A few pieces of interesting information came from the show today, some of you may already know.

1. The applications on the new system are prioritised over the old applications. Team in Sydney, NS, working on the new applications.

2. CIC London have recruited 12 extra staff to work through the back log of applications made prior to Feb 2008 i.e. the old system. So hopefully processing times should start to improve.

3. There was a presentation about job hunting and the immigration consultants felt the 'LIST' doesn't represent the current labour market in Canada and they think the 'LIST' will be gone by the summer and everyone will need a job offer for the FSW system (that's their opinion - nothing official from CIC). Maybe the 'LIST' will be updated to reflect the current market.

So their advice was if you qualify on the 'LIST' get your application in ASAP.

What is the 'LIST'?

Go to:

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/THE_LIST-Canada

if your planning going to this show looking for anything connected to ontario please dont bother, i was there looking for some info regarding ontario and ottawa and there was absolutely nothing(may save you the £8 entry fee) i must say i was most ddisappointedwith the show this year :curse:

is 'prioritised' the right discription? isn't it a case of 'weddling out the un-suitable' immediatley on the shorter application before dealing with the long application?

That was the term they used, 2 different teams process the old and new applications. Obviously with the new system they can reject unsuitable applications straight away. There does seem to be focus on the new applications because they deemed to be people with skills that Canada needs ASAP.

Until they process the old ones they just don't know what they have, so I can understand there focus.

They always did fast track applications, i.e. people with PNP, job offers etc.

The point she made was the new applications would be fast-tracked along with PNP, AOE, Familiy applications, CSQ & Canadian Experience.

Do I gather that when they say you will need a job offer this will only be for new applications and those of us still waiting will just be dealt with as per norm, eg very slowley but atleast eventually

Cheers

Pete

Sorry if i've confused matters.

If you applied prior to Feb 2008 your application will be processed as normal. They have recruited extra staff to help reduce the waiting time.

If you are on the list of 38 in-demand jobs you should put your application in before they change the list of in-demand jobs as they may remove your job from the list.

Hope this is the case. It seems it's all ground to halt there on pre-Feb 08 apps - only document requests since Sep/Oct 08 - no medical requests at all.