On October 22, 2013, the Conservative Government of Canada tabled its latest omnibus budget bill, titled “A second act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 21, 2013 and other measures” (the “2nd 2013 Budget Implementation Act“) Totalling 327 pages, the 2nd 2013 Budget Implementation Act introduces the “expression of interest” immigration system into the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, sc 2001, c 27 (“IRPA”). Division 16 of the 2nd 2013 Budget Implementation Act states: Division 16, Immigration and Refugee Protection Act Amendments to the Act 290. Part 1 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act is amended by adding the following after the heading “IMMIGRATION TO CANADA”: Division 0.1 Invitation to Make an Application Application for permanent residence — invitation to apply 10.1 (1) A foreign national who seeks to enter or remain in Canada as a member of a class that is referred to in an instruction given under paragraph 10.3(1)(a) may make an application for permanent residence only if the Minister has issued them an invitation to do so, the invitation has not been cancelled under subsection 10.2(5) and the applicable period specified in an instruction given under paragraph 10.3(1)(k) has not expired. Limitation (2) An instruction may be given under paragraph … Read More
Saskatchewan’s Foreign Worker Recruitment and Immigration Services Act
As previously indicated in this blog post, the Government of Saskatchewan has taken an increasingly aggressive stance in combating immigration related abuses by consultants, recruiters, and employers. The Government of Saskatchewan has faced difficulties in doing so (including pushback from the courts), however, because of the lack of a statutory framework. It is therefore not surprising that on October 11, 2013, the Government of Saskatchewan proclaimed The Foreign Worker Recruitment and Immigration Services Act (the “Act“) and The Foreign Worker Recruitment and Immigration Services Regulations (the “Regulations“). According to this news release by the Province of Saskatchewan, the Act and the Regulations will impact immigration consultants and employers of foreign workers as follows: Require that immigration consultants be licensed and sign open and transparent contracts with employers and foreign nationals; Require that employers of foreign nationals be registered; Prohibit employers from charging or recovering recruitment fees from foreign nationals; Prohibit unethical conduct against foreign nationals, such as withholding documents or other property, threatening deportation or providing misleading information; Allow foreign workers and immigrants to seek compensation if they incur costs that are considered illegal under the Act; and Allow fines to be levied of up to $50,000 for an individual and $100,000 for a corporation, and … Read More
Question & Answer – Location of Rehab Application (IR-09)
The following is an e-mail exchange between an immigration representative and Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC”) regarding criminal rehabilitation applications. Criminal rehabilitation applications are the process through which certain criminally inadmissible individuals can apply to become admissible to Canada, and resolve their inadmissibility. Please note that what I have reproduced below should not be viewed as legal advice. I obtained a copy of this internal CIC question and answer through an Access to Information Act request the (“ATI”). The reproduction of question and answer has not occurred with the affiliation of the Government of Canada, nor with the endorsement of the Government of Canada. Please e-mail me if you want a copy of the original question and answer contained in the ATI. Question – May 20, 2013 Dear Madam, Sir, My client is a foreign national who filed a PR application based on the spousal category from outside Canada (i.e. in CPC Mississauga). He also needs an Approval for Rehabilitation, however, and is currently temporarily in Canada on a TRP. At the Immigration Summit last November in Toronto, I heard a GIC representative suggest that the PR sponsorship and the Rehab should be submitted together to CPC Mississauga. Therefore, that is what I did for … Read More
Annemarie Desloges, Thank you for serving our country, Rest in Peace
A sad day today. Annemarie Desloges, a 29-year old Citizenship and Immigration Canada employee, was among the at least 59 people killed in the terrorist attack which took place in Kenya over the weekend. Ms. Desloges served at Canada’s High Commission in Kenya as a liaison officer with the Canada Border Services Agency. Her husband, Robert Munk, was injured in the attack but has since been released from hospital. The Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development has issued the following press release: Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander and Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney today issued the following statement: “It is with heartfelt sadness that we learned of the death in the service of our country, one of our own, Annemarie Desloges, a distinguished public servant with Citizenship and Immigration Canada who served at Canada’s High Commission in Kenya. “We send our thoughts and prayers and those of all Canadians to Ms. Desloges’ family, friends and colleagues during this most difficult time. “Canada condemns this senseless act of violence in the strongest of terms, and we call on Kenyan authorities to bring the perpetrators of this terrorist attack to justice. “Canadian public servants around the … Read More
PSLRB Rules CIC Bargaining with PAFSO in Bad Faith
As the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (“PAFSO”) strike enters its fifth month, the Public Service Labour Relations Board (“PSLRB”) has ruled that Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC”) is bargaining with PAFSO in bad faith. The PSLRB decision can be found here. CIC has filed a judicial review application of the PSLRB decision. There appears to be no end in sight to the PAFSO strike. However, by now most individuals who frequently interact with CIC have likely realized that many applications are continuing to be processed, and that there are certain steps that can be taken to minimize the impact of the PAFSO job action. Indeed, as the University of Toronto’s Varsity Newspaper reported: For students, the PAFSO strike practically seems to have caused, at most, a limited problem. Visas, while sometimes delayed, are not being withheld with any significant regularity, and in fact seem to be getting processed more efficiently than ever.
