Question: I am in the process of submitting an application for permanent residence as a skilled worker. Can I be awarded points for unpaid work performed outside of Canada?

The RCMP has charged five people, among them an Immigration Canada official, with corruption and fraud after several raids in Ottawa.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and United States Customs and Border Protection have launched the NEXUS Air pilot project at the Vancouver International Airport.

The Canadian visa office in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, reopened mid- November, and resumed normal operations. The office is doing its utmost to eliminate the delays caused by the recent civil unrest in that country.

Draft-age Americans and their kin will no doubt be interested in the fate of Jeremy Hinzman, a former paratrooper who deserted from the 82 nd Airborne Division after his application as a non-combatant conscientious objector was turned down. Mr. Hinzman is now in Canada seeking asylum. He is arguing that U.S. soldiers committed war crimes in Iraq, and he would likely have been compelled to do so had he not deserted. To succeed in his claim, he will have to convince the Immigration and Refugee Board that he has a well-founded fear of persecution by the U.S. Government if he is forced to return to the U.S.Between 1965 and 1973, more than 50,000 draft-age Americans made their way to Canada, refusing to participate in an immoral war.

For a brief time in the mid 1980’s I resided in that jewel of a city, Hong Kong. The Sino-British Joint Declaration had just been signed, meaning that Hong Kong would revert to the control of China in 1997. Brits being Brits, they at the same time let it be known that henceforth most holders of British Hong Kong passports would not be permitted to reside in the U.K. There was a palpable sense of angst in the air as the city’s five million inhabitants weighed their options.

David Cohen, of the law firm Campbell, Cohen, one of Canada’s leading immigration lawyers, announced the launch of the Canadian Immigration Blog at http://www.davidcohen.ca.

Question: I am US citizen who was recently convicted of driving under the influence (D.U.I.). I have heard that this might prevent me from being admitted into Canada. Is this true?

The Government of Canada has introduced legislation to establish the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

A processing factor which continues to feature prominently in Vienna is the requirement to screen for war crimes and crimes against humanity. This applies not only to immigration applicants but to many visitors as well.

Controversy seems to follow some public figures like the smell of cheap perfume. Unfortunately for her, such is the lot of Canadian Minister of Citizenship & Immigration, The Honorable Judy Sgro.Don’t get me wrong. I think her appointment was a wise choice, given her background and the ethnically diverse riding she represents. Moreover, I admire her character. She displays a feisty street-fighter side in the House of Commons, giving better than she gets, when attacked. She is the kind of person you’d want on your side in a bar-room brawl. Hard not to like.That said, her short tenure as minister has been marked by a number of disputatious events:

Finally convinced that the record would show a majority of voting Ohioans do indeed want four more years, I clicked-off the TV. Unable to sleep, I continued my read of Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America.” Now there’s a scary combo for those of my ilk. And I’m not even American!

The Honourable Judy Sgro, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, today announced the launch of Canada’s Citizenship Week from October 18–24, 2004.

In the first quarter, the flow of foreign workers changed little compared to the same period of 2003, dropping 1% to 18,034 people. While some changes in rank occurred, the top ten source countries for foreign workers were the same as in the first quarter of 2003.

A traveler was surprised recently when he was denied entry from the United States into Canada. The reason: Four years ago, he was convicted in the United States of driving under the influence of alcohol.

The word of law is absolute. Its meaning, its interpretation is less clear.

I remember, as a child, the sadness in my grandfather as he recounted his sister’s plight. From the safety of Canada, in the late 1930s, he did everything in his power to get his sister out of Poland ahead of the Nazis. He managed to get her to England on a temporary visa while he begged Canadian immigration authorities to allow him to sponsor her to Canada. His plea fell on deaf ears. Canada had by then slammed its doors on fleeing European Jews. England sent her back to Poland when her visa expired. She was never heard from again.

Q. My husband and I applied for permanent residency under the federal skilled worker’s program and recently received our passports stamped with the immigrant visas. At the time we applied we were both in US. Since then I have found a job in Quebec and have been working and living in Quebec since July 2003. I anticipate being in Quebec until July 2005 and then moving to Ontario where both my husband’s and my family live.
Since we do not anticipate staying in Quebec in the long term, we would like to land in Ontario. Will then immigration officer see a problem if he sees that I live and work in Quebec but have not applied for the Quebec certificate of admissibility?

