Quebec has made changes to its immigration selection program to speed up the process for skilled workers and make it easier to tie immigration to the needs of the job market.

Under the new system called Arrima, applicants apply online, fill out a profile, and list the skills they have before the government invites them into the job pool where they wait to be selected by a potential new employer.

Most significantly, immigration wait times will decrease to six months, instead of a delay up to three years in the previous system.

The new Arrima system will also promote immigration to various regions throughout the province where there is a larger demand for skilled workers, said Immigration and Diversity Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette at a news conference in Montreal Thursday.

“That’s part of the plan of the Quebec government because we want to inject some resources in all the different regions,” he said.

The system will prioritize 3,700 applicants who had already moved to Quebec, or applied as they were already in the midst of the moving, he said.

“They will be invited in priority because right now they're in Quebec with a job, or they are working, so we will prioritize them because they answer a need on the Quebec job market,” he said.


Business groups pleased

Canadian Federation of Independent Business is applauding the new system and how it will affect small and media enterprises (SMEs).

“For several months, our SME owners have shared their concerns about the challenges they face in recruiting the workforce they need. With the launch of Arrima and the Employers Portal, a world of opportunity opens up to them… We think this will have a positive impact on talent recruitment," said Simon Gaudreault, senior director of national research at CFIB. 


Back to square one

Meantime, more than 10,000 immigrants who applied through the old system have been cancelled. Jolin-Barrette said the government is in the process of refunding previous applicants who will have to wait their turn in the system if they apply again.

Immigration lawyer Ho Sung Kim said he has close to 100 clients who are now back to square one.

“There are some people who have been waiting four, five years and they've done everything the government has told them to do and they submitted everything they can,” he said.

Kim said he wonders why the government would make them start from scratch.

“If the government really wanted to prioritize these candidates, they could have just processed their applications, because they have everything in their office right now. So why not just process them?” he said.