The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is increasing its focus on reporting of foreign financial accounts by U.S. persons. Despite recent protests by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on the matter, the changes seem like they are going to go ahead. There are potentially significant implications that representatives should advise their US clients about. Put simply, just because your US clients are becoming Canadian permanent residents or citizens does not mean that they are absolved from reporting their taxes to the United States. The Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) is an IRS form. Any United States person who has a financial interest in any financial account in a foreign country where the aggregate value of the accounts exceeds $10,000 is required to file the form. Accounts that require reporting include Canadian bank accounts, investments, mutual funds, life insurance, RRSPs, RESPs, TFSA’s, etc. With such a low threshold, the FBAR reporting requirements likely apply to many of your American clients. The IRS website states that failure to file an FBAR when required to do so may result in civil penalties, criminal penalties or both. If your clients have not been filing an FBAR when they were required to do so, … Read More
Custodianship for Minors
Many minors wish to reside temporarily in Canada. Their reasons for doing so range from making extended visits to the more common scenario of studying in Canada as an international student. In order to obtain a visitor visa or a study permit, minor applicants generally must supply two notarized declarations. The first is from the parent or legal guardian in the applicant’s country of origin. The second is from the minor applicant’s intended custodian in Canada, stating that arrangements have been made for the custodian to act in place of the parent and to support the child. On September 15, 2011, Citizenship and Immigration Canada introduced an exception to the custodianship requirement to some minor’s aged 17 and older. Definition of Minor Child In Canada, each province or territory defines the age of majority. Anyone under the age of majority at the time of their arrival in Canada is considered to be a “minor child.” The age of majority is 18 in: Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. The age of majority is 19 in: British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and the Yukon. (On a side note, it is interesting … Read More
The Impact of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program on Alberta
In August 2011 Teresa Woo-Paw, the Alberta Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Employment and Immigration released a report titled Impact of the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program on the Labour Market in Alberta. The main thrust of the report was that Alberta’s workforce is projected to be 77,000 workers short between 2002 and 2012, with overall demand outpacing supply from 2015, and that Alberta should implement, and the Government of Canada should facilitate, Alberta implementing a program to attract labour through immigration to address the labour shortage. The report contained numerous recommendations, some of which were accepted by the Alberta government. The Political Back and Forth Between Jason Kenney and the Government of Alberta In response to the report, Thomas Lukaszuk, Alberta’s Minister of Employment and Immigration, recently urged the federal government to remove the annual caps on the number of provincial nominees. The Brooks Bulletin recently reported on Jason Kenney’s, the federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, response. According to the Brooks Bulletin, he stated: It would almost result in doubling national immigration levels to Canada when 80 per cent of Canadians are saying immigration levels are already high enough or are too high. I think they are … Read More
The Afghan Interpreter Debacle
The Afghan Interpreter Debacle is a strong example of why it is important to be skeptical of government promises. In September, 2009, the Government of Canada announced with great fanfare that it would be introducing special measures to facilitate immigration to Canada of certain local translators in Afghanistan who faced exceptional risk or who have suffered serious injury as a result of their work for the Canadian government. In a Citizenship and Immigration Canada press release at the time, Jason Kenney announced: There are Afghans who face extraordinary personal risk as a result of their work in support of Canada’s mission in Kandahar. We commend their bravery to help build a better Afghanistan while recognizing the price that they have paid. Their lives and those of their families may be threatened by insurgents, and some have suffered serious injury and can no longer work. To recognize their contribution, we will offer them special consideration if they wish to relocate to Canada. Flash forward to today. On Sunday, the Globe and Mail published a story titled “Program to bring Afghan interpreters to Canada ends with most turned away.” Most applicants appear to have been turned away because they cannot meet the … Read More
BC PNP Statistics
The British Columbia government has released a report on the province’s Provincial Nominee Program (“BC PNP”). Introduced in 2001, the BC PNP has become one of the most preferred routes for people immigrating to Canada. I personally believe that the number of people admitted to the program’s current cap of 3,500 nominations should be increased with a corresponding decrease in some of the federal programs. The Strategic Occupations Stream The report reached the following conclusions about the Strategic Occupations Stream, which consists of numerous programs designed to attract skilled or future-skilled workers to British Columbia. From 2005-2010 (mid-year), the BC PNP nominated almost 10,000 workers who were employed by over 4,600 employers. The top 5 source countries in order for the BC PNP Strategic Occupations Stream during this period was the United Kingdom, China, the Philippines, the United States, and Korea. 25% of nominees settled outside of the Metro Vancouver region. This is significantly larger than the 10% of Federal Skilled Workers who immigrate to British Columbia that settled outside the Lower Mainland, and the incredibly small 6% of Federal Business Class immigrants. 94% of people nominated continue to live in British Columbia. 86% of people remain in the … Read More
