Canadian Immigration News

Earlier this month, the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered governments to stop automatically charging individuals, who have sponsored relatives to come to Canada as permanent residents, for social assistance debt sustained by those relatives.

Canada remains one of the few open immigrant-friendly countries. What’s more, in many respects it has suffered much less than most during the worldwide financial crisis that started in 2008—with its banks declared the best in the world.

Federal Skilled Worker is no longer the only way to go.

Both federal and provincial immigration programs have expanded significantly in recent times, offering candidates more than sixty different alternatives for immigration to Canada. This new reality in Canadian immigration is matched by the revamp of Canada's leading immigration website, Canadavisa.com. By submitting a Canadian immigration eligibility questionnaire on Canadavisa.com, an applicant’s candidacy will be assessed across all the Canada immigration options that currently exist.

Since 1991, the province of Quebec has had an agreement in place with the Government of Canada, called the Canada-Quebec Accord, which allows Quebec to select its own immigrants. In the June 2009 edition of our newsletter, we reported that the Quebec Immigration Minister had announced changes to Quebec’s immigration programs. Some of these changes have already been put into effect, while others will be implemented in October.

More information has since been released about how the new amendments will facilitate immigration to Quebec.

Along the lines of the federal Canadian Experience Class, introduced last year by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the province of Quebec is launching its own accelerated immigration program for international students and specialized foreign workers who meet labour market priorities in the province.

On Saturday, Canada's Immigration Minister Jason Kenney joined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in celebrating World Refugee Day. They unveiled a new multi-media presentation, "Voices of Refugees," a series of videos of refugees telling their stories.

Citing economic uncertainty, the Canadian government recently announced the possibility of a reduction in the number of immigrants to be admitted to Canada in 2009.

In order to hire a foreign worker, Canadian employers may need to satisfy Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) that they cannot find any Canadian citizens or Permanent Residents to fill the available position. ESDC's role is to ensure that Canadian residents have first access to Canadian jobs. To better reflect Canada's evolving labour needs, ESDC has recently altered employer requirements for hiring from abroad.

With the goal of processing new Federal Skilled Worker applications within six to 12 months, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Canada (CIMC) has implemented new submission procedures to make the process more efficient.

International graduates and temporary foreign workers have established themselves in Canadian society and are well-poised to become Permanent Residents and eventually Canadian citizens. The Canadian Experience Class (CEC), a new immigration category, has been created specifically to facilitate this transition. Recognizing their Canadian education and/or work experience, the Canadian Experience Class will fast-track their Canadian immigration applications, to ensure that Canada retains these valuable contributors to the Canadian economy and work force. Under the CEC, these applicants can remain in Canada throughout the processing of their applications.