Mother distressed over expiring work permit, nominee delays joins others asking for help

A mother afraid her family will be forced to leave the country is begging the province for help.

Qin Zuo has lived in Winnipeg with her husband and 10-year-old son for the last three years. She fears they'll have to return to China when her work permit expires in June.

"We are feel very anxious and helpless. When I told my son [about] the serious situation, [that] we may be forced to go home, when he hear this, he cried," Zuo said.

"He don't want to leave here."

Zuo obtained a post-graduation work permit following her studies in the city, but the federal government announced in December it was no longer offering 18-month extensions to those permits, which it had previously offered due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Her family is now among thousands applying to Manitoba's provincial nominee program, which accepts a limited number of applicants each year.

Zuo applied in November but has yet to hear whether her family has been approved.

She spoke to CBC News outside the provincial nominee program's office on Notre Dame Avenue, where about a dozen people gathered to call on the provincial government to expedite its selection process.

"There are many people here like me," Zuo said. "We want to, they give us a solution."

Among them is Tianyu Xie, who says his young family in China hasn't been able to join him in Winnipeg given how uncertain his situation has become. He's lived here and worked in the social services sector in the city under a post-graduation work permit over the past two years.

"We need a solution," he said. "We need it, they're speed up our cases, and then we got a chance to renew our work permits."

Talks with feds ongoing

Manitoba's Labour and Immigration Minister Malaya Marcelino says she's in contact with the federal government to find a solution, as the province's economy and labour market desperately need the workers.

"It's an extremely serious issue. We're talking about almost 5,000 people," Marcelino told reporters at the legislative building on Monday.

The provincial nominee program is currently processing about 24,000 applications, which greatly exceeds the spots Manitoba is allotted by the federal government, the minister said last week.

"We're not going to be able to accommodate everybody who's in this position, and it's a really crappy position," Marcelino said Thursday.

She's working with Ottawa to extend the work permits until the province can process the applications. Last month, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller appeared open to a proposal she presented to him, she continued.

As of Monday, talks with the federal government were ongoing, Marcelino said.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said the department continues to review the post-graduation work permit program and that it's considering a few different options, IRCC spokeswoman Mary Rose Sabater said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

While IRCC is looking into the program, previously announced changes, including an end to the temporary post-graduation work permit extensions, still stand, Sabeter said.

Newcomers hoping to continue working in Canada but who have permits expiring in 2024 would need to apply for a permit for which they're eligible, she said.

When asked whether Miller will consider giving extensions until Manitoba can process and review its nominee applications, Sabater referred CBC News to the province.

Last week, Marcelino promised more resources for the nominee program in the province's upcoming draft budget to be released April 2.

"It's still not going to be enough, because of the thousands and thousands and thousands of people that have applied," she said Thursday.

"We are trying to right that ship right now, and it's going to take some time," Marcelino said, pointing to last year's nominee draws in the province, which didn't fulfil its federal allotment.

Instead, Saskatchewan scooped those spots because it was able to process them, she said.

Selection policy changed

In the last few months, newcomers who have family connections in Manitoba have also been prioritized in the nominee program's selection process. Depending on a person's age, education and work experience, they are ranked according to a point system. Having a close relative locally (200) and a job offer (500) are among the qualifications that award the most points.

The province recently changed its policy to help retain newcomers in Manitoba. Nearly one in two have flocked to other provinces after getting their permanent residency through the nominee program, Marcelino said last week.

However, Zuo feels disadvantaged, since she doesn't have relatives in Manitoba.

"We [are] very concerned [about] this," she said.

She's calling for a fairer, more inclusive process that will help her family stay in the province for good.

Newcomers worried about future in Manitoba as work permits set to expire

8 months ago

Duration 2:29

Thousands of newcomers in Manitoba may be forced to leave the country when their federal work permits expire this year. Protests across Winnipeg in the last few weeks have been calling on the province to help.