The year 2020 was the year of the coronavirus pandemic which brought the world to a standstill and introduced new changes all around the world including the Canadian Immigration System.

Canada welcomed 341,000 new immigrants in the year 2019 and continued to follow the same direction of accepting high levels of new immigrants at the beginning of 2020. Eventually, the coronavirus started to spread all over the world and was deemed as a “global crisis” in March 2020 and disrupted the immigration process of Canada.

Canada imposed Covid-19 travel restrictions in March 2020. To curb the spread of the virus Canada also limited the number of foreign citizens entering the country. However, the Express Entry system, Provincial nominee programs (PNP) and other forms of immigration processing continued.

The uncertainty created by the fluid nature of the Coronavirus crisis means that it remains unknown as to what you can expect from Canada’s immigration in 2021. But it is evident that it will benefit both Canada and future immigrants in 2021 and beyond.

Canada’s immigration system like everything else will not be able to return to normal until the Coronavirus crisis is over. Fortunately, the end of the chaos seems to be in sight due to the discovery of new vaccines. Canada started its largest vaccination campaign in the country’s history in December. The nation aims to vaccinate all those who want vaccination by September 2021. This would be one of the important factors in bringing the country and its immigration system back to normalcy. The other factor is ensuring that the people entering Canada are free from the virus.

Canada’s travel restrictions implemented throughout 2020 have given us an idea of what COVID-19 policies of the country would look like when the chaos due to the virus subsides. For example- a 14 day quarantine period, as well as a negative COVID-19 test, could be mandatory for people traveling into the country to curb the spread of the virus within the borders.

The coronavirus pandemic has not deterred Canada from its resounding commitment to bring in more immigrants. In fact, Canada has doubled down on this commitment during the coronavirus pandemic. Under the new 2021-2023 Immigration Level Plans, Canada aims to welcome more than 400,000 new immigrants 2021, which is also its highest ever immigration level in history.

Though it might be difficult for us to imagine that Canada will be able to achieve its immigration target in the year 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, higher targets mean that Canada’s federal and provincial governments will be able to continue holding immigration draws as well as process applications. This means that despite being unable to physically welcome as many new immigrants as possible, Canada will still be able to provide foreign nationals willing to immigrate to their country necessary approvals so they can move to Canada at a later date when things start to shift back to normalcy.

The Canadian Government can explore some potential changes to its travel restrictions in the light of the emergence and approval of new vaccines. For example, Canada could lift travel restrictions on newcomers who have received a COVID-19 vaccine and can also provide a negative COVID-19 test report before entering the country. The lifting of old restrictions would not only increase the inflow of newcomers but also give the Canadian economy a much-needed boost. The main reasoning behind the 2021-2023 Immigration Level Plan is that the inflow of immigrants is necessary to support Canada’s post-COVID economic recovery.

People would get a clearer picture of the direction in which Canada’s immigration system is headed sometime after January when Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is due to provide his cabinet members with new mandate letters regarding this issue.

Amidst the uncertainty due to the pandemic, another certainty provided by Canada is the confirmation by IRCC that the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) lottery for 2020 will be held in early 2021. Up to 10,000 applicants would be invited to submit sponsorship applications to move their parents and grandparents to Canada. Sometime later in 2021, IRCC will also open the 2021 PGP intake window inviting up to 30,000 applications for sponsorship of immigration of parents and grandparents.