Sep 6, 2012 | In the News, Legally Speaking, New Laws, Skilled Workers
The Canadian government has been battling the courts and applicants of skilled worker permanent resident applications for the last year. Their goal is to reduce the large backlog of applications in the pipeline by simply canceling each and every single one of them.
This will affect all those who submitted Skilled Worker applications prior to February 27, 2008, and that has not yet received a decision. In numbers, we are talking about roughly 280,000 applicants (including dependents).
If you submitted your application prior to February 27, 2008 you will receive a letter indicating that the file is closed, with a refund for the processing fees paid.
Join the law suit to fight the Federal Government!
There is a law suit going on right now and you may join if you are an applicant that submitted your application prior to the date above. There is limited time to join the law suit and the deadline is this coming week. If you would like to join the law suit, please send us an email to inquiry@theimmigrationteam.com with the following information:
*The name of the principle applicant*
*The country and city where the principle applicant is located now*
*The principle applicant*
*phone number and *
*email address*
*the visa office file number*
*the date the application was filed*
*the job category under which you applied*
*the location of the visa office currently responsible for your application*
Please be advised there is a $400 donation required to join this law suit. This fee is to help stop the Minister, but only temporarily, until the court case is finalized. Our office is not part of the law suit therefore do not send the fees to us. We will forward your information to the lawyer handling the case and they will contact you directly.
For more information you may contact our office directly to speak with a senior immigration adviser.
Jul 17, 2012 | How to find Employment, New Laws, Work Permits, Working In Canada
Alberta is currently in demand for temporary workers. As one of Canada’s most quickly growing provinces, they are at a shortage of workers.
As a result, and to facilitate faster processing and entry of foreign workers into the province, Alberta is expanding their pilot project for specific occupations.
If your occupation is listed below and you have a job offer from an employer in Alberta, your employer will be exempt from having to obtain an LMO (company approval to hire foreign workers). The LMO process normally takes 2 to 4 months. Once an LMO has been issued, the foreign worker may apply for a temporary work permit. A job offer in an occupation below will exempt the employer from having to obtain approval, in turn reducing the overall processing time by approximately 3 months.
Occupations under the expanded Pilot Project:
- Carpenter
- Estimator
- Heavy duty equipment mechanic
- Ironworker
- Millwright and industrial mechanic
- Steamfitter and pipefitter
- Welder
This pilot project is due to expire on July 31st, 2013.
For further information or if you have a job offer and would like to confirm if you qualify to apply directly for a work permit, please contact our office to speak with our immigration council.
Jul 6, 2012 | Immigrate to Canada, In the News, Legally Speaking, New Laws, Permanent Residency, Skilled Workers
On June 29, 2012 Citizenship & Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced that they will stop accepting and processing applications under the Federal Skilled Worker category. July 1st, 2012 was supposed to reset the quota for the immigration year, however the federal government decided to stop accepting new applications all together in order to try and tackle the backlog. This does not affect applicants who have pre-arranged job offers.
Those applicants who had submitted their applications prior to February 27, 2008 should read the chart below to determine if their application will continue to be processed or whether CIC will return their application along with the fees.
Processing Instructions
| If the officer… |
and |
Then… |
| has not established whether the applicant meets the selection criteria prior to March 29, 2012 |
|
- the application is terminated; and
- fees paid to CIC are to be returned to the person who paid them.
|
| has established whether the applicant meets the selection criteria prior to March 29, 2012 |
the application has not been finalized before June 29, 2012… |
- processing of the application continues to a final decision; and
- fees paid to CIC will not be returned to the person who paid them.
|
| established whether the applicant meets the selection criteria on or after March 29, 2012 |
the application has not been finalized before June 29, 2012… |
- the application is terminated; and
- fees paid to CIC are to be returned to the person who paid them.
|
| established whether the applicant meets the selection criteria on or after March 29, 2012 |
the application has been finalized before June 29, 2012… |
- the final decision on the application stands;
- processing continues to visa issuance or refusal; and
- fees paid to CIC will not be returned to the person who paid them.
|
Jun 28, 2012 | In the News, Legally Speaking, New Laws, Permanent Residency, Skilled Workers, Why you need an immigration specialist
It is now official. Citizenship & Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced in Calgary today that beginning July 1st, 2012 the Federal Skilled Worker program is frozen. No new applications under this program will be accepted until further notice. The temporary freeze does not affect those applicants who have arranged employment offers or those who are applying under the PhD eligibility stream.
“We have been making lots of changes to our economic immigration system,” said Minister Kenney. “We will take the next six months to do a lot of the heavy lifting to get us closer to a fast and flexible immigration system.”
This temporary, yet indefinite, pause to the program will allow the government to catch up and process over 120,000 files in the backlog. Applications filed before February 27, 2008 have been stuck as a result of the ministerial instructions implemented in 2008.
The Minister promised that Citizenship & Immigration Canada will be consulting with provinces, territories and stakeholders on ways to reform the current immigrant investor program which is also currently frozen.
Programs currently frozen; Federal Skilled Worker program, Federal Investor Program, Parents/Grandparents sponsorship, and the Federal Entrepreneur program.
For more information regarding these changes we strongly suggest that you contact our office. Let one of our immigration advisers provide you with a free, no obligation consultation to determine your chances for immigration to Canada.
Tell us what you think about the news today. Write your comments and concerns below.
As always we encourage you to share this article with your colleagues, friends and family through Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.
Jun 28, 2012 | In the News, Legally Speaking, New Laws, Permanent Residency, Skilled Workers, Why you need an immigration specialist
The federal government is possibly going to place a hold on accepting new federal skilled worker and immigrant investor program applications. While many applicants are expecting to file their federal skilled worker applications beginning July 1st, they may be disappointed at the news. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is expected to make an announcement later today.
Minister Kenney is planning to hold consultations with stakeholders on how to better improve these programs. He calls for a faster, more flexible immigration system that is economically driven and designed to attract workers with stronger language skills, and employment credentials that are in demand by the current labour market in Canada.
We will continue to post news on this blog as it happens. Stay tuned for further information.
As always we encourage you to share this article on Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites. Posting your comments below, is always appreciated!
Mar 30, 2012 | In the News, Legally Speaking, New Laws, Processing Times, Skilled Workers
On March 22 we posted an article in which we discussed what Citizenship & Immigration Minister Jason Kenney considered would be an option to reduce the current processing times and never-ending backlog. Today, we are continuing our discussion on this topic.
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?
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