CIP 133 - AAIP Tourism and Hospitality Stream
Hello, everybody and welcome to episode 133. We are talking today about the brand new Alberta PNP tourism and hospitality stream My name is Alicia back and be Harry and I am joined with Igor Karelia, who is standing in today from Mark Hall 30 so that we can move the ship along and continue to bring fantastic content to our listeners that is timely. Igor, how are you? I'm doing well. Alicia. Thank you.
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So Igor. We are we recorded a quick podcast last week when this news just was released, where Alberta is saying there's a pause. So no more aos the Alberta opportunity stream. So last week, we talked a little bit more about the PAs on aos. And what that will mean for people specifically people in Alberta, like Ukrainians who are holding open CV at work permits, who are kind of banking on aos. So, Igor, maybe just give us a quick little recap about what's been going on.
Yeah,so on February 15, Alberta announced an immediate pause on the other opportunity stream, which is the program most liberal Ukrainian nationals who came to Canada without sufficient knowledge of English or not an extensive work experience. And so for the AOS, you would only need CLB for CLB, five and one year of Canadian work experience in Alberta, along with the job offer from the employer, and you could apply for this program. But pretty much any NOC code regardless of the tier levels 01234 Or five, you can only not apply if, if you were working in a occupation that was on the list of the occupations that are prohibited from applying for the aos. So now that the program is paused, people are wondering what's going on? And what are the alternatives for them in Alberta specifically. And of course, there's alternatives are available, though. So the rural renewal stream rnap. Even though rnap Claire's home, the only city in Alberta city I would say town in Alberta, as qualified for the rnap also has their applications of pause. So not many options left federal or rural renewal stream. And now we have some news from Alberta about the new program that they will be launching on March 1.
And so if you guys want to see this in a written podcast or a written blog format in addition to the podcast, I do have an article that we released on our website. So if you go to hold the law.com and you go to the blog, there is a new article and it is called act now the new Alberta tourism and hospitality stream launches March 1 22. only for and no more aos. And so all the details are in the blog as well. But I really think Igor, that looking at the numbers of people who are already in the queue for aos, and looking at the overall allocation for nominations for Alberta, last year for 2023, it was 9750. This year, it's probably going to land around a 10,000 allocation from the federal government, though the numbers haven't been released yet. So IRCC and Alberta haven't officially said how many nomination spots Alberta has for 2024. But we're guessing it's going to be somewhere around 10,000. And so if you look at who's sitting in the queue already, for applications that they were taking in from last year, but they haven't yet processed for this year, there's a backlog, there's about a six month backlog for aos, there's over 5000 applications sitting in the queue. And there's also a number of applications out 766 sitting in the queue for Alberta Express Entry stream. And so the key alternative, unless you're doing an entrepreneur kind of application to Alberta, the key thing really is only Alberta Express Entry stream, or the rural renewal, those are the only two options. Alberta Express Entry stream is by far the one that most people are trying to apply through, simply because it's a little bit faster, or it's quite a bit faster.
So this Alberta Express Entry stream has to be linked to federal eligibility under either Federal Skilled Worker, Federal Skilled Trades, or CEC. And then within this Alberta Express Entry stream, once you've met the general overall requirements, then you can say alright, and I've got significant ties to Alberta. I'm not on the list of ineligible occupations. Hopefully, people are in a priority sector, and maybe they have a Canadian family member. And so when we look at the sectors that Alberta is trying to promote right now, right now and prioritize, they really are starting to prioritize healthcare, technology, construction, agriculture, tourism and hospitality, and other in demand sectors, according to their Ailis wage report data.
And so we've seen that within the Alberta Express Entry stream, there's now a subcategory or their husband for a little bit under the Alberta tech pathway. And then we saw that they did a sub stream under dedicated health care pathway. And now they've announced this tourism and hospitality. And we don't know yet they haven't told us the details are gonna come out on Friday, March 1, we don't know exactly how they're going to put this stream in the works. It could be that it's a totally independent stream. So it's a brand new stream, it's not under Alberta Express Entry. Or maybe it will be another subset of Alberta express entry. So what we wanted to do today was really try to prepare people for what they need to gather and do right now to be ready when this stream launches. Because they've said there are limited number of spots for nominations under the new tourism and hospitality stream. And they are probably going to go like hotcakes. Because there are a number of people who are working in these categories. And if you take a look, some of these are lowered tear knocks.
So when they did the news release, they didn't necessarily say which ones were the 18 jobs that the new tourism and hospitality stream targets. But some other news sources have listed them. And they're on they're on the blog. They're on the our healthy Immigration Law website. But some of them are cooks. Some of them are front desk clerks for hotels, tour and travel guides, food counter attendants, food and beverage services, light duty cleaners, dry cleaning janitors. And so these are some of the lower tiered occupations. So eager, what do you think people should be starting to do right away if they're going to be looking at trying to apply for this new tourism and hospitality stream in Alberta.
