Archives for May 2000

Q. My application was not approved .Though I am not satisfied from the visa office. I have decided to file appeal. Can any body tell me is there are any chance of success in my application as I was awarded 68/70 points.

Answer: An appeal is not based on the score alone. Reconsideration of the score on an application may be requested but is rarely granted.

An appeal should be based on an error in law. Such an appeal must be submitted within 30 days of the receipt of the notice of refusal. The case should be examined thoroughly for adequate grounds prior to submission of an appeal.

[Comment: Once a written decision has been rendered, immigration officials are not under obligation to reconsider the case other than in the light of a new application. Prior to that, applicants should be given reasonable chance to resolve any difficulties which may result in refusal.

Appeal is a viable solution if an error in law has taken place. A rise in the number of frivolous appeals has been a factor in the drafting of Bill C-31, in which eligibility to appeal a decision must be granted.]

Q. A Canadian IT-company has made a job offer which will allow me to get a temporary working permit for Canada. As I (only) want to go together with my girlfriend, the question is if she would be eligible to work as well? If not, would she be allowed to work if we would be married?

Answer: Your girlfriend would not be automatically eligible to work in Canada, although she may apply for her own employment authorization. If married, then she may be eligible for an employment authorization on the basis of your position, if it is one of the Highly Skilled Professions defined under the Spousal Pilot Project.

Employment grew by an estimated 30,000 jobs in March, continuing the upward trend that began three years ago. The increase in March was similar to the average monthly rise over the last three years (+34,000). The growth in employment was accompanied by similar growth in the labour force, leaving the unemployment rate unchanged for a fourth straight month at 6.8%.

Employment gains were spread among youths (+6,000), adult men (+12,000) and adult women (+13,000). Adult women (those 25 and older) contributed almost two-thirds of the increase in full-time employment in March (+21,000). Compared with the same time last year, full-time employment among adult women is up 4.3% (+182,000).

Employment increased slightly for adult men, continuing an upward trend. For this group, employment is up by 225,000 (+3.4%) compared with a year ago.

In March, the rise in employment among youths (aged 15 to 24) was similar to the average monthly increase of 8,000 since January 1998, when growth in jobs for youths began to pick up. In March, the youth employment rate was 55.8%, up 4.7 percentage points from January 1998.

Unemployment rates for youths, adult men and adult women were all unchanged from February. However, unemployment has declined for these groups over the last year. For youths, the rate has fallen 1.2 points to 13.0%. The unemployment rate for both adult men and adult women was 5.6% in March, down 1.3 points for men and down 0.8 points for women compared with a year earlier.

For more information, please visit: (Statistics Canada)

On April 6, 2000, Elinor Caplan, Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, introduced a new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act in Canada’s Parliament.

The stated goals of the new legislation are to “curb criminal abuse of the immigration refugee systems while expanding policies to attract the world’s best and brightest to Canada.” The new legislation, entitled An Act respecting immigration to Canada and the granting of refugee protection to persons who are displaced, persecuted or in danger, has yet to be passed by Parliament.

A more detailed discussion of the changes proposed by the new legislation will appear in an upcoming edition of the Canada Immigration Newsletter. Some of the more noteworthy changes may be briefly summarized as follows:

* Penalties will be increased for existing offences
* Human trafficking/people smuggling will become an offence
* Sponsorship will be denied to those convicted of spousal abuse, those in default of spousal or child support payments and those on social assistance
* New criteria will be introduced to evaluate business experience for Entrepreneur and Investor permanent residence applicants
* New criteria to maintain permanent resident status will be introduced: individuals must be physically present in Canada for a cumulative period of at least 2 years in every 5 working years
* The right to appeal Visa Officer decisions will be limited and restricted

The Family Class will be expanded to increase the age of “dependent children” from under 19 to under 22.
In addition, new regulations have been promised which will overhaul the selection criteria for Skilled Worker permanent residence applicants. Based upon past experience, applications submitted before the new legislation takes effect will be retroactively “locked in.” In other words, these applications will be assessed based upon the selection criteria in effect prior to the implementation of the new rules. “Locked in” applications will also benefit from any changes to the rules which are to their advantage. Since the proposed changes to the selection criteria have not yet been made public, individuals who qualify under the current selection criteria would be wise to submit their applications as soon as possible.

The Quebec Government has recently announced several changes to its Immigrant Investor Program. These changes are currently scheduled to be implemented in early June 2000.

The principal elements of the changes are the following:

– The selection criteria for Investors remains unchanged (i.e. successful candidates must still have at least three years of managerial experience in a profitable commercial, industrial or agricultural business or, alternatively, at least three years of managerial experience in a government, governmental organization, or international organization; they must also have accumulated a net worth of at least CAD$800,000 through legitimate economic activities).

– Quebec-destined Investors will continue to pay their CAD$400,000 Investment Amount to Quebec Government-approved Investment Dealers, however these Dealers will no longer directly invest the funds into Government-approved funds. Instead, the Investment Dealers will simply hand over the funds to a subsidiary of the Quebec Government which in turn will invest the funds in small- and medium-sized Quebec enterprises which are recommended by the Investment Dealers and approved by Quebec.

– The CAD$400,000 investment amount (capital only) will be guaranteed by the Government of Quebec. The rate of return on the Investor’s capital investment is still expected to remain low.

– The 5 year investment period will commence as soon as the Investor puts up the required funds, as opposed to the current system whereby Quebec Investors must first wait for Federal approval of their applications. Applicants who are subsequently refused by the Federal authorities will have their capital refunded by the Quebec Government.

Under the current Quebec Immigrant Investor Program, applicants are able to finance up to over 75% of their CAD$400,000 investment amount through services offered by certain Quebec Investment Dealers. These same Dealers have expressed concern that the proposed changes to the Investor Program will result in the availability of substantially less attractive financing scheme.

In a recently released report, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) outlined its goals and priorities for 2000-2001.

Most importantly, CIC intends to achieve its target of 200,000-225,000 newcomers to Canada this year. CIC plans to make the selection of business and skilled worker immigrants more effective by adopting simpler, more comprehensible selection criteria and by helping provinces and territories in their attempts to develop a standardized method for assessing foreign credentials. Together with Human Resources Development Canada, CIC will also be implementing the revamped Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program, a program geared to ensure the speedy and efficient processing of employment authorizations for workers whose occupational skills are currently needed to fill labour shortages.

Another goal for the current year is to facilitate family reunification by embracing a modern definition of the family that will include same-sex and common-law partners as well as foreign-born adopted children. Furthermore, CIC intends to simplify admission policies for visitors and foreign students, ultimately making it easier for those students who meet the selection criteria to obtain permanent residence.

In line with Canada’s humanitarian tradition, CIC plans to expedite refugee claim processing and bring in anywhere from 22,000-29,000 refugees by 2001. At the same time, CIC intends to reduce the waiting period for Convention refugees whose applications for permanent residence are unnecessarily delayed by their inability to comply with regulatory requirements (e.g., the possession of regular travel documents).

Finally, in keeping with its mandate to manage access to Canada, CIC plans to improve medical surveillance in order to determine which applicants and refugees are medically inadmissible to Canada, thus limiting excessive demands on Canada’s public health care system.