Q. I have submitted a Federal application, but I will be studying in Quebec when I expect the case to be concluded. How ill this affect my case?

Q. Could anybody tell me why Police Officers are on the list of eligible occupations when
my husband has been told he will have to re-train from scratch in Canada.
What is the point in meeting all the performed duties on the NOC if they
don’t count when he applies to get in the Canadian Police?

The federal and provincial governments should do more to help immigrants integrate into official language minority communities across the country, Official Languages Commissioner Dyane Adam said yesterday.

Recognizing the important role played by immigration in Canada’s economy, the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration has made numerous recommendations intended to facilitate the immigration process, and allow Canada to more effectively compete for the skilled professionals that it requires.

Q. Can you also elaborate on the following:

1) A student does a 2 year full time MBA program from a University and is awarded a Masters in Management Studies.

2) Another Student does a 2 year Full time MBA program from another Autonomous Institute. This Institute SP Jain Institute of Management Studies, Bombay, India is the only GE Partner Institute( amongst Business schools) in the country. It is ranked amongst the best 10 Business schools in India.

However this institute awards a Post Graduate Diploma in Management to the successful students from the 2 year Full time MBA program.

Would these students be considered on PAR OR will the student with the Masters program be given the FULL MARKS for the Post Graduation program?

Q. Visa offices now require that we provide the original passport in order for the necessary visa to be entered. If I do not do this in person, how long will it take to get the passport back?

October saw Canada’s first ever Federal-Provincial conference on immigration. The Immigration Minister met with politicians from the provinces to discuss solutions to labour shortages in Canada, especially in rural regions.

In 2003, CIC expects to bring to Canada between 220,000 and 245,000 newcomers as permanent residents.

Q. If an individual landed in Canada 3 years ago, and was subsequently absent with a valid Returning Resident Permit for 2 years, is he eligible to return to Canada now? Will status be lost since he has been absent for more than 183 days without the RRP?

Q. I have 4+ years of work experience in one of listed occupations in occupation open list but since last two years I am self employed (teaching students at home). My question to all experts is it possible to apply under the Skilled Worker category if you have required experience with in last ten years but presently you are not employed but are running your own business or self employed.

The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, announced today that citizens of Malaysia will require a Canadian temporary resident visa to travel to Canada as of 00:01 EDT, September 24, 2002.

STEINBACH, Manitoba — Lidia Tschritter comes to the door barefoot to meet her nine children as they return home from school. Her hair is tied in a kerchief and she wears a homemade flower-print dress that reaches her ankles just as she did in her native Mennonite village in Kazakhstan.

Q. I need to provide evidence of employment for my positions in US. Could you tell what can be provided as evidence of employment is it a copy of my H1?

Q. My present employer may be willing to offer me a position at a Canadian affiliate after I immigrate to Canada. Would this benefit my case?

Nova Scotia is the latest province to join the Provincial Nominee Agreement with the Federal Government. This province is seeking the ability to recruit 200 immigrants per year, based on its own criteria. The criteria of the program has not yet been established.

OTTAWA, August 02, 2002 — Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) is establishing an immigration processing office in Chandigarh, India. The office, which will serve the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, should be open for business by the end of summer 2003.

Q. I have B.Sc Mathematics (full time) and MBA (which I did by correspondence). How many points would I earn?

Q. A spouse of a PhD international student at the U of Toronto, with MS in Math from the US and NO previous work experience, got a full-time teaching job in a private school (open EA, no HRDC validation) in Toronto starting September 2002. Would this person be eligible to apply for PR now or only after the completion of the first year of work? Are teachers eligible to immigrate at all? Would this qualify as an “arranged employment” and give extra points?

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Norway for the second year ranked first and the United States sixth as the best country in which to live, a U.N. report released on Wednesday said.

OTTAWA — The federal government reacted to a census showing an aging Canadian population with a suggested remedy: more immigration.

Q. As per the previous immigration rules we could gain upto 10 points by the immigration officer… i.e., if I were to score 65 points I could still qualify for immigration as I could get upto 10 points by the immigration points…

Q. Do you think after obtaining SIN, driving license, Medical card and opening a Bank account means a PR has establish his residence, even after doing all above he is out of Canada for 6 or over 6 months in a year?

Earlier this year, CIC concluded its evaluation of the Centralization and Family Class Redesign Pilot (the Pilot), established to test the feasibility of centralized processing and of the redesigned FC application kit.

OTTAWA — Canada’s immigration policies are becoming restrictive at a time when the country needs to build its skilled workforce, Nancy Hughes Anthony, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president, said yesterday.

The Government of Canada has announced major changes to the Immigration Regulations, effective June 28, 2002. Everything that you may have read leading up to these final changes are irrelevant. We now know what the law is. There are 233 pages of new Regulations and they will be subject to interpretation by Canadian Visa Officers and the Courts for a considerable time.

Dans le but d’harmoniser la règlementation québécoise sur l’immigration avec
la nouvelle réglementation fédérale (C-11), le gouvernement québécois
prévoit faire certaines modifications réglementaires très prochainement.

