Last updated on January 28th, 2020
By the end of 2020 Canada’s system of tracking the exit of people from the country is going to look very different from now.
Regulations are expected to come into force by June 2019 for land and June 2020 for air.
Current System
Under Canada’s immigration and customs laws, all persons seeking to enter the country are required to present themselves at a port of entry and answer all Canada Border Services Agency questions truthfully. Entry information is thus collected on all travellers who lawfully enter the country.
However, the Government of Canada currently does not have access to reliable exit information on all persons leaving Canada. As a result, it cannot easily determine who is inside or outside the country at any given time, nor can it easily determine when someone left the country.
An exception to this is that since June 2013 the CBSA has exchanged biographic entry records for foreign nationals and permanent residents through an information-sharing arrangement with the United States, such that an entry into one country confirms the departure from the other. However, it does not obtain de-facto exit information on Canadian citizens.
The Future
People who are exiting Canada will not need to report to the CBSA when leaving. Rather, CBSA will collect exit information from other agencies (such as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where the arrival of a person by land into the United States would count as an exit from Canada) or commercial air carriers.
The Exit Information Regulations will require that commercial air carriers provide traveller information beginning at 72 hours prior to a flight’s scheduled time of departure.
» Read more about: Canada to Track Exits »
Read more ›Two days ago I met with an individual who claimed to have received horrible treatment from two separate immigration consultants in Metro Vancouver. The specific alleged deplorable actions included that:
- Consultant A refused to give the individual her Visitor Record until she paid him $2,000.00.
- Consultant A refused to provide her with a BC PNP refusal letter, and to this day has not provided a copy of the refusal letter.
- Consultant B refused to submit a response to a BC PNP fairness letter without receiving a large payment that was not mentioned in the retainer agreement.
- Consultant B refused to meet with her once the application was refused.
Both of these consultants are licensed consultants and members of the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (“ICCRC“). I recommended that the individual file complaints against both consultants. Unfortunately, my recommendation came with the caveat that to my knowledge the ICCRC has not once yet disciplined a single consultant against whom a complaint was filed.
» Read more about: The ICCRC Disciplinary Process [Updated 13/09/14] »
Read more ›
For years, Canadian politicians have been grappling with the issue of how to end untrained and unregulated people from providing immigration advice, a practice commonly known as “ghost consulting.” There appears to be a general consensus that tens of thousands of people each year are scammed by ghost consultants. As well, even though they are not licensed, ghost consultants harm the reputation of the immigration consulting profession broadly.
The Government of Canada has launched numerous attempts at cracking down on ghost consultants, including, requiring licensing, creating the designated the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council, and creating this video:
As well, in June, 2010, the previous Conservative Government of Canada stepped up Canada’s efforts to regulate immigration consultants by introducing Bill C-35, also known as the Cracking Down on Crooked Consultants Act.
» Read more about: Addressing Ghost Consultants »
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