Immigration news, information and guidelines!

[Kashfool76]

EXTRACT FROM A BLOG POST:



With a new Canadian government in place, there will likely be many changes in the way Canada immigration issues are handled going forward. In this interview, Pace Director of Immigration Jim Metcalfe gives his take on how immigration policy might be affected in 2016.

Spousal Sponsorship

Q: There is a lot of frustration among would-be immigrants with the delays in spousal sponsorship to Canada applications. What can the government do next year to solve the problem?

JM: The problem is that the previous government consolidated offices, closed offices and limited the number of visa officers around the world. The other issue is that there are no service standards. 10 to 15 years ago the service standard for processing spousal sponsorships in visa offices around the world was six months. Many offices were able to meet this standard. Beijing and New Delhi in particular could get it done in under six months. Subsequently, in typical bureaucratic fashion, the service standard was raised to 12 months to bring many other offices into line. Voila, now everyone was meeting the same service standard because it was equally slow.

Even so, at least there was some standard. Right now you cannot find a service standard for spousal cases outside of Canada to the extent that some offices take one year and others take three times that with no rhyme or reason as to why. In Canada the processing is averaging 27 months for spousal applications. However, most people qualify for work permits after the initial processing, so at least they can be with their spouse and earn a living. For people outside of Canada who are going through the process, it can be three years until they see their partner. It’s ridiculously slow.

Why it takes 27 months is probably inversely proportional to the number of staff allocated to that particular line of business. I think if the Minister could do anything to build confidence in the system it would be to set realistic service standards and apply resources accordingly.

I don’t think the general public is aware that people are paying hefty processing fees for these services. For its part, the government is not being transparent as to how those fees are being applied to improve the services. I seem to recall that the immigration department returned something like $150 million to the Treasury Board last year, which would indicate that they either ran a surplus or, as I suspect, they cut staff. This would lead to a further deterioration in service standards. If I was the Minister, I would call on the Auditor General of Canada to do a thorough review of the performance of the immigration department and consult not only with departmental staff but with applicants as well.

 

[Kashfool76]

DUAL IMMIGRATION"


In theory, it is not possible to legally maintain permanent resident status in both countries indefinitely. The act of landing in one country could be construed as forfeiture of status in the other. Our experience, however, has been that those in your situation have been allowed to land, in some cases with warnings relating to the above.
You can expect to find, however, that the Canadian authorities are becoming increasingly strict about refusing landing to those who do not appear to have the genuine intent to pursue permanent resident status in Canada. Possession of a permanent resident visa in the USA, and lack of evidence that you are dissolving your ties to that country could result in refusal at landing.

My expectation is that you wll have to decide which country you wish to reside in and pursue that fully.
________
Campbell,Cohen - attorneys at law
info@canadavisa.com

 

[Kashfool76]

Speaking notes for John McCallum, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship at an Event Hosted by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce
Toronto, Ontario
April 4, 2016

As was pointed out, I’m an economist. I understand the importance of immigration for the well-being of the Canadian economy, the growth and prosperity of Canadians and so that is what I want to focus on and I want to try to answer as much of your report’s recommendations as I can, which is quite a lot.

First, though, let me say that in terms of levels of immigration, we’ve announced 300,000 for the current year, which I will tell you is the absolute maximum capacity of the department, no matter how much more money you might put in this year. I want to increase that capacity going forward, but right now, that’s the most we can have. And so we had to make room for the refugees, also spouses because the processing times are horrendous, so there was a small and temporary reduction in the federal stream of economic immigrants. Provincial nominees held constant, but only temporary. We are going to be launching a consultation process for 2017, ‘18, ‘19 — all together, three years — in coming months involving clearly the business community as well as other stakeholders. And you can be sure that there will be significant increases in what’s called economic immigrants, although I’m going to say something about that term in a minute.

So yes, federal-provincial cooperation is going very well. Let me just mention a couple of highlights from our last meeting. First of all, economy agrees that international students have been shortchanged by the current system, and that has to be fixed. It will be fixed, and my provincial colleagues and I are all in agreement on that. In fact, I have not met anyone who disagrees with that proposition, and I meet a lot of people.

