Global Immigration News
round-up
24 February 2022
This week, the SSW Global Immigration team would like to highlight the following updates from Canada, Turkey and Denmark.
Canada: New Immigration Levels Plan announced
Last week, the Canadian government published its Immigration Levels Plan 2022 – 2024, which outlines the country’s targeted immigration admissions for the next three years.
According to the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, the plan charts an ambitious charts an ambitious but responsible path for immigration that will help the Canadian economy recover and will fuel post-pandemic growth, all while strengthening communities and industries across the country that rely on immigration.
To ensure Canada has the workers it needs to fill critical labour market gaps and support a strong economy into the future, the 2022–2024 Immigration Levels Plan aims to continue welcoming immigrants at a rate of about 1% of Canada’s population, including 431,645 permanent residents in 2022, 447,055 in 2023, and 451,000 in 2024. This plan builds on the previous levels plan, with an increased focus on supporting economic resurgence and post-pandemic growth.
To support these increased levels, the Government of Canada recently announced a plan to modernise Canada’s immigration system to fuel economic recovery and improve client experience, which will help address key challenges faced by service users, such as reducing inventories and creating predictable processing times.
Highlights of the plan include:
- Overall admissions amounting to 1.14% of the Canadian population by 2024.
- A long-term focus on economic growth, with nearly 60% of admissions in the Economic Class.
- Help for vulnerable populations, like the special measures for granting permanent residence to refugee claimants working in health care during the pandemic.
- Support for global crises by providing a safe haven through humanitarian immigration to those facing persecution.
- Talent retention of those already in Canada by granting permanent status to temporary residents accepted through the time limited pathways for essential workers launched in spring 2021.
The 2022–2024 Immigration Levels Plan will help cement Canada’s place among the world’s top destinations for talent, creating a strong foundation for post-pandemic economic growth while reuniting family members with their loved ones and fulfilling Canada’s humanitarian commitments.
Turkey: Work permit updates
The Ministry of Labour (MoL) has published new regulations for the Law on International Workforce. However, the existing procedures will continue to be followed while the Work Permit Directorate prepares to implement these new regulations.
The following changes are currently in the process of being implemented:
- Notification of late commencement of work, by the employer to the MoL, is no longer necessary;
- Notification of commencement of work, by employer to the MoL, is only necessary if the assignee’s social security premiums will be paid from outside Turkey;
- Once a work permit renewal application is timely/properly filed, the assignee will remain authorised to work while the renewal is pending for 90 days (previously 45 days);
- (New) The assignee and employer may mutually agree to a suspension of the work permit (unpaid leave) for up to 90 days (previously was only for maternity leave).
Additional changes yet to be determined:
- a new obligation for the employer to obtain an “electronic notification address”;
- new categories of exception to the limitation of an initial work permit validity to one year;
- new cross border service provider visas;
- new exceptions to the need for a diploma equivalency for engineers;
- re-implementation of independent and unlimited work permits;
- MoL notices of work permit exemptions;
- New intern/secondment procedures;
- For work visa filings, the employer must upload the work permit application to the online system within 30 days of reference number issuance (previously was 10 days);
- Neither EU nationality nor being the spouse of a Turkish national will be considered positive criteria when evaluating a work permit application.
Denmark: New salary criteria for visa extensions
Effective 1 March 2022, applications for residence and work permit extensions must meet the current Danish salary criteria, rather than the salary criteria in the employment contract on the basis of which the original permit was granted.
This applies to the positive list for people with a higher education, the positive list for skilled work, the pay limit scheme, the fast-track scheme’s pay limit track and researcher track among others.
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