Intake cap for International Graduates Stream reaches 7,000 plus due to system glitch

Canadian immigration reached its intake cap of 4,000 international student graduates during the first 25 hours of the launching of the Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence (TR to PR) program. However, they have received an inscription saying that they have received more numbers of applications than they have planned. Applications for the Graduate stream of the new TR to PR pathways had a technical error and Canadian Immigration received more than 7,300 additional applications for the said stream.

This new TR to PR pathway is created with an aim to allow French speakers, essential workers as well as international student graduates in Canada to apply for Canadian Immigration. This program was opened last May 6 and will be closed on November 5. Due to the technical error that occurred during the application process, all the additional applications for the international graduate program were accepted by Canadian immigration.

Using a live counter, the number of applications received via the website was displayed and counted during the time of submission. Though there were applications that were submitted simultaneously, Canadian immigration said that if two applicants hit the ‘submit’ buttons at the same time it will be counted as one application. Despite having a big number of applications for international student graduates, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is expecting a smaller number of additional applications from candidates who required accommodations to apply such as persons with disabilities.

A temporary public policy to allow the additional applications to be processed as requested by the Immigration department to which Minister Marco Mendicino approved last June 28. Despite having approval, this does not mean that the stream will reopen, rather, the department will no longer penalize applicants for having an error in its own system.

With this, the Canadian government is expecting different types of feedback from the public. However, there are positive responses that they have already received due to the fact that the applicants will not be denied, however, others say it’s unfair.