Effects Of The COVID-19 Pandemic On The Immigration Industry
The Coronavirus pandemic hit the world unexpectedly and made some significant changes to employment and businesses. While people everywhere started working remotely, there were a few changes that took some adjustments and getting in touch with. Unfortunately, not all companies could work remotely as some of their jobs revolved around working in-person. Many businesses and industries such as construction, hospitality, and even healthcare, which took some systems online, had to get through the bulk of their work done in person.
At the beginning of the year, when news about the COVID-19 pandemic was hitting the world, most countries began implementing a nationwide lockdown, which meant people were staying indoors and working remotely. Unfortunately, to prevent the spread globally and focus it internally, they also shut borders and travel was brought to a standstill. While the intentions behind closing the borders were positive, it did not work well for our company or others in our industry.
Every crisis can lead to new opportunities, and we’ve already seen challenges that emerged during the pandemic leading to innovative government programs. We had to wait around for the most part, but then we started making changes to the work we were handling, and that made the process a lot simpler. We also noticed that the Government was doing a lot to assist companies like ours with tax breaks and schemes, and we were hoping that the same should happen with Canada’s immigration policy.
While the pandemic has temporarily closed the territorial borders to all foreigners for non-essential travel, there’s an opportunity to keep our “virtual” borders open to the best and brightest workers who want to come to Canada.
In 2020, on March 12, the Federal Government announced that Canada would aim to welcome over one million new permanent residents between 2020 and 2022. Days later, Canada had to shut its borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Canada will likely fall well short of the 341,000 immigration target it set for this year. However, it has been holding Express Entry draws throughout the pandemic that will result in Canada breaking its Express Entry record this year. Besides, the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) draws remain ongoing.
To compensate for the fall of immigration this year, Canada has set the most ambitious immigration levels to plan in its history.
Canada announced its 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Plan. Canada will target the highest level of immigration in its history.
Over the coming three years, Canada will aim to welcome the following level of new permanent residents:
- 2021: 401,000 immigrants
- 2022: 411,000 immigrants
- 2023: 421,000 immigrants
The only time Canada welcomed over 400,000 immigrants in a year was in 1913 when it admitted 401,000 newcomers. It has never come close to the same figure again.
As we cannot meet a lot of the people we are coordinating with, for the most part, we are working remotely with them from our office, which we have been doing since March 2020. However, we noticed a lot of challenges with working remotely, with the primary one being a lack of human interaction.
Working from home has its share of advantages and disadvantages. While it’s great to not worry about time wasted traveling or getting ready for work, the downside is the isolation that you can experience. Remote working gets lonely as you don’t get to meet and interact with people as a part of the job.
As most of the work we handle is global, we cannot work at the same timings every day. We reached a point where we coordinate with one another and even work when not within our work hours to match timezones. As I work with clients from across the globe, not being in the same time zone as the client is a challenge. Clients can answer many simple queries right away, but as we are in different time zones, it often leads to a waste of time. There are times where I have to work in the client’s time zone to make sure things are moving along smoothly.
When it comes to communication, we make sure we are working with efficient platforms and that the information and documents are properly stored. We make sure the information shared does not end up leaking.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, we do not encourage clients to meet in person. All our communication is through telephone calls, e-mails, video conferences, social media platforms. We are also open to having meetings via video conferencing platforms.
If you are looking for an Immigration Consulting Firm, get in touch with us at Life Ashore Immigration Consultancy Inc. Our Immigration services include express entry, study permits, business investments, family sponsorship and Visitor or tourist visas. We assist our clients globally as well as within Canada and have them spread across Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Oakville, Vaughan, Markham, Milton, Burlington, Hamilton, Newmarket, Scarborough, St. Catharines, India, the Middle East, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and many other countries. We are open to assisting with getting calls and information whenever convenient, even across time zones. If you are looking for a better understanding of the services that we provide, please click here. If you are looking to get in touch with us or know that we can assist with your immigration needs, please click here.