EXPERT INSIGHT 66 WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | APR 2022 About Maria Campos Maria Campos is a lawyer in Vancouver, BC who has practised immigration law since 2012. Maria first visited Canada in 2005 on an academic exchange program to the University of British Columbia before returning to Mexico, where she finished her bachelor’s degree in Law, a master’s degree in Corporate Law and other studies in Europe over a year. After this she immigrated to Canada as a temporary worker under a Working Holiday Visa – and then permanently under the Federal Skilled Worker Program. Maria became a Canadian lawyer as well and founded Invicta Law Corporation in 2018. Invicta Law strives to provide the best quality advice on Canadian immigration law for businesses and individuals by studying each case with detail and to ensure the Law is properly applied. Maria is an immigrant herself helping other immigrants to make Canada their home. Maria Campos Lawyer & Notary Public Invicta Law Corporation 88 W. Pender St, Suite 2081, Vancouver, BC V6B 6N9, Canada Tel: +1 604-674-7104 E: maria@invictalaw.ca www.invictalaw.ca the initial backlog created at the beginning of the pandemic. Right after his statement, IRCC started issuing temporary file numbers to most applicants in the backlog. It was noticeable how within a few days, I started receiving dozens of emails from IRCC, all regarding family class applications providing their temporary file numbers. Another obvious move was seen in the spring of 2021 when IRCC processed entire express entry applications within 3-4 months. Something that is definitely helping to reduce the backlog is the electronic landing system, which means applicants do not have to book appointments to perform their landing. They also do not risk missing their landing date deadline and are able to complete their process electronically. It has been suggested that express entry draws would not invite FSWP candidates or CEC candidates for the first half of 2022. In your opinion, what are the major pros and cons of this? A pro is that better candidates will submit their profiles for the next several draws once express entry resumes. Also, not issuing as many invitations helps reduce the backlog. But the major cons are that in-Canada applicants are now turning to provincial nominee programs which are starting to show a backlog as well, and some applicants are relying on invitations to continue remaining in Canada, which makes their futures uncertain. What is your opinion about the public policy permanent residency programs for international graduates and essential workers? Did these programs contribute to the backlog? The essential workers program was great, because not many of those people had options to become permanent residents. The areas also cover industries in high demand and the program provided certainty for those immigrants. The program for international students was good in substance as well, although badly planned. There are hundreds of thousands of international students in Canada and it was obvious that the program was going to fill up within hours, meaning that over 40,000 applications contributed to the backlog in one single day. Not to mention that many self-represented applicants rushed into submitting their applications without even understanding the basics, and while those applications have the right to be processed, their relatively poor quality puts an added burden on the system. How do you foresee these changes to immigration processing times impacting your firm? We have had to accommodate our cases remaining active for a longer period of time. Invicta Law is taking on new clients and addressing their immigration needs, but at the same time focusing on active files and addressing the statutory stages of the processing, replying to procedural fairness letters and ensuring clients keep their legal status at all times until they become permanent residents. It does not matter how much technology IRCC uses if they continue to expand on the number of applications taken into processing.
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