Second, you all know that credentials issues — doctors driving taxis — have been a problem for decades. It is in provincial jurisdiction, but I was delighted when the Quebec Minister proposed a federal-provincial meeting to discuss best practices in this area, so that is not something directly or even indirectly under federal control, but we will certainly convene that meeting because it is a really important issue.

I also want to say that I proposed — and nobody disagreed — that we change the way we measure the contribution of immigrants to the economy. The statistic percentage of economic immigrants as a percent of the total makes no sense. What you really want to know is how many of the immigrants are actually working and contributing to the economy. So the way we’re going to measure that is recently arrived or not-so-recently arrived immigrants as a percent of employment or as a percent of the labour force in every province and we can track that by degree of skill, by how long we’ve been here and that’s what will tell you the real truth.

Every immigrant is an economic immigrant. It makes no sense to say one is economic and everybody else is non-economic, which means non-productive, does it? So we let in the economic ones because they’ll do good for the economy. The other ones are a frill because we’re nice people. That is wrong. Economic immigrants include spouses of principal applicants who may not work, family members. It being 2016, both spouses typically work. Even grandparents who may not be in the labour force, by looking after children, enable both parents to work. And our experience has been that the big majority of refugees work, so we don’t like this term – I don’t like this term economic immigrants. Maybe we’ll call it independent immigrants or something else, but it’s not that there’s one productive class and everyone else is unproductive. And to measure the contribution of immigrants, we will look at the percentage of new immigrants in the workforce in various categories and over various time periods.

So let me now come to the recommendations. The first one was greater flexibility of the PNP and you want to have more base people and less Express Entry people. Well, that’s precisely what we’ve done this year for Ontario. Ontario has 1,000 more base people, which means Ontario can pretty well admit who they want, and less of the Express Entry people, which means that they have to obey the Express Entry rules. So that’s what you asked for; that’s what we’ve given.

But the implication of this report is in order of priority across businesses their first choice would be temporary foreign workers. Their second choice would be base cased provincial nominee, and their third choice would be Express Entry. Well, that’s precisely the opposite of the order of choice that I would prefer and that means that we at the federal level will work very hard to make Express Entry, the federal stream, more attractive to business, better for Canada, so that more businesses will want to use that stream.

We’re less keen on the temporary foreign worker stream because we want permanent residents. We want people who become Canadians, not guest workers. Now there’s room for some temporary foreign workers, especially if they have the pathway to permanent residence, but we prefer, by a long shot, permanent residents. I also do not want to be the Immigration Minister who presides over the disappearance of the federal role in immigration. If you look at the data, maybe 10 years ago a quarter of the so-called economic immigrants were provincial nominees. Now it’s half. At this rate, there’ll be no federal role going forward. I want to improve Express Entry, so that companies will want to use it and then we will have less, hopefully, continuous demand from provinces for more provincial nominees if we can make the federal stream more efficient and effective for the country.

Second, you want to remove the LMIA requirement for Express Entry. We haven’t made a formal decision, but I agree. That doesn’t mean we’re going to do it, but that means we’re inclining to do it and we’re going to study it and we’re going to have a decision in the not-too-distant future, so you pretty well sold me on that for the reasons given in the report, but you have to make sure it’s a legitimate job offer, so there has to be some alternative instrument in there — possibly the one that the Ontario government has. So we will be looking at that quite intensely.



But the second point which I mentioned earlier is international students. We want to make Canada more welcoming for international students because I cannot think of a group that is likely to become good Canadians than international students who, by definition, are educated, by definition know something of the country, by definition speak one or other of French and English. And so this is very fertile ground. There’s competition around the world. We want to up our game. And so probably that means giving them more points in Express Entry. There’s some work to do. How many? How do you define them? Should we have a quota of international students instead of more points? We’re going to look at those things, but one way or another, we’re going to make it more attractive for international students.