A. If it appears that you intend to reside in Quebec following landing in Canada as a permanent resident, then an immigration official is likely to insist that your obtain a Certificat de sélection du Québec prior to concluding the process. This would typically apply even if you do not necessarily intend to remain in Quebec permanently after landing.

If you are able to defer your landing for a sufficient period, then this may allow you to retain your Quebec employment temporarily, but land in Ontario without difficulty upon its conclusion.

The CREWS program helps employers find skilled workers and bring them to Canada legally. But the program is up for renewal next month and is currently under discussion. ‘We’re back at the table discussing this because we all thought there was merit to the memorandum of understanding,’ says John McVean, a program director with Human Resources Skills Development Canada.

An internal government document, obtained under the Access to Information Act, shows that Ottawa has contemplated an amnesty program to grant legal status to at least 10,000 undocumented immigrants living and working in Canada’s vast underground economy.

Q. I am a British citizen living in the UK and have a PR application in process. However my company have now offered me a position in Canada through the intra-company transferee scheme enabling me to get a work visa.

What I’m unsure about though is, will this create any problems for my PR application which is currently being processed?

Nearly all the immigrants who came to Canada in the 1990s settled in the country’s largest cities, a report says – a large jump over the number who settled in urban centres in the previous decade.

Karen Grose knows exactly what her downtown Toronto school will do with its share of the $65-million in additional funds announced by the provincial government yesterday to help improve reading and math skills for students from low-income and single-parent families.

Q. I wish to have my spouse come to Canada to visit me. I would like to apply for a Minister’s permit for her. How do I go about that?

Going into election day, many people anticipated a fierce two-way fight with the Conservative Party in this newly created riding, Mississauga-Brampton South. But as in other ridings across the 905 region, that did not happen.

While skilled immigrants face great difficulties finding jobs in the Greater Toronto Area, they play an important role in keeping the economy growing, according to a survey of attitudes toward immigration.

Q. I became unemployed soon after submitting my skilled worker application. How is this going to effect my PR application. Anybody with same situation?

The number of foreigners seeking refugee status in Canada dropped so sharply in early 2004 that the year-end total could prove to be the lowest in two decades, internal statistics show.

Don Drummond, chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank, thought “it was the right thing to do” but he was unsure about the advantages when he agreed to give a four-month internship to a recent immigrant to Toronto who had a degree from a Chinese university.

Q. My wife and I would like to emigrate to Canada as skilled workers. Can we live in Canada while the paperwork for residency is being processed?

Hiring international medical graduates is a key to solving a doctor shortage in Ontario that has reached “unprecedented proportions,” a report by the College of Physicians and Surgeons says.

Quebec Immigration Minister Michelle Courchesne announced Thursday an ambitious, three-year plan to slowly increase the number of immigrants to the province by 2007, to better prepare them for the job market and to encourage employers - especially in the regions, outside Montreal - to hire them.

Q. I applied under the skilled worker group in 2000 when I had only one son. I have just been written to go for medicals but my family has increased by one. Do I include him for the medical or have to apply for him separately?

The Ontario government has launched a new bid to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government to upgrade language and other services for immigrants in the province.

Immigrants represent an untapped “pot of gold,” the executive director of the Catholic Immigration Centre says.

Q. What is the typical duration between a selection interview and the issuance of visas?

Vancouver MP Hedy Fry led a roundtable discussion on the subject of Canada’s recognition of the career credentials of immigrants.

Refugee claimants in the U.S. will have limited time to seek asylum in Canada before a controversial agreement comes into effect requiring them to seek a safe haven in the first country they reach.

Q. I intend to come to Canada as a visitor for several months. If I find a job during that time, can I change my status while in Canada?

The Minister of Immigration, Judy Srgo, have begun investigations into private language schools in order to enhance the foreign student program. Amidst complaints that many such private institutions do not offer an adequate education, the process of accrediting such colleges is being reviewed.

A looming and “severe” labour shortage will put “significant strain” on Canada’s public and private pension system, according to a study by Watson Wyatt Canada.

Q. If I submit my case now and the pass mark changes again, how will that affect my application?

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), an inter-governmental body with more than 100 member states, tries to address migration issues outside of the U.N. system and cooperates with the U.N. in the Geneva Migration Group.

Stricter security measures brought in for the new year have left dozens of landed immigrants stranded overseas, barred from Canada-bound flights because they do not have permanent-resident cards.