Last Updated on July 13, 2011 by Steven Meurrens

MI-3
On July 1, 2011, the third set of Ministerial Instructions (“MI-3”) came into affect. MI-3 introduced significant changes to the Federal Skilled Worker Program (“FSW”).
Cap on the number of applications to be processed per year reduced
On June 26, 2010, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC”) announced that a maximum of 20,000 Federal Skilled Worker applications, without an offer of arranged employment, would be considered for processing each year. MI-3 reduced this amount to 10,000.
The occupations that are eligible under the FSW without an offer of arranged employment are:
Within the 10,000 cap, a maximum of 500 new FSW applications per occupation above will be considered for processing each year. This represents a reduction from the previous 1,000. The cap year will begin on July 1, 2011 and end on June 30, 2012.
All applications are to be sent to the Centralized Intake Office in Sydney, Nova Scotia, to determine if they meet the above requirements, before they can be sent to a visa office.