In January 2013, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)
announced significant changes to the Canadian Experience Class
(CEC), including a reduction in the amount of time applicants are
required to work in Canada before becoming eligible to apply --
from two years to one -- and the introduction of minimum language
proficiency requirements.
As expected, CIC saw a huge increase in the number of
applications that were filed after these changes became
effective. Not surprisingly, a significant processing backlog
began to grow, hampering the government's ability to process
applications within the one year timeframe that had previously been
set as a way of promoting the CEC.
In November 2013, CIC announced that it would accept a maximum
of 12,000 applications under the CEC during the following year, and
introduced a further sub-cap of 200 applications to be accepted
from those in NOC-B level positions; a number of NOC-B positions
were altogether disqualified from
