Archives for May 2002

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?

Answer: It is not necessarily the case that the delays at any given visa office are correlated directly with the number of man-hours that are required to process a file. In fact, the greatest delays are associated with the interview backlog; the queue of cases waiting for scheduled selection interviews. During this time, very few such hours are devoted to the case.

In addition, there are the portions of processing, such as medical and security/background clearance which take place outside of the visa office.

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.

Answer: Family Class Category applications can be submitted inland (within Canada) if the applicant is married to a Canadian Citizen or married to a Canadian Permanent Resident who is currently living in Canada. For such inland applications, the applicant may receive a preliminary acceptance, usually in about 4-6 months on average. This preliminary approval is called an “Approval in Principle”. It is not the final approval, of course, but it will usually allow the applicant to begin working in Canada, if the applicant happens to be present in Canada at that time, as a visitor. The Approval in Principle is often issued within 4-6 months, on average. (The final approval will then arrive at a later date, taking a total of 14 months on average to obtain.)

If the applicant is not yet actually married to a Canadian Citizen or Canadian Permanent Resident currently residing in Canada, then the application is usually sent to a Canadian Embassy or Consulate outside of Canada, as an inland application will not be accepted in such a case.

For Family Class Sponsorship applications submitted outside of Canada, no Approval in Principle is issued. Instead, the applicant must usually wait for final approval, at the very end of the process, in order to start living/working in Canada. The average world-wide processing time for Family Class Category applications is approximately 14 months. Family Class Category applications are usually made a priority in an effort to reunite love-ones and family as quickly as possible.

It is also important to note that if the couple is not yet married, then the sponsoring fiancé usually must demonstrate having earned a certain level of income within the past 12 month period, as indicated in the Low Income Cut-Off Chart. If the couple is, however, actually married, then the income level requirement is usually waived, and thus does not apply to such a case.

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”.

Minister Coderre plans to set up a committee to study the question and make some recommendations and hopes that by the fall there will be an action plan in place leading to the regulations.

More than 250,000 new permanent residents in 2001

The Honourable Denis Coderre, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration announced on April 17, the 250,386 immigrants had come to Canada in 2001, which reflects an increase of 10% over last year’s number of 227,327. The number of newcomers who were landed in Canada in 2001 exceeded the target of 200,000 to 225,000 set for last year, by 25,386. 61% of those 250,385 people, were economic immigrants.

Minister Coderre stated that: ” The release of the 2001 census data provided a timely reminder that Canada needs immigrants if it is going to continue to grow and prosper”. He also indicates that: ” Immigration has always been a key factor to in building our country and will continue to play an important role in strengthening our economy, society and cultural diversity”.

It is expected that by 2011, all of Canada’s labour force growth will likely be accounted for by immigrants. It is also anticipated that by 2026, the country’s population will grow solely through the arrival of immigrants.

L’accès des immigrants aux professions sera facilité

L’accès des immigrants diplômés à l’étranger à des professions régies par des ordres professionnels au Québec devrait enfin être facilité.

C’est ce qu’a indiqué lundi le ministre délégué aux Relations avec les citoyens et à l’Immigration, André Boulerice, devant des gens représentant certains de ces ordres professionnels et le Conseil interprofessionnel du Québec.

Ce problème de la reconnaissance au Québec des médecins, ingénieurs, infirmières orthophonistes, audiologistes et autres formés à l’étranger ne date pas d’hier. Mais le ministre Boulerice assure que les choses vont changer. «Il faut revoir nos façons de faire.’

Pour l’instant cependant, le ministre a surtout annoncé davantage d’information, de la formation et deux projets pilotes, avec l’Ordre des infirmières et l’Ordre des orthophonistes et audiologistes.

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

The Ottawa-based company placed a map of the world on the wall of its games room and asked its 200 employees to identify where they came from.

At last count, 23 nationalities from Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe were represented on the map. While many of Tundra’s staff are Canadian citizens, a good number are new immigrants either recently arrived in Canada or sponsored by Tundra to fill a massive shortfall of skilled workers in the fast-growing information technology sector.

