 "Canada")
Canada has invited 500 healthcare workers to immigrate under its first occupation-specific draw, aiming to bring additional focus on sectors facing major labour shortages.
The draw, announced by Immigration Minister Sean Fraser on Wednesday, took the number of ITAs (Invitation to Apply) issued through its flagship Express Entry system in 2023 to 60,249, a press release by the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship said.
It was the first Express Entry draw pre-announced by Canada, and featured a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System score of 476, ten points lower than the 10th all-programme draw of 2023 on Tuesday, the press release said.
The new draws target candidates with strong French language ability, the press release said.
On Tuesday, Canada announced a new open work-permit stream to allow 10,000 H-1B visa holders in the US to come and work in the country, a move that could benefit thousands of Indian tech professionals.
Taking to Twitter to announce the draw, Fraser said, "We are bringing more health care workers to Canada! We've changed the approach to immigration by bringing an additional focus on certain sectors facing serious labour shortages."
"The first sector to benefit from this new process is healthcare," he tweeted.
Asserting that the draw will strengthen Canada's healthcare system, Fraser said it would "help provide more Canadians with the high-quality care they deserve."
The minister added that a further 1,500 ITAs would be issued to healthcare candidates next week.
"Today, 500 skilled healthcare workers will be invited to immigrate to Canada, and on July 5, we will invite 1500 more. This new programme is expected to double the number of healthcare workers coming to Canada through the federal Express Entry system this year," he said.
Last month, Canada announced it would start new occupation-based draws, targeting 82 occupations in five fields through its flagship Express Entry immigration selection system, and healthcare workers alone make up 35 of the 82 occupations targeted.
The five fields were healthcare; science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professions; trades, such as carpenters, plumbers and contractors; transport; and agriculture and agri-food, the Immigration Department said.
Express Entry is the most popular immigration system offering Canadian permanent residence, introduced by the federal government in January 2015 to replace the old first come, first served process.
It is not an immigration programme in itself, but is an online system created to manage Canada's immigration applications intake, the press release said.
According to the Department of Employment and Social Development, the number of occupations facing shortages in Canada doubled between 2019 and 2021.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
