Come to Canada Wizard web tool has 1.6m visits in first year

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The Canadian government's immigration department, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) says that the Come to Canada Wizard web tool, which it launched last August, has received 1.6m visits in its first year. This compares well to the workpermit.com site which receives over five million unique visitors a year. The tool enables people to judge their eligibility to visit, or work, or study in Canada by asking a series of questions then 'matching users with the federal immigration option that best suits their circumstances'.

Canada has historically had one of the most liberal immigration regimes in the developed world and actively sought overseas workers to settle in Canada. The country granted residence to 248,000 foreign nationals in 2011 of whom 156,000 were economic migrants and about 28,000 were refugees.

However, the country's Federal Skilled Workers Program was suspended from July 1st 2012 by the Canadian Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister, Jason Kenney. At the time, Mr Kenney said "We have been making lots of changes to our economic immigration system. We will take the next six months to do a lot of the heavy lifting to get us closer to a fast and flexible immigration system."

Earlier this month, Mr Kenney announced various changes to the FSWP. They will come into force in January 2013. The new rules will prioritise younger workers and give fluency in either English or French greater weight in decisions on whether to admit applicants under the program.

Mr Kenney said yesterday, 'we want the world's best and brightest to come to Canada and to help grow our economy'. He said that the Come to Canada Wizard was 'one way we are creating a more responsive, transparent, and efficient immigration system that benefits applicants, immigrants and Canadians alike.'

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