The federal government recently announced the addition of a number of occupations to the priority list, allowing for expedited foreign credential assessment.
After immigrating to Canada, many new Canadians find that they are unable to immediately seek out job opportunities in their chosen profession due to their foreign credentials not translating to Canada. This foreign credential assessment and equivalence process can often result in new Canadians working in occupations below their skill level while waiting for their credentials to be reviewed, which can be a lengthy process.
Employment and Social Development Minister Jason Kenney and Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander recently announced efforts to streamline this credential recognition process for individuals in particular occupations.
A “priority list” of 14 occupations including engineers and dentists was already in existence prior to the announcement, with 10 new occupations being added to bring the list to a total of 24. Individuals in occupations on the priority list can expect to see their foreign credential assessments fast tracked and processed within one year.
Many skilled trades are among the new additions to the list, including welders, carpenters, and electricians. Geo-scientists, lawyers, heavy-duty equipment technicians, heavy equipment operators, audiologists and speech language pathologists, midwives, and psychologists round out the rest of the list of new priority occupations.
Faster foreign credential recognition should help new Canadians to obtain work in their chosen field faster and should enable Canadian employers to make use of the skilled workers that are already present in Canada instead of relying on the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program.
FWCanada is a Montreal-based immigration law firm that provides professional legal services on Canadian immigration. For more tips and updates on Canadian immigration follow FWCanada on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.
