'Dreams being lost' as many shut out of IRCC's permanent residency pilot, consultant says
CBC
Ghinger Marie Lastimosa wanted to become a Canadian permanent resident so she could keep working as a home support worker for Scarborough seniors without having to worry about her work visa expiring.
This week, she got bad news.
Lastimosa, a registered nurse in the Philippines who moved to Canada in 2022, is one of tens of thousands of people who went online to apply for one of the limited spots in the federal government's Home Care Worker pilot program at 10 a.m. on Monday.
She said she was met with hours-long technical glitches in the online portal before it shut down and was unable to upload her documents. Lastimosa now fears she'll lose her job when her work permit expires next year, and she and her husband will have to leave Canada.
"This was my only chance," Lastimosa said.
Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) launched its latest pilot on Monday, and Lastimosa wasn't the only one to flag serious problems with the website. Immigration experts say thousands of experienced home workers like Lastimosa didn't have an opportunity to apply because of IRCC's website slowdown.
Kevin Thibbles, an immigration consultant, told CBC News the program "froze" as he tried to apply on behalf of six clients.
He said he was only able to successfully apply for two of his clients.
"The whole portal froze and we were not able to get in," Thibbles said.
"It was very unfortunate to just let them know that we couldn't upload their documents and we missed the whole submission and it was very frustrating."
Sharing that news with his clients was difficult, Thibbles said.
"They actually broke down and started crying … it was very, very sad," he said, adding that he worries people with only six months of training were able to take up spots compared to his clients with more than five years of Canadian work experience.
IRCC's pilot invited home-care workers to apply on a first come, first served basis.
The pilot was capped at 2,750 applications — 2,475 online and 275 by mail — in each of its two streams – one for child-care workers, the other for home support workers.
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