A good number of qualified candidates applying to immigrate to Canada under the US Visa-Holders category of the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP) Strategic Recruitment Stream were told this month that their files were being closed due to the current economic climate in the province of Alberta. The affected applicants are largely professionals in the Information Technology sector. Canadian Immigration Attorney David Cohen has retained legal counsel in Alberta for the purpose of filing a Class Action lawsuit against the Alberta Immigration Minister on behalf of his clients, whose applications were unexpectedly closed by the Alberta government.

A new study by three prominent Canadian economists concludes that Canada should expand its Immigrant Investor program, and highlights the positive contributions immigrant investors have made to Canada’s economy and society in the years since the program has been in effect.

On March 16, Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced that the government of Canada is reviewing current immigration procedures to ensure that they continue to meet Canada’s economic needs. The review is likely to result in a change in the Federal Skilled Worker program, namely a change in the 38 occupations that are currently ‘open’ under this program.

This week, Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced a proposed set of changes to Canada’s refugee system that would see Canada accepting more refugees and providing allocating more funding to their resettlement. In addition, the proposed changes would streamline the application and appeal process for refugee claimants, ensuring that genuine refugee claims are approved more rapidly while false claims are denied more quickly.

Firstly, here’s a primer for the uninitiated.

Canada (the Federal government) has entered into bilateral agreements with all the provinces to allow those provinces to nominate individuals to become Canadian permanent residents based on the nominee’s ability to contribute to the economic growth and development of that province.