In releasing Canada’s Budget on Thursday March 29, the Department of Finance revealed that Immigration Canada intends to bar the door to applicants who submitted their Skilled Worker applications before 2008.  We were under the impression that Minister Kenney’s ‘consideration’ was only such; however we are now beginning to understand more about the “Economic Action Plan of 2012”.

In a media release the Government of Canada is “proposing to return applications and refund up to $130 million in application fees paid by certain federal skilled worker applicants who applied under previous criteria established prior to February 27, 2008”.  Canada’s commitment to transforming Canada’s immigration system to a faster and more flexible one will kill the hopes and dreams of thousands of foreign nationals who have been waiting for their applications to be processed for years, some waiting for more than 10 years.

In order to reduce long processing times and a large backlog, Citizenship & Immigration Canada introduced a new set of criteria under Bill C-50.  The changes included a yearly quota of 20,000 applications in certain preferred occupations.  A year later CIC reduced the quota to 10,000 applications per year.  As a result less applications were filed, however the large backlog still remains and those in the pipeline are and will continue to wait for an indefinite period of time.  Now we know that these applicants will never have their applications processed.  They will be returned and money they paid will be refunded.

A class-action law suit was filed against the Federal Government by several applicants which has now grown to more than 600.  We are expecting this number to continue to climb as applicants become aware of this news.

Economic Action Plan 2012 proposes:

• Taking further actions to strengthen the immigration system to make it truly proactive, targeted, fast and efficient in a way that will sustain Canada’s economic growth and deliver prosperity for the future.
• Announcing the Government’s intention to better align the Temporary Foreign Worker Program with labour market demands and to ensure that businesses look to the domestic labour force before accessing the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
• Signalling the Government’s intention to support further improvements to foreign credential recognition and to work with provinces and territories to identify the next set of target occupations for inclusion, beyond 2012, under the Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications.
• Proposing to return applications and refund up to $130 million in fees paid by certain federal skilled worker applicants who applied under previous criteria established prior to February 27, 2008.

Tell us what you think!   We want to hear from you – comment and share this article below!

Did you submit your application prior to February 27, 2008? How long have you been waiting? How do you feel that your application will never be processed?

This is the most significant change in duty-free exemptions in many years.  This increase will help speed up cross-border travel and will help free customs agents to focus on more crucial border issues.  Of course, any change must have some negative side to it – in this case Minister Flaherty says that it will reduce Federal revenues by $13-million in 2012-2013 and by $17-million in 2013-2014.

I think you can expect more Canadians doing more shopping now!

On March 23, 2012, CIC Minister Jason Kenney announced that he will hold online consultations as well as multicity in-person meetings for public comment.  “Our government is fully committed to helping families reunite,” said Minister Kenney. “The feedback provided by Canadians will guide our government in creating a new program in which future applications will be processed quickly and backlogs will not develop. It will also help ensure the program can operate on an efficient and sustainable basis.”

In November of 2011 CIC announced the Action Plan for Faster Family Reunification.  As Phase 1 of this plan, CIC placed a temporary freeze on the parent and grandparent sponsorship program; however, they did increase the number of sponsored parents and grandparent they will approve by sixty (60) per cent to 25,000 for the 2012 immigration year.  Also part of Phase 1 was the implementation of the Parent and Grandparent Super Visa, a visa that will allow permanent residents and Canadian citizens to sponsor their parents and/or grandparents to visit Canada for two (2) years at a time, valid for up to ten (10) years.

Family reunification is extremely important for Canada and therefore a revamp of the program is necessary.  The current pause until 2014 may help to reduce the processing and wait time as well as help clear the backlog, but unless the demand for parent and grandparent sponsorship to Canada is managed, both the processing wait times and the backlog have the potential to quickly grow again to unmanageable numbers.

Different options are being considered to address  a number of questions:

1. Should we try to ease the economic impact of parents and grandparents by, for example, requiring sponsors to be financially responsible for their parents and grandparents over the Parent and Grandparent immigration programs lifetime, applying a fee, or requiring sponsors to have a higher income?
2. Should we redefine the eligibility of family members who accompany parents and grandparents by, perhaps, focusing on parents rather than on the siblings of sponsors, or by applying a “balance of family test” in which parents and grandparents would be required to have from half to the majority of their children living permanently in Canada?
3. Should we emphasize a commitment to Canada on the part of sponsors by, for example, making it mandatory to be a Canadian citizen (and not just a permanent resident) in order to apply?
4. Should we focus on special needs or exceptional cases by, for example, requiring that the parent and grandparent be widowed or have other exceptional needs?

What is your opinion on the above questions?  Do you have any recommendations for the Canadian government on how to better improve the parent and grandparent sponsorship program?

Up until recently applications for visitor extensions, study permits, and work permits would take anywhere between two (2) to four (4) months to be finalized.  Below is a chart which shows current processing times for all temporary status applications submitted inside Canada.

Current Processing Times:

Visitor Visa Extensions – 1 month
Student Permits (including extensions) – 27 days
Off-campus Work Permit – 18 days
Work Permit (for new employer) – 18 days
Work Permit (same employer) – 25 days

*Note that these are approximate processing times and can change at any time for many reasons. Applications submitted online (as opposed to paper applications) are processed slightly faster.

In 2008, Minister Kenney gave priority to those applicants with specific work experience, and those who have job offers in Canada.  This did help to reduce the number of overall applications, however it did not help those who applied prior to 2008.  Those applications have been put on “hold”, if you will.  The Minister said that at 80 per cent of skilled workers are being pulled from the backlog, 20 per cent are newer applications chosen under the new criteria.