Now, the first thing that people would need to do is actually making sure that they have an ineligible work experience, and start collecting documents that relate to proving their work experience. This would include the reference letter from the employer, and the reference letter must meet certain criteria, which are generically about the same for all programs. That would be an official letterhead with the explanation of the duties that the employee performed, the dates when the employee was employed by that employer, the number of hours per workweek, the annual salary or the hourly salary And then the contact information of the employer, as well as the list of benefits that the employee was entitled for. So getting that, so getting that reference letter from the employer would be most likely step number one, the most important step. Along with the reference letter, an employee would want to collect evidence that the employee was paid for this work. So P steps, and T fours and notice of assessments, potentially, all of those documents that show the flow of money from the employer to the employee for the work done, would also be something that the employee would need to collect. And, depending on the on the requirements of the program, it is likely that the, the applicant would also need to show sufficient financial establishments in in Alberta an ability to sustain himself or herself for six months, which is called proof of funds. Along with completing the medical, or being ready to complete a medical exam, upon request, passing the biometrics, so start saving money for those $85 that you need to pay for biometrics and the medical exam on top of the $85, as well as collecting the police certificates, education, credential assessments, language test results, all of that will be important.
So eager, you've given us all the tips all at once, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna break them down. I'm gonna say okay, so tip number five, figure out your job, right, make sure you're picking the right noc. So it's got to be one of these 18 occupations, you've got to prove that this is actually the NOC that you've been doing, what's not clear yet is whether people will be eligible for work experience outside of Canada, or outside of Alberta, or whether this has to be six months of work experience within Alberta. So all we really know, all they've told us on the Alberta website so far, is that it's open to individuals who've already been working for tourism and hospitality business for at least six months. It doesn't say where, and who've met criteria to establish themselves in Alberta permanently, which is what you were talking about, about establishment. And so let's break this down. So the other thing that they have said, the only other thing we know is that candidates must have a valid full time non seasonal job offer from an approved employer operating within the appropriate industry. So in the article, I've broken this down into tip number five, make sure that you've got the right basic profiles. And so most of the Alberta programs require you to create and a lot of people don't know this, you need to create an alberta.ca account. And so sometimes for the Express Entry links, like if they put this new program under the Alberta Express Entry stream as a subcategory, you have to already have your Express Entry profile, it's got to be valid. And it's got to be not expiring right away. That's one thing that Alberta looks at. So hopefully you have a valid federal profile. That is that's active for more than hopefully five months, or at least has more than three months left on it. The next thing is make sure that you go in and just create an alberta.ca account. So you don't have to already be a resident of Alberta in order to create this account. It is created through the Alberta provincial government. And there are two types of accounts. One is a verified account and the other is a basic, unverified account. So just to be ready for Friday, go ahead and create your own basic unverified alberta.ca account, the link is in our blog. And this will just allow you to have an account in the event that things open up on March 1, and there's a little bit of a rush for people getting their applications submitted. So you want to have that basic unverified alberta.ca account, make sure that you are the one creating it right, don't let this you're not supposed to have anybody else accessing your alberta.ca account other than you. So it should not be a consultant, it should not be an agent, it should not be anybody other than the the actual candidate who creates their own account. And then, if you're working with us, as a lawyer, for example, you would create your account, you would have the only one who's has access to your password. And then if you need us to help, you would log in and then you could share your screen with us. So make sure you create your own unverified basic alberta.ca account just in case, then make sure you know your NOC and your wage. And you can prove that the lead statement and the majority of the main duties are fitting within the right national occupation classification code. And, Igor, what's the risk here? What if What if somebody has had prior applications to immigration and the asked.
Yeah, the risk is always that you may present facts in a little bit different fashion that you've presented them before. So always, when you submit an application, refer back to what was said before in the previous applications and make sure you're consistent because if there is inconsistency, you are risking to be found as a guilty of misrepresentation, which would result in a five year bar.
So basically, what we're saying here is, you know, if you worked as a light duty cleaner, but you didn't think that that was high skilled work in the past, and so you left it off your study permit application, you left it off your P GWP. Or you left it off your TRV application to immigration in the past. And now all of a sudden, you're saying, oh, wait a minute, I did work as a late duty cleaner for six months, for this company from here to here, immigration is going to be highly suspicious of that. And you are at risk of misrepresentation if you didn't properly disclose that in the past. So be very careful about your prior applications. And what you have said, and you always want to make sure that you're disclosing everything properly to immigration. Now, there are some circumstances where people didn't know that they had to put their all their jobs on their prior history. So you might have to be in a position where you were coming clean and writing a big letter of explanation about why this work experience was not prior previously disclosed on another prior application. So gather, gather your proof of employment. So if you have been working, there are two aspects to this new program. One is that you have to get a letter to prove that you were working for at least six months in that occupation, in that right NOC with meeting the lead statement and main duties. And we don't know exactly if that is only work for an Alberta based employer, or anywhere in Canada, or maybe even somewhere outside of Canada. So one thing is proving your past work experience. And that's where we need all the things that Igor was talking about in terms of the letterhead, signed by your direct supervisor or HR manager, it's got all the details of your employment, it's got your job duties very specifically laid out. And this is where most people go wrong. So if you don't have if you only have a job title, that is not going to be enough. So make sure that you've got prior six months proof of employment. And then the second piece is really important. It's not just that you have to have the six months, it also is that you need to find an Alberta based employer or somebody who is in the tourism and hospitality sector. And the way that Alberta determines whether the employer is in the right sector, at least for the Alberta tech stream, is they actually have what are called NAICS codes.
