The Government of Canada has announced that they are opening a new visa application processing center within its embassy in the Philippines. The new center will help strengthen application processing as Canada aims to increase immigration over the next few years.
The Immigration Minister Sean Fraser previously announced that Canada will increase immigration to help address future labour shortages and demographic changes, such as Canada’s declining birth rate and aging population, which threaten the country’s economic future. In 2022, a record-breaking 431,645 people became permanent residents. The governments Immigration Levels Plan will see 465,000 new permanent residents in 2023, 485,000 in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025.
Although Canada is accepting a record-number of immigrants, pandemic delays in processing immigration applications have surged. In 2022, around 1.3 million applications have taken longer to process than government service standards. The Government of Canada also processed around 5.2 million applications for permanent residence, temporary residence, and citizenship.
This new processing center, located in Canada’s Embassy in Manila, is part of the immigration department’s plan to expand its ability to process immigration applications. The Manila processing center will be staffed by 37 employees. The aim of the new center is to help facilitate the process for those who want to visit, work, study, or permanently immigrate to Canada. In addition, they will help address the high volume of visa applications from around the world. The processing center will also support Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy since it will invest in the region and expand Canada’s presence overseas.