Evidence that Can be Used at a PRRA
A Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (“PRRA“) application by a refused refugee claimant is not an appeal or reconsideration of the decision of the Refugee Protection Division to the failed refugee claim. Section 113(a) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (“IRPA“) provides that an applicant whose claim to refugee protection has been rejected may present only new evidence that arose after the rejection or was not reasonably available, or that the failed refugee claimant could not reasonably have been expected in the circumstances of the refugee claim to have presented. Specifically, IRPA s. 113(a) states: 113. Consideration of an application for [a PRRA] shall be as follows: (a) an applicant whose claim to refugee protection has been rejected may present only new evidence that arose after the rejection or was not reasonably available, or that the applicant could not reasonably have been expected in the circumstances to have presented, at the time of the rejection; Accordingly, as the Federal Court of Appeal noted in Raza v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2007 FCA 385, PRRA officers must respect the negative refugee determination unless there is new evidence of facts that might have affected the outcome of the Refugee Protection Division hearing. There are numerous factors that PRRA officers … Read More
Claiming Refugee Status Because of Illegal Departure from a Country
Some countries, such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, have a requirement that an individual obtain an exit visa (i.e. permit) to leave the country. The Federal Court of Appeal decision in Valentin v Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration), [1993] 3 FC 390 bars self-induced refugee status. Valentin starts from the premise that a claimant has a valid exit visa. It then bars the claimant from overstaying the visa and relying on that overstay as a ground of persecution. Valentin has been cited in numerous Federal Court decisions. In Zandi v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration), 2004 FC 311, a case involving an Iranian who defected to Canada during an athletic competition, the Federal Court stated: To paraphrase the Federal Court of Appeal in Valentin, supra, a defector cannot gain legal status in Canada under IRPA by creating a “need for protection” under section 97 of IRPA by freely, of their own accord and with no reason, making themselves liable to punishment by violating a law of general application in their home country about complying with exit visas, i.e. returning. Fortunately for would-be defectors, however, the analysis does not end there. Subsequent jurisprudence has since ruled that it is … Read More
Open spousal work permit program expanded in British Columbia
A little known fact in Canada’s immigration system is that a foreign worker’s spouse or common-law partner may be eligible to apply for an “open” work permit that will allow him/her to accept any job with any employer in Canada. For most of Canada, the condition is that the foreign worker must be working in Canada for six months or longer in a job that is skill level 0, A, or B in the National Occupational Classification. On August 15, 2011, the program was significantly expanded in British Columbia under a Pilot Project that will last until February 15, 2013. Spouses and common-law partners of temporary foreign workers engaged in NOC C and D skill categories are now eligible to obtain open work permits. According to OB 337, Applicants must meet the following criteria: The applicant must be a spouse or common-law partner, or a dependent child, of a principal applicant described in sub-section ii below. The principal foreign worker must have been issued an employer-specific work permit that is valid for at least six months for an employer located in BC. Dependent children must be aged 18-22 at the date of application, and eligible to work in BC. Family members … Read More
Who are the Quebec Investors?
The Quebec government has data regarding the amount of people applying to immigrate to Canada under the Quebec Immigrant Investor Program. The data contains interesting trends about who is using the program. The first thing to note is the dramatic rise in the number of people applying to the program from June 2010 to January 2011, followed by the collapse in the number of applicants. Those familiar with Canadian immigration knew that the Quebec from benefited greatly from the close of the Federal Investor Program in 2010. This chart confirms that. It will be interesting to see whether there will be a similar increase in the number of applicants now that there is a moratorium on Federal Investor applications. The second thing, which was obvious to everyone familiar with immigration, is how dominant Asia and the Middle East are in terms of source countries for investor immigrants. What would be especially interesting to know would be the distribution of investor immigrants among the facilitator banks. However, to my knowledge, such data has never been made publicly available.
Implications of Signing a Document
Clients often come to me having signed documents that they do not understand. Sometimes these documents are admissions of certain actions. Other times they are documents stating that they waive their appeal right. The Federal Court has recently released a decision affirming that such signatures may not be legally binding on the individual. In Martinez Rodriguez v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2011 FC 946, an individual wanted to visit Canada. She had previously been a permanent resident, but left Canada at the age of six. She returned twice, each time obtaining a temporary resident visa. She applied for a visa to visit a third time. During the processing of her application, the immigration officer noticed that she was in fact still a resident, but was in breach of the residency requirements. The officer, apparently trying to facilitate her visit to Canada, had the client sign a document whereby she acknowledged that she had lost her permanent resident, and that she voluntarily waived her appeal right. The applicant then appealed the lost of her permanent resident status to the Immigration Appeal Division. They refused the appeal, saying that she could not appeal because she had signed a document waiving her appeal … Read More