And so they've listed for Alberta tech stream all the NAICS codes they will accept, I suspect they will do a similar thing for the new tourism and hospitality stream, where they will say, here are all the NAICS codes for tourism and hospitality sectors that we will accept. And the employer has to basically certify Yeah, we're within the sector, we are a hotel business or, you know, we are a tour company or whatever it is. So make sure that the employer is within the right sector as well. And they are giving you a job offer. So a lot of people will get confused about what is a job offer. Some of them are already working for an Alberta based employer and they're like, Oh, well, I'm just going to use that. Most of the time, immigration wants a forward looking new job offer or a new letter confirming ongoing employment. So make sure that you are getting all the details when these program requirements go live on Friday, take a very careful look at what they want for that job offer. But most of the time, immigration wants to know that the employer is giving you non seasonal full time work. And so that means full time is anything over 30 hours per week, you can't bank hours, usually for the federal programs, and you need to make sure that it's at least 30 hours per week to qualify as full time. And you also for most of the Alberta programs, you really want to make sure that this is a legitimate company who's operating within the province.
So they should have some sort of Alberta office they should be they have should have Alberta based employees and some place for employees to work at least on a regular basis with a reporting structure. Alberta usually will not allow situations where people are teleworking or working remotely, and there's no office in Alberta. So be careful about that. Make sure you get the job offer. And then just like you said equal what are some other ways like they haven't really defined what that intent to reside and ability to settle in Alberta is what are some other things that you might have to gather for that.
So you would want to show some ties to Alberta, maybe you have some relatives who are permanent residents are Canadian citizens living in Alberta, showing that you currently live in Alberta, and you continue to intend to live in Alberta. So maybe you have a lease agreement, that is for the next 612 months, who knows? Showing a commitment to continue working in your occupation, as well. Again, this would be your job offer. But collecting all evidence that you have ties, driver's license, any anything that kind of ties you to the province, would be helpful to show your intention to continue residing here.
And what we don't know yet is, you know, will people have to show settlement funds, and will that be the federal settlement fund amount. And so it might be that Alberta just kind of tax this new tourism and hospitality stream right under the Alberta Express Entry stream, because then it's easy for them, because people will have to show settlement funds if they are relying on the Federal Skilled Worker stream. Or if they qualify for CEC and they've already had at least one year of high skilled work experience in Canada and then qualify for CEC then they wouldn't need to show settlement funds particularly, but they might need to meet other requirements like language requirements, right. So the way of kind of screening applications out for Alberta Express Entry stream is making sure that people are meeting at least CLB seven if they're qualifying for Alberta Express Entry stream for FSW, or at least CLB. Five, if they are in the some of the NOC two and threes. And they're qualifying for CEC. So we don't know exactly where they're going to slot this, but probably gather the things that Igor has been talking about. So you can speak to intent to reside in Alberta, make sure that you're qualifying for program eligibility. And then, as always, the top number one tip after all of this is tell the truth, right, make sure that you are being honest, and you are fixing errors if you've had errors in your prior applications, and you are coming clean and doing it right now.
So Igor, just to sum up super quick, top five things you should be doing right now make sure you've got that alberta.ca account and you've got a valid Express Entry profile with IRCC. Just in case, understand your NOC and the wage, because often Alberta is going to require the lowest starting wage for your occupation based on their Ailis figures. This is a little bit different than Job Bank. Take a look at the blog for more details. Tip number three, gather your proof of employment and your offer letter from an Alberta employer. Tip number two, prove your intent to reside and ability to settle in Alberta. And tip number one is tell the truth.
Yeah, right. Those are the tips that we would want to share with all applicants, regardless of actually even regardless of what program they applied for, because you would certainly need to collect proof of your work experience for all programs. Except if it's a sponsorship program, in particular, the sponsorship program for Ukrainian nationals. But otherwise, yeah, telling the truth cross referencing the information you provide in the application is a golden rule for all types of applications.
All right, absolutely. So Igor, if people have questions if they need assistance, we are here to help you can go to our website and book a consult with us one of us mark healthy immigration lawyer Alicia Backman-Beharry immigration lawyer, Igor Kyryliuk articling, student soon to be immigration lawyer. And we are most happy to help you. And as always, we want to thank our sponsors journey, immigration, who helps with business immigration cases and putting together basically business cases for people who are looking at startup visa applications and other economic applications. So thank you very much to journey. And we have not too much time today to go through a very long podcast, but we wanted to keep it short and sweet and really try to get ahead of the ball so that people can start to prepare and be ready for launch because we know those spots are gonna go quickly and the landscape is very competitive in Alberta right now.
Right. Thank you so much, Alicia, and we'll see you next time. Thanks.