“It’s simply impossible to recruit enough people from within Canada, so we’re hiring them from outside,” said Adam Chowaniec, Tundra’s chief executive. “Many [immigrants] are highly qualified. That’s the attraction in the first place.”

New immigrants are, in fact, becoming a crucial resource, say observers, as Canada’s IT sector faces a labour shortage aggravated by the exodus of 100,000 Canadians a year to the U.S. and a weak university system that is unable to keep up with the demand for skilled workers. According to the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), the $132-billion sector already faces a shortage of 30,000 workers as it grows at a pace six times that of the rest of the economy. It will need another 25,000 workers by 2005.

“The sector is headed for trouble — and soon,” said Dr. Gaylen Duncan, ITAC president, during a recent seminar hosted by the Conference Board of Canada.

“Despite the dot-com bust and the ongoing stock market troubles … the industry continues to face a shortage of talent.” It is a problem not limited to the high-tech sector.

Faced with an ageing population, rapid technological changes and the global competition for talent, the federal government predicts that the shortage of skilled workers — ranging from physicians and nurses to aerospace scientists — will reach one million by 2020.

The challenge, say observers, is how to tap into the influx of immigrants and turn Canada’s brain drain into a brain gain. Being able to harness their potential is crucial, they say, to maintaining Canada’s standard of living as well as boosting innovation and improving the country’s lagging productivity.

“We need to quit bemoaning the brain drain and capitalize on a Canadian immigration policy, which is a competitive advantage to other countries,” said Tim Penner, president of Procter & Gamble Canada.

But while Tundra has been successful to a degree — it still had to buy a small U.S. technology firm last year to access its workforce — statistics show there is a disconnect between desperate employers and a growing number of recent immigrants, particularly visible minorities, who are becoming increasingly impoverished.

According to a study by Edward Harvey, a University of Toronto professor, the average employment income for visible minority immigrants, including blacks, Asians and Latin Americans, dropped from $24,380 in 1991 to $23,298 in 1996. Income for non-visible minority immigrants rose over the same period to $31,194.

More striking, the average percentage of visible minority immigrants below the low-income cut-off rose to 34.3% from 25.1% over the same period. The surge was more dramatic in Ontario, which receives the bulk of new immigrants; the percentage of visible minorities below the cut-off rose from 20.9% to 32.5%.

Non-visible minority immigrants are also getting poorer. The percentage below the low-income cut-off rose to 17.8% from 14.4% nationwide. “What is the cost of all this to the Canadian economy? Billions and billions of dollars lost in the underutilization of people,” said Dr. Harvey. “Can we afford these kinds of losses? Clearly not. Our competitive future is very much contingent on knowledge industries.”

Much of the loss can be attributed to the failure to recognize immigrants’ skills and educational levels, says Dr. Michael Bloom, director of education and learning for the Conference Board of Canada. He calculates between $4.1-billion to $5.9-billion in annual income could be gained if skills were recognized.

To overcome the problem, Dr. Bloom suggests establishing a national standards and recognition system. By having their credentials certified, 540,000 Canadians, including 340,000 immigrants, would stand to benefit with average annual wage gains of $8,000 to $12,000, he says.

“We are going to need to find a way to engage immigrants more productively or else the demographic reality is we’re going to have a shocking impact on our living standards,” said Dr. Bloom.

Nonetheless, the growing need comes at a time when the federal government is making it more difficult for skilled immigrants to enter the country. Industry leaders say proposed changes to Canada’s immigration policy, aimed at sifting skilled workers from the unskilled, would actually disqualify an Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate from getting a job in Canada.

“It’s mind-boggling that a government bureaucrat is putting together a policy that excludes exactly the kind of people we need,” says Mr. Chowaniec at Tundra.

Instead, Mr. Chowaniec proposes the federal government focus on promoting Canada as a technologically innovative country — rather than emphasizing the traditional sectors of oil, gas and tourism — in order to attract more high tech workers.