The next thing you talk about is the processing time for international students is too long. Well, let me tell you that is not a surprise. The processing time for everything is too long, except Express Entry. I think there we have kept it to six months, but the processing times are way too long for spouses, for parents and grandparents, for caregivers. There’s some improvement on citizenship applicants and for students. So we are going to work very hard to improve all that. It’s not going to happen overnight, but one thing we learned from the refugee experience is that when we sent 500 people over there, they learned how to process things fast without giving up anything on the security front. They learned to do things consecutively instead of concurrently — do A, B and C at the same time, instead of do A and then B and then C — and to eliminate steps that are unnecessary. So we will apply that thinking more generally and hopefully speed up processing times across the board.

 

[Kashfool76]

Government of Canada Aims to Pass Changes to Canadian Citizenship Act Into Law by July 1
MAY, 2016
The chair of the House Immigration Committee, MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj, said this month that he hopes the bill, known as C-6, will pass into law in time for Canada Day, which falls each year on July 1.
This would have great symbolic relevance, as Canadians are proud of their citizenship and the status, rights, and freedoms that it provides. Canada encourages new immigrants to consider becoming naturalized citizens and join the Canadian family. Canadian citizens may apply for a Canadian passport, vote in elections, stand for public office, and leave and re-enter Canada freely without being bound by residency obligations. Canada also recognizes dual citizenship, allowing immigrants to acquire Canadian citizenship without having to lose the citizenship they already hold.
Among the proposed amendments is a reduction in the amount of time permanent residents have to live in Canada in order to become eligible to apply for citizenship, from four out of six years to three out five years. Further, certain applicants who spent time in Canada on temporary status would be able to count a portion of this time towards the three-year requirement. The proposed amendments would also repeal the intent to reside provision and remove language proficiency requirements for certain applicants.
In addition, the new legislation would repeal a contentious provision that revoked citizenship from dual Canadian citizens convicted of terrorism, treason or espionage. With a majority government in place, it is expected that the proposals will become law in the near future. The only major potential stumbling block is how the bill may be treated in the Senate, with Immigration Minister John McCallum among a group of politicians who have expressed wariness over how the Conservative-dominated Senate may handle the bill.
Background
In June, 2014, the previous Conservative government of Canada brought into law the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act (also known as bill C-24). Among other measures, this controversial legislation made eligibility requirements for immigrants more onerous than had previously been the case. It also allowed the government to revoke citizenship in certain cases.
The now-governing Liberal Party of Canada, which came into office last November, made a public pledge in its election manifesto to ‘repeal the unfair elements of Bill C-24 that create second-class citizens and the elements that make it more difficult for hard-working immigrants to become Canadian citizens.’
Proposed changes to the Citizenship Act
The proposed changes to the Citizenship Act run the full gamut of the act, from how an individual may become eligible for citizenship to the rights bestowed once citizenship is conferred on the person.
Repeal of revocation provision
Current act: Authority to revoke citizenship for certain acts against the national interest of Canada. These grounds include convictions of terrorism, high treason, treason or spying offences, depending on the sentence received, or for membership in an armed force or organized armed group engaged in armed conflict with Canada.
Proposed amendment: Repeal national interest grounds for revocation.
Repeal of intention to reside provision
Current act: Applicants must have the intention to reside in Canada if granted citizenship.
Proposed amendment: Repeal intent to reside provision.
Physical presence in Canada
Current act: Physical presence for 4 out of 6 years before the date of application.
Proposed amendment: Physical presence for 3 out of 5 years before the date of application.
Counting temporary status
Current act: Time spent in Canada as a non-permanent resident may not be counted.
Proposed amendment: Applicants may count each day they were physically present in Canada as a temporary resident or protected person before becoming a permanent resident as a half-day toward meeting the physical presence requirement for citizenship, up to a maximum of one year of credited time.
Less burdensome annual physical presence requirement
Current act: Minimum of 183 days physical presence in 4 of the last 6 years.
Proposed amendment: Repeal the minimum 183 days physical presence in 4 of the last 6 years.
Fewer people need to prove language proficiency
Current act: Applicants aged 14-64 must meet language requirements and pass knowledge test.
Proposed amendment: Applicants aged 18-54 must meet language requirements and pass knowledge test.
Canadian income taxes
Current act: File Canadian income taxes, if required to do so under the Income Tax Act, for four taxation years out of six years, matching physical presence requirement.
Proposed amendment: File Canadian income taxes, if required to do so under the Income Tax Act, for three taxation years out of five years, matching proposed new physical presence requirement.
Conditional sentence now a bar
Current act: Time spent serving a conditional sentence order can be counted towards meeting physical presence requirements. Convicted individuals who are serving conditional sentence orders (sentences served in the community with certain conditions) are not prohibited from being granted citizenship or taking the oath of citizenship.
Proposed amendment: Time spent under a conditional sentence order cannot be counted towards meeting the physical presence requirements; and those serving a conditional sentence order are prohibited from being granted citizenship or taking the oath of citizenship.
Canadian citizenship oath
Current act: Provision prohibiting applicants from taking the oath of citizenship if they never met or no longer meet the requirements for the grant of citizenship, but does not apply to applications received before June 11, 2015.
Proposed amendment: Provision prohibiting applicants from taking the oath of citizenship if they never met or no longer meet the requirements for the grant of citizenship also applies to applications still in process that were received prior to June 11, 2015.
New provision to counter fraud
Current act: No explicit authority for citizenship officers to seize fraudulent documents related to the processing of applications.
Proposed amendment: Authority to seize documents provided during the administration of the Citizenship Act if there are reasonable grounds to believe they are fraudulent, or being used fraudulently.
The right move at the right time
“The public appetite — among Canadians and current and prospective immigrants alike — is for a Canada that is open, positive and welcoming. The very notion of citizenship is a big part of that, and it is great to see the new government taking initiative on this within months of taking office,” says Attorney David Cohen.
“Very soon, it is likely that we will be back to telling foreign workers and international students that they can land in Canada and think of their long-term future here. We will be back to seeing Canadian citizenship as a global responsibility, rather than as something that is so fixated on the person being physically present in Canada.
“For current immigrants who want to obtain Canadian citizenship, the question now becomes one of preparation. A thorough and accurate application is required in order to satisfy the authorities that you are eligible to obtain citizenship.
“For prospective immigrants who are wavering on whether to pursue permanent resident status, including foreign workers and students in Canada on temporary status, these changes may sway the decision in favour of pursuing that goal more deliberately than before. I would encourage such individuals to assess their Canadian immigration options as soon as possible.”

