds of immigration files, is going to give some suggestions in order to improve the system. These suggestions are based on three principles as follows:
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First, the changes which will finally lead to the selection of more useful and efficient labour force for Canadian labour market so that the main goal of the federal skilled worker program will be better fulfilled and the increasing needs of the Canadian labour market in the recent years will be focused on;
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Second, increasing attention to the adaptability of the applicants and their family members in order to facilitate the effective entrance of the immigrants to the Canadian community, and decrease the negative consequences of the crises of the first year of entrance and the government's problems;
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Third, accelerating the process of examining the files based on the conditions of the applicants;
Therefore, a set of suggestions has been developed in Canpars whose practical results can lead to increase of at least one (and mostly more than one) of the above goals. These suggestions are as follows:
About the language point
The decision to specify the minimum point required for the files to be accepted is admirable but not sufficient. In the current system, the same calculation method is applied for all kinds of professions, i.e. the immigration ministry has the same expectations from a skilled worker specialized in medicine as from a crane operator, but we know that this is not based on the realities of the labour market. For example, a doctor or a university professor needs to be proficient in writing, but a cook or a crane operator does not need that level of writing skill or their abilities to speak do not need to be as high as a financial consultant.
Suggestion 1: The required professions should be categorized into three (or four) language skill levels based on the realities of the labour market (i.e. the professions with high, medium, low requirements) and for each group, an independent ranking system should be determined in terms of language skill level. In this way, for example, a crane operator with an average of 6 in IELTS (and based on the subset of skills) may get the highest language point.
Since for each profession, usually some activities have already been done to evaluate the language skill level by educational or academic centers (for assessment process) and professional associations or regulatory bodies, it is not that difficult to specify these groups.
The conditions of the language exams
Another issue about language tests is related to the strict limitations posed on the number of acceptable tests. At the current moment, only two exams are accepted by the Immigration Office: IELTS and CELPIP and since CELPIP exam is not hold outside Canada, practically the number of accepted language exams is limited to just one: IELTS. This exam does not have a North American origin and is essentially designed to evaluate the language proficiency level in other countries. There are limited centers to give this exam in the countries like Iran and the applicants have to wait a long time to take it and this can cause a lot of anxiety and worry. Besides, it slows down the certificate reception system and disrupts it and is not fair either. Since today almost all reliable centers accept a wide range of standard language tests to evaluate the lingual skills and there are standard equivalence tables for the results, there is no reason for the continuation of this limitation. Even if the reason is that the focus of other tests is more on academic applications than general ones, we have an answer regarding this issue (the evaluation of the language skills of the applicants for immigration visas), as first of all, it seems unlikely that there is a significant difference between these two types of evaluation, and second, since academic tests are more difficult than general ones, anyone who has managed to get the pass mark in academic tests will definitely be able to get the pass mark in the general ones as well.
Suggestion 2: Accept the results of all valid and standard language exams as the required document for the language skill evaluation
About the spouse scores
The federal skilled worker system has had an individual viewpoint towards the applicants for immigration and this caused their family members not to try as hard to prepare for the new society. Here, the role of the spouse is important. The only thing that has been already paid attention to is the point related to the education of the spouse which is really great, however, we know that the language skills are more important. A spouse with high language skills can try to enter the labour market along with the main applicant, get familiar with the rules and regulations in Canada more rapidly, continue his/her studies in Canada and play a major role in the children’s education. Such a person is an effective companion for the main applicant and a supportive force for the Canadian immigration programs. And even if they get divorced due to the crises of the first years of immigration, such a person can stand on his/her own feet and will not need the government welfare.
Suggestion 3: Giving at most 5 extra points for the spouses who have a good command on one of the formal languages of Canada. This point can be for an IELTS of 6 or the equivalent.
About the children's score
There are numerous programs in Canada to encourage the couples to have children. Why is not there such incentive for the federal skilled worker program which is the biggest immigration program of Canada? The new pointing system is particularly aligned towards younger people, resulting in the decrease of the number of children accompanying the immigrants. So, this decrease needs to be compensated in some way. Accepting young immigrants with small children who will be educated in Canadian education system is like hitting two birds with one arrow; both saving the costs to encourage the couples to have children and a guarantee to have a young and productive population in the future.
Suggestion 4: Giving two extra points for having children under the age of 10; for at most two children.
About the university degree and education points
The current selection system is mainly based on academic background, but for many professions needed in Canada (such as cooks, industrial or construction electricians, crane operators, dental hygienists,…), passing short-term training courses are more important than having university degrees. It seems that there should be a clear division in this regard.
Suggestion 5: division of professions based on the importance of academic studies and training courses and giving separate points to these courses.
The importance of having close friends and relatives in Canada
In the current system, for the adaptability, only having a close relative has been considered very important, but having a friend with a 20-year friendship background or an ex-colleague who, at the current moment, is in a position that can be a job reference for the immigrant or teach him how to enter the specialized labour market is more important. Why should not the immigration system use these capacities? Having these friends has two more advantages:
First, immigration officers can examine the job background of the applicants and verify their claims using the forms which should be filled out and confirmed by their close friends;
Second, for security examinations, such references are more important, because they reside in Canada and it is possible to ask them more detailed questions, if needed.
Suggestion 6: Giving extra points for having a reference in Canada with a long-term familiarity background with the main applicant (more than 5 years). Number of these people can be at most 3 (one point for each). These people should not be members from the same family. They can be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada and they should fill out and sign special forms in order to be considered a reference.
The speed of the examination of files
The current selection system considers only the minimum required points and getting more points practically does not have any effects on the acceptance process. In this system, a person with a score of 68 is equally treated as a person with a score of 80, but getting 80 points means more adaptability on the part of the applicant with the conditions of the selection system and Canadian labour market. However, being prepared to enter the labour market is more important than the job. In other words, a skilled worker with 80 points who, for example, has managed to get 16 points out of 16 in language skills is more prepared to enter the labour market and more adaptable to the Canadian life than a person with 68 points in the same field, even if the latter has applied for immigration one year earlier. For this reason, now that Canada needs skilled workers more than anytime and every year the number of temporary job visas is increased, it is rational to spend a part of energy and cost of the selection system on preparing fast track for more qualified applicants. This suggestion supplements the previous one regarding giving extra points for spouses, children and references and as a result there will be a gap between those who get higher points and those who get the minimum required points.
Suggestion 7: Setting up a quicker parallel path for those who get at least 10 points more than the least acceptable score (67 points) (for those with at least 77 points), on the condition that they get at least two thirds of the highest score for language and job background.
Suggestion 8: Those applicants from previous years who satisfy the conditions of the suggestion 7 based on the new scoring system, can apply for using the fast track, on the condition that they prepare or renew the required documents as needed.