Canadian Immigration News

Ontario Citizenship and Immigration Minister Michael Chan recently announced a new development in the Ontario Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) that removes obstacles for international students who wish to become Canadian permanent residents.

What was originally launched as the Ontario Pilot Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) in May 2007 has now been retooled to broaden its qualifying criteria and to accept twice the amount of applicants annually.

Ontario's publicly funded education system currently supports students from kindergarten to grade 12 in public, Catholic and French Immersion schools throughout the province. The Ontario Conservative government, if elected this fall, would move to provide public funding to Ontario's private Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, and Christian schools. "This is a plan that will bring faith-based schools, which currently exist outside of the public system inside that system instead, subject to clear, reasonable conditions," explains Ontario Conservative leader, John Tory.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC)'s Global Experience @ Work initiative consists of seven local community projects to engage employers in the integration of internationally-trained professionals and tradespeople.

International students in Canada must obtain Off-Campus Work Permits to be eligible to work in Canada while they carry out their studies. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has now made the application process easier and more efficient by allowing applications to be submitted online.

The latest Statistics Canada report from the 2006 census came out yesterday. It focuses on immigration and language and highlights the important contribution of newcomers to Canada’s growth and increasing diversity.

For some of the 332 athletes representing Canada at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, they are representing an adopted country; having arrived here as immigrants and established themselves as world-class Canadian athletes.

1865 to 1935 is a very significant era for immigration to Canada, with 5.7 million immigrants landing on Canadian shores. Approximately 11.6 million present-day Canadians (one of every three) have ancestors who arrived during this time.

Given the current global economic situation, some countries have considered reducing immigration numbers. However, Canada has nevertheless pledged to maintain immigration levels and has been named one of the western nations that are least likely to develop an anti-immigration backlash despite the economic crisis by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The Economic Stream of the Nova Scotia Provincial Nomination Program (PNP), which has been suspended for some time while the government reviews the merits of the category, has been refunding immigrants part of the $130,500 in fees that they paid to be fast-tracked into the province. Recent announcements will entitle more people to these refunds.