As of September 2011, the current backlog includes 472,549 skilled worker applicants, 96,085 business class applicants and their dependants.  The current worldwide wait for processing skilled worker applicants is approximately 8 years.  Some applications are taking nearly 15 years to process.

Minister Kenney is considering creating legislation that would wipe the current backlog and allow for more timely processing of newer applications from people who can improve Canada’s economy.  He proposed a “just-in-time” immigration system, one that would give me businesses a more important role in selecting immigrants.  New Zealand created a “pool” from which it selected those applicants who benefited the current economy.  Minister Kenney is planning to create a similar “pool” from which individual provinces could sift through applications for their own provincial nominee programs.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been waiting patiently for years for their applications to be processed.  In October of 2011, 128 upset skilled workers launched a law suits in the Federal Court pleading the court to order CIC to process the dusty files.  Now over 650 applicants from the following visa posts are involved: London, Vienna, Accra, Pretoria, Nairobi, Colombo, Singapore, Damascus, Bogota, Warsaw, New Delhi, Seoul, Port of Spain, Manila, Hong Kong and Beijing.

We’re interested to hear what you have to say about this.  Comment below and share!

Certain types of people are especially at risk. If you do not speak English well or if you are not currently in Canada, you are more at risk.  You should investigate and ask questions, such as their license number, and should look at their website or Google them in order to find out more information.  Can-Am Immigration is a consulting firm with regulated, licensed and insured immigration consultants available to help you. Give us a call and we will be happy to explain to you everything about our experience and licensing that you need to know.

If you are not currently in Canada, you should beware. In countries like India, “immigration consultants” or “travel agents” will claim to sell you a visa for $10,000 – $25,000 Canadian or more!  They will tell you that they are taking care of all of the paperwork when in reality, they simply sell you a plane ticket and then disappear.  Therefore, if they are filing paperwork for you or “representing” you, you must be careful because the applications can be deemed fraudulent and the visas might be fake.  The best thing to do if you are outside of Canada is still to contact a Canadian consulting firm, like ours, and work with them directly.

If you have experienced any of these types of problems, please give us a call and we will try to help you.  If you do not hire a licensed immigration consultant, you never know what kind of trouble you could have! You could lose your money, end up in jail, or be deported back to your home country.  It is better to avoid any scams and hire a licensed expert immigration consultant!

Contact Can-Am Immigration today.

The increase in the number of workers will help address the demands of the job market, and help decrease years’ worth of pending applications to the program, the government has said.

The current priority of the government is still the economy. Minister Jason Kenney of the Ministry of Immigration and Multiculturalism says that the government recognizes the value of immigration to the Canadian labor market. Unlike other countries, Canada recognized the importance of the contributions made by skilled immigrants, because they add to Canada’s competitiveness in the international arena.

The government expects levels of immigration to remain fixed between 240,000-265,000, although during the next year, a big chunk of this number would be allowed to enter Canada under the Federal Skilled worker program. Just for this year alone, just fewer than 50,000 immigrants were allowed entry into Canada through this program, and that number is expected to increase to just fewer than 60,000 in 2012.

New studies done by the government show that the Federal Skilled Workers Program is successful, with 89% of immigrants who were allowed entry through this program being employed within 3 years, and 95% of those who hired them being very happy with the services rendered.

Minister Kenney says that the government will keep on exerting effort to improve the immigration system, so that it would be more responsive and adaptable to the needs of the labor market.  Recently, the Canadian government has announced many changes to the immigration system. Keep an eye on our blog to learn about these as they happen.  Of course, if you are interested in immigrating to Canada through the Skilled Worker Program, please give us a call so we can help you file your application today!

The change offers several choices to those who want to migrate to Canada, but would not want to pay for the language tests. If the applicant has finished his/her education where French or English is the main language of education, then they will have the option of not having to pay for the language test.

According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada officials, possessing the ability to effectively communicate in either or both English or French is a key component to being successful as new Canadian citizens. The government’s intention to make these new language tests mandatory ensures that immigration applicants can speak either French or English at the time of their application for Canadian citizenship, thus making sure that the citizenship program are effective for both the new Canadian citizens, and for the country of Canada.

This new policy raises some questions: How would the public feel towards the new requirement that make it mandatory for immigration applicants to take French/English language tests? What about those who may be unable to read or write in English or French, but have an excellent grasp of spoken English or French? What about those people who can speak excellent French or English, but are incapable of either reading or writing in French or English? If you think this new language testing requirement could affect your citizenship application, contact our firm now to discuss your options!

Upon analysis by Citizen and Immigration officials, they noticed that there were too many dubious similarities among marriage sponsorships, which led to the conclusion that most of these marriages might be fraudulent in nature.

There are two types of fraudulent marriage:

1. A Canadian sponsor with good intentions falls prey to a foreign national, who takes advantage of their union to gain permanent resident status in Canada, and the same can result to the offender being kicked out of Canada.
2. Both individuals are aware and participate, of their own free will, in a phony marriage. This is what is considered by the government to be “organized crime”.

In order to gather enough evidence to support and successfully prosecute the offending parties, the Public Safety Ministry has conceded that they require investigations, which take up a lot of resources.

More than three-dozen investigations have been initiated in the last four years, out of which seven cases have been brought before the courts, resulting in convictions for three of these cases. As of the end of 2010, more than a dozen of these cases were still pending.

The result of all of this is that Canadian marriage immigration may become more difficult and restrictive, like it is in the USA.  A move has been proposed where “conditional permanent residence” would be granted to foreigners who have been married to their Canadian sponsor for less than 2 years, just like in the US process. Upon arrival in Canada, they have to remain in that relationship for 2 more years, otherwise they risk losing their permanent residency status. For this reason you should contact our firm for help filing your Canadian marriage sponsorship application, to increase your chances of success!