The Federal Skilled Worker Immigration Category: Leaving The Past Behind

On March 31, 2012, Citizenship & Immigration Canada ("CIC") issued a news release regarding the further consideration of applications received under the Federal Skilled Worker immigration program ("FSW Program"). According to CIC, all applications received under the FSW Program prior to February 27, 2008, will be returned to applicants along with a full refund of the processing fees paid. The intention of this heavy-handed stroke of policy reformation is to reduce a supposedly insurmountable backlog of out-dated or "stale" FSW applications currently in process within the Canadian immigration system. Understandably, this has caused a considerable amount of indignation by those applicants who will have their applications and processing fees returned to them through no fault of their own.