 

[flx2015]

thanks for sharing but there's nothing here suggesting that they'll speed up spousal sponsorships flr 2016.

 

[Hasan9999]

Total quota in 2016 is 3,00,000 people, but out of that figure how many people under spousal sponsorship category, I wonder!!

 

[expectin]

Total quota in 2016 is 3,00,000 people, but out of that figure how many people under spousal sponsorship category, I wonder!!

Out of the 300,000, between 57 to 60,000

 

[Hasan9999]

Out of the 300,000, between 57 to 60,000

Which is 20%! Not bad.

 

[expectin]

Which is 20%! Not bad.

RESPOST FROM A BLOG -

Liberal’s immigration plan focuses on family reunification, eliminating backlog

Canada will reunite families, offer a place of refuge to those fleeing persecution

The ambitious immigration plan of the Liberal government promises to zero in on family reunification, an issue that is very important to many new entrants to Canada.

“Canada will welcome a greater number of immigrants in 2016 with a special emphasis on family reunification,” Minister of Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship John McCallum said when he unveiled the government’s plan to bring in between 280,000 and 305,000 new permanent residents to Canada. “Canada will reunite families, offer a place of refuge to those fleeing persecution, and support Canada’s long-term economic prosperity.”

The minister said the government’s priority at the moment is to accelerate the resettlement of Syrain refugees and the reunification of Canadians with their families, while meeting Canada’s economic objectives.

