Bill C-11 Summary

Bill C-11 was adopted by the House of Commons (3rd reading) and was introduced in the Senate in June 2001. There will be no official movement on the Bill until the resumption of the Senate's session in September of 2001 .

The following is a summary of the provisions proposed in regards to the Family Class, the Rights and Obligations of a Permanent Resident, and Fees. The summaries of the Skilled Worker and Business classes will be presented in next month's newsletter.

Family class sponsorship

· Age of dependants:

- the new regulations will raise the age for dependant children from "under 19 "to"under 22";
- the new regulations will include unmarried children under 22 years of age or over 22 if they are full-time students or mentally or physically disabled and dependant on their parents

· Common law partner:

- the new regulations will define common-law partners to include a person who is cohabiting in a conjugal relationship with another person, having so cohabitated for a period of at least one year;
- the new regulation will include common-law partner of opposite and of same sex

· Age of sponsors:

- the new regulations will lower the age at which a Canadian or permanent resident may sponsor from 19 to 18.

· In Canada landing-class

- The new regulations will create an in-Canada landing class for spouses, common-law partners and their dependant children. The following requirements will apply:
a. An approved undertaking;
b. A genuine marriage or relationship;
c. A legal status in Canada that cannot be obtained through misrepresentation;
d. Possession of a valid passport or travel document;
e. Satisfactory background checks and medical results.

· Length of sponsorship:

- The new regulations will decrease the length of sponsorship undertakings for spouses and common-law partners from 10 to 3 years;
- It will make it possible for a 10 year sponsorship for fiancée to be transferable to a 3 years sponsorship, once the marriage takes place;
- It will provide that sponsorship periods for dependant children remain at 10 years or until the sponsored child reaches age 22 (whichever is longer).

· Medical Inadmissibility:

- The ground of excessive demand medical inadmissibility will no longer apply to a spouse, a common-law partner or a child of a sponsor, as defined by regulations.

· Fees:

- The new regulations will allow sponsors who do not meet sponsorship eligibility requirements to withdraw their sponsored relative's application for permanent residence and to recover part of the current cost recovery fees paid for the processing of the relative's application (for example 450$ out of the 500$ fee);

Rights and Obligations of Permanent Residents:

· Physical presence for permanent residents:

- The new regulations will define the situation in which time spent away from Canada can be deemed to be time in Canada for the purpose of retention of permanent residence;
- There will be a physical residency requirement of 2 years out of 5 years to maintain permanent residence;
- A person will no longer have to "abandon" Canada to loose it's permanent resident status, an absence will be sufficient.

· Status documents:

- The current record of landing will be replaced by a permanent resident card which will contain the permanent resident's name, photo, signature, date of birth, country of birth, country of citizenship, sex, eye color, height, date of entry in Canada, place of landing and immigrant category;
- The plan is to oblige transportation companies to request this card prior to boarding passengers coming from countries that are not visa exempted, who claim to reside in Canada as a Permanent Resident.

Fees:

The new regulations will also increase the age at which the adult fees apply with respect to the Right of Landing Fee (ROLF) from "19 years and over" to "22 years and over".