No, I don't have much information from across the country, except that the provincial nominee programs have been really slow to get going. As a percentage of the total immigration, they're a small number, but growing. The whole intention is to target certain occupations and fast-track them, but I haven't seen it having the kind of impact that certainly was anticipated initially.
With the overseas preparation, the thing is that 50% to 60% of immigrants are in the skilled class. These people are coming here with the qualifications. As I said earlier, if they don't connect to a job quickly, research shows that after a year and a half of not working in your profession, it's unlikely that you'll ever work in that profession. So what we're saying is that while there is this initiative in the three countries where the federal government has the offices, let's move beyond that.
When the visa officer calls up the individual and says they've been approved to immigrate to Canada, it usually takes four to six months with medicals and what not. They should be getting an interview with qualified people to look at their credentials and to send them over here to get the equivalencies and an opinion on what their credentials are in Canadian equivalencies, and also to get an idea for their particular profession on what the job market is like and connect with organizations like COSTI and others that then could help them.
We're doing it through those three offices already. We have a relationship. They'll send us the e-mails and we connect with those people, but it's a drop in the bucket when you consider that there are about 100,000 to 120,000 skilled-class immigrants coming over. That's why I'm suggesting this.