McCallum’s Annual Report to Parliament also outlined how his ministry will increase levels of family class immigration and deal with the backlog of applications.

Immigration to Canada can be either on a permanent basis or temporary in nature, such as to visit, study or work.

Permanent residents are persons who have been admitted to live in Canada on a permanent basis and who have the right to work and study in Canada, but have not become Canadian citizens. In order to maintain their status, immigrants need to meet residency requirements and not violate the conditions of their status.

There are three classes of permanent residents: economic, family, and refugee.

In recent years, the government has granted more visas to international students. They are considered to be well-prepared to join the Canadian labour market, primarily because of having achieved Canadian educational credentials and being quick to integrate into the Canadian society. International students also spend more than $8 billion in the country each year.

But there are other types of immigrants affected by the backlog. For instance, tens of thousands of foreign workers have applied for permanent status or are seeking to bring their families to Canada.

Earlier this year, McCallum promised his department will work to cut processing times and backlogs affecting immigration streams such as those for caregivers.

Advocates for foreign caregivers previously complained that changes introduced by the then Conservative federal government had stifled the caregiver program.

For instance, to hire a caregiver, an employer needs get a positive Labour Market Impact Assessment. This is a certificate that shows there is a shortage of labour to justify hiring a foreign worker. Some reports indicated that from December 2014 to March last year, the Employment and Social Development Canada issued only 92 positive LMIAs.

Prior to this, the government was issuing 700 to 1,000 LMIAs per month.

Tags: foreign workers, immigration policy, John McCallum, Syrian refugees

 

[expectin]

Which is 20%! Not bad.

FROM A BLOG, NOV. 8 2015

The new Liberal government has committed to reverse the cuts. McCallum said that while that change won’t happen overnight, it’s high on the government’s priority list when Parliament resumes on Dec. 3.

“I don’t know if it will be on the parliamentary agenda before Christmas, but what I can tell you is that certain things will happen quickly -- in a few months, if not a few weeks. And one of those is refugee health care.”

Also high on McCallum’s priority list is the Liberal plan to speed up processing times for family reunification, as a part of a renewed approach to immigration.

“Probably the biggest commitment in our platform in the medium term … is to bring down those processing times for families,” said McCallum. “We’ve promised to have a new attitude where we welcome newcomers with a smile and not with a scowl.”

 

[fazal_81]

Good information.

 

[Hasan9999]

FROM A BLOG, NOV. 8 2015

The new Liberal government has committed to reverse the cuts. McCallum said that while that change won’t happen overnight, it’s high on the government’s priority list when Parliament resumes on Dec. 3.

“I don’t know if it will be on the parliamentary agenda before Christmas, but what I can tell you is that certain things will happen quickly -- in a few months, if not a few weeks. And one of those is refugee health care.”

Also high on McCallum’s priority list is the Liberal plan to speed up processing times for family reunification, as a part of a renewed approach to immigration.

“Probably the biggest commitment in our platform in the medium term ... is to bring down those processing times for families,” said McCallum. “We’ve promised to have a new attitude where we welcome newcomers with a smile and not with a scowl.”

Yes we can see that CIC is trying to bring down processing time in many locations in line with revised Govt. policies as reflected in the minister's notes. It's a very good sign.

 

[Kashfool76]

Published on: June 28, 2013

The rising number of new immigrants who are living in poverty in Canada is a “tinderbox” that could explode into an “inferno,” a new study warns.
More than 36 per cent of immigrants who have been in the country for less than five years live in poverty, according to the latest Canadian Labour Market Report. That compares to 25 per cent in the 1980s.

“Increasing immigrant poverty is a tinderbox that can ultimately (descend) into social discontent,” write Peter Dungan of the University of Toronto, Tony Fang of York University and Morley Gunderson of the University of Toronto.

Poor immigrants could grow increasingly disenchanted because many were attracted to Canada by policies that give points “for skills and education, but such credentials are often not recognized,” says the report for the federally-funded Canadian Labour Market and Skills Researcher Network.

