Alberta improving economic immigration process

Above: Ese Ejebe of Catholic Social Services shows Minister Gray photos of clients who have benefited from Catholic Social Services Immigration and Settlement Services programs.

by Morinville News Staff

The government is consolidating the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP) streams and categories under a single stream with one set of standardized eligibility criteria. The move will make AINP simpler for applicants, more efficient for government and more responsive to Alberta’s emerging labour-market demands, the government said Friday.

“Immigrants are a valued part of our workforce and communities. Helping them settle successfully is crucial to the ongoing prosperity of our province,” said Christina Gray, Minister of Labour. “These changes will simplify processes, reduce wait times and make it more fair for applicants across all sectors to apply for permanent residency in Alberta.”

Alberta’s AINP differs from the federal Temporary Foreign Worker program in that it does not bring foreign workers to Alberta. Rather, it allows foreign workers already here to apply for permanent residency if they are working in occupations where the employer can demonstrate that no Albertan or Canadian is available.

Beginning in 2018, the AINP will have the ability to place yearly caps on the number of applications accepted and nominations issued for certain sectors and occupations, ensuring equitable distribution of workers and fairness across all sectors and industries in Alberta.

Alberta will add an Express Entry Stream allowing the AINP to select candidates from the federal Express Entry pool. This will be operational in January 2018.

Alberta Labour is projecting labour shortages in several sectors and occupations, including a shortage of 5,434 nurse supervisors and registered nurses by 2025, a shortage of 2,322 medical technologists and technicians by 2025, and a shortage of 1,426 computer and information systems professionals by 2025.

Additionally shortages in managers in construction and transportation, sales and service supervisors, number more than 1000 shortages by 2025.

The application form for the Alberta Opportunity Stream will be available on the AINP website starting Jan. 2, 2018.

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