Q. I know they quote anywhere between 8-18 months for the entire independent applicant process, but does anyone have an idea, in reality how much time a visa office actually spends processing one file? If the Filing-AOR is any guideline, and knowing a little about what they do in that time frame (which is just to check if you have included all the necessary documents and fee) I would say it would take someone the maximum of 2 hours on one file, and for that the duration is normally 3 months. So that would mean further processing takes about roughly 5-8 hours?

Q. I have a couple of questions I am hoping you can help me with. I am going to be marrying my boyfriend here in Canada. He is from the US. We have decided that he will be coming to live here, but I am a student, and I was wondering if I can sponsor him, although I have not had an income for the past 8 months. I have worked almost 10 years previously, but I had decided to make a better life for myself. Will it be a problem? If he wants to come while the papers are being processed, would he be able to get a job of some sort with a temporary SIN number? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The federal government plans to introduce regulations to govern immigration consultants. At the present time such regulations do exit and are needed to protect the public against unscrupulous immigration consultants. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, the Honourable Denis Coderre recently said that “there are too many horror stories” and that the time as come to regulate this field. He also indicated that “the people who are really professional, and there are some, they are pleased with my announcement because they say it’s about time we are doing something about it”.

Tundra Semiconductor Corp. recently conducted an innovative experiment that had nothing to do with making chips.

Q. Suppose I land by july. In order to maintain PR status I have to stay in Canada 183 days per year or 2 years out of 5?

Q. Today I got my employment authorization extended for 1 year, but states: “not valid for re-entry.” The visa I originally got 2 years ago was “multiple entry.” Is this accurate?

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has entered into a series of bilateral agreements with interested provinces to permit the admission of a limited number of provincial nominees under provisions that exist in the current Immigration Legislation. To date, agreements have been entered into with Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia. The Provincial Nominee Program facilitate the selection of persons who, in the estimation of the provincial government, will contribute to the industrial and economic development of that province and therefore permits greater involvement of provincial authorities in the selection of immigrants destined to their province.

In March 2002, the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration released a report following the pre publication of the Regulations under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Bill C-11).

Q. In the Independent type of immigration, what’s considered in your experience a “good” score from the self-assessment? or in another words, what’s the average or normal score range for people that succesfully got the visa (with or without interview)?

I know that a minimum of 60 is required before the interview, and that the official’s evaluation can be different from mine, but if I gave myself 73 points I wanted to know if that’s considered good enough.

Q. Has implementation of the New Regulations been delayed until 2003?

The following is a summary of issues which have arisen recently which may affect those seeking temporary or permanent relocation to Canada:

OTTAWA — The federal government will refund 70,000 would-be immigrants $70 million in application fees they paid to come to Canada, Immigration Minister Denis Coderre said yesterday.

Q. Rather than trying to speed the immigration process up, I would like to know if there is a way of slowing it down. I am a U.S. citizen and I would like to apply for immigration now (because my situation may be less ideal later), but, if I am approved, I do not wish to immigrate to Canada for two years. I understand that a person usually has one year from the date of the medical in which to “land”. Could I delay things by not scheduling the medical immediately or not sending in my ROLF right away? Does anyone know the length of time allowed for such things before my file would be closed?

Q. I have a European fiancée who has post-graduate education but no experience in her field (history) and is fully bilingual in our two official languages (…and speaks a few more!). I’m a Canadian PhD student living on scholarships, research grants, and study related jobs. Although I have never been unemployed since the age of 16 and have paid all of my student loans, I still don’t qualify as an “adequate sponsor” in the eyes of our immigration officers since I don’t make enough money.

We live together for most of the year (a few months here and a few months over there) but I’m trying to find the best way to bring her here with the right to work while I finish my degree.

What are her chances of getting a permanent resident status as an independent immigrant?

The following is a summary of issues which have arisen recently which may affect those seeking temporary or permanent relocation to Canada:

On January 15, 2002, Denis Coderre was appointed Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Mr. Coderre is the Member of Parliament for Bourassa (Montreal). He had been Secretary of State for Amateur Sport since August 3, 1999.

Q. I’ve phoned Immigration Canada 3 times to get information on getting permanent residence for my fiancé (he’s an English citizen, I’m Canadian). I was told 3 different things by 3 different people, and I’m really confused. He’s currently still in England, we are planning to get married early 2002. One story we heard was that I would have to sponsor him from here and it would take 18 months. Another is that he just had to come here for a visit, no visa required, and I could marry him here and he could apply for PR within. If so, could he stay here for the application process or would he have to go back to England?

Q. If you pass the minimum number of points to qualify for an interview (pass pretty comfortably), does that mean that you’ve got a good shot at getting in? Or, is this only the first hurdle? I mean, is a lot decided in the interview?

The following is a summary of issues which have arisen recently which may affect those seeking temporary or permanent relocation to Canada:

As many may know, a first “tranche” of proposed regulations was published on December 15, 2001. This first set of Regulations sets out the details and procedures needed to administer the new Act. This pre-publication gives the opportunity to interested parties to review them and express their views before the regulations receive final approval and the legislation takes effect. It is expected that the second round of proposed regulations will be pre-published on February 9, 2002, providing an opportunity to comment until March 11, 2002.