A continued failure of new immigrants to assimilate economically “could turn into an inferno,” the authors add, “if it were also accompanied by negative reactions on the part of domestic-born Canadians.”

The authors worry that more Canadians will start to believe that the steady flow of immigrants is hurting their job chances, wages and the economy in general.

RELATED: Gap between rich-poor immigrants has lessons for all Canadians

Hong Kong immigrants streaming out of Canada

But the three economists report that Canada’s high immigration rates – twice that per capita of the U.S. – are a net benefit for Canadians.

While Canada’s immigration policy produces winners and losers in different economic spheres, the economists said that over the long run, immigration leads to a slight increase in the per capita income of the average Canadian.

The scholars’ disturbing analysis about immigrant poverty rates adds to an emerging picture showing Canada’s new arrivals are polarizing into two camps: immigrants who struggle economically and those who are very well-off.

Two Canadian Labour Market Reports that show rising poverty among new immigrants, especially older ones, are being released the same month that a Bank of Montreal survey revealed 48 per cent of the country’s millionaires were either born outside Canada or had at least one parent who was.

The BMO survey found the proportion of first-and second-generation immigrants among “high-net-worth British Columbians” – defined as those with investable assets of $1 million or more – was 68 per cent, the highest in the country.


But while Canada is welcoming many well-off immigrants, the Canadian Labour Market study underscores how Ottawa is also allowing in a large cohort of foreign-born people who can’t make ends meet, leading to potential social frustration.

Another Labour Market study released this week found that immigrants who arrive after age 50 “often struggle in the Canadian labour market compared to both their native-born peers and their younger counterparts.”

Older immigrants have a great deal of difficulty getting their credentials accepted and building up either private or public pension plans in Canada, write economists Ted McDonald of the University of New Brunswick and Christopher Worswick of Ottawa’s Carleton University.

“Income differentials are especially pronounced for older immigrants from non-traditional source countries (Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, according to Statistics Canada).”

Many older immigrants end up working well past normal retirement age.

University of B.C. economist Thomas Lemieux has also been exploring the increasingly large financial gap among immigrant groups.

While the earnings gap between the rich and the poor has been widening in general in Canada, that income gap is growing “even worse for immigrants, especially male immigrants,” Lemieux said.

Lemieux supports the Canadian government’s efforts to increasingly favour prospective immigrants who speak English or French well.

But better access to all kinds of less-expensive higher education, Lemieux emphasizes, is the main way to decreasing earning gaps among new immigrants and all Canadians.

dtodd@vancouversun.com

 

[Kashfool76]

REPOST:

Vikram18
Hero Member
*****

Posts: 212
Ratings: +11
[Good] [Poor]

Category........: FAM
Visa Office......: New Delhi
App. Filed.......: 03-03-2016
AOR Received.: 31-03-2016 AOR2 Received: 19-04-2016
File Transfer...: 07-04-2016
Med's Request: Upfront
Med's Done....: 09-02-2016
Passport Req..: 11-05-2016


Re: Wife granted Visitor Visa Hurray...
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2016,
I read your post on the Express Entry section. Very nice read.
In case you haven't noticed, New Delhi is processing spousal sponsorship applications in as less as 2 months now. Your wife might not have to wait (for PR) as long as you'd have thought.

 

[Happy007]

REPOST:

Vikram18
Hero Member
*****

Posts: 212
Ratings: +11
[Good] [Poor]

Category........: FAM
Visa Office......: New Delhi
App. Filed.......: 03-03-2016
AOR Received.: 31-03-2016 AOR2 Received: 19-04-2016
File Transfer...: 07-04-2016
Med's Request: Upfront
Med's Done....: 09-02-2016
Passport Req..: 11-05-2016


Re: Wife granted Visitor Visa Hurray...
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2016,
I read your post on the Express Entry section. Very nice read.
In case you haven't noticed, New Delhi is processing spousal sponsorship applications in as less as 2 months now. Your wife might not have to wait (for PR) as long as you'd have thought.

So quick!! Good information.