Kenney’s legacy on immigration: the good, the bad and the ugly – As Featured in Canadian Immigrant Magazine
On July 15, 2013, Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, shuffled his cabinet. He replaced Jason Kenney as the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC”) with Chris Alexander, a former Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan. At the time of his departure, Mr. Kenney was the longest serving immigration minister in Canadian history, having been appointed Minister on October 30, 2008. During Jason Kenney’s tenure at CIC, he overhauled Canada’s immigration system. It is difficult to convey in one article how thorough his changes were. Here is one telling example. In 2007 CIC released nine Operational Bulletins regarding program changes. In 2012, it released ninety-four. Many lawyers and commentators in the media were often critical of Mr. Kenney’s changes. However, there is little doubt that his policies helped the Conservative Party of Canada win a majority government in the 2011 federal election. As well, polls have consistently shown that the Canadian public views the Conservative Party of Canada’s policies on immigration much more positively than they view the government as a whole. With these limitations in mind, I will now review below what I consider to be The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, of Jason Kenney’s time as the … Read More
2013 – Environmental Overview – Dakar
The following is a summary of the Environmental Overview of the immigration functions at the Canadian Embassy in Senegal (the “Environmental Overview”). The Environmental Overview was prepared as part of the Citizenship and Immigration Canada 2013-2014 planning exercise, and is current as of January 2013. Areas in blockquote are direct passages from the Environmental Overview. Environment The Canadian Embassy in Dakar (“CIC Dakar”) provides visa services to Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal. Remote printing facilities are available in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, and Mali. Dakar has been managing multiple changes and challenges over the past years in addition to catching up on inventories built from the crisis in Ivory Coast: developing operational structure and tools; training new staff (2 positions were filled in in Summer 2012); implementing 5 VACs in 2011-2012; finalizing closure of satellite offices in the region early 2012; office move to new facilities in June 2012; operational response to crisis in Mali in 2012 and again in 2013; implementing new regional positions over Summer 2012. .. Area travel takes time and is expensive. Availability of routes and airline services is slowly improving but routings remain … Read More
Environmental Overview (Kyiv) [Updated]
The following is a summary of the Environmental Overview of the immigration functions at the Canadian Embassy in Kyiv (the “Environmental Overview”). The Environmental Overview was prepared as part of the Citizenship and Immigration Canada 2013-2014 planning exercise, and is current as of January 2013. Areas in blockquote are direct passages from the Environmental Overview. Environment The Canadian Embassy in Kyiv (“CIC Kyiv”) provides visa services to residents of the Ukraine. There will be another Imagine Canada education fair this February. Approximately twenty institutions will take part in event which will visit Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk. This event along with last fall’s Languages Canada tour will put upward pressure on student applications but this may be mitigated by the high refusal rate which may deter some from applying. The new Federal Skilled Trades Program is likely to attract a lot of attention in Ukraine. Skilled tradesmen already make up the bulk of the Provincial Nominees and Temporary Foreign Workers. .. Kyiv started to process e-applications in 2013. Given that less than 30 cases were processed so far, it is too early to determine how it will affect work for Reception and Registry staff. Kyiv successfully hosted a temporary duty officer for remote work on Moscow cases in … Read More
Environmental Overview – Lagos
The following is a summary of the Environmental Overview of the immigration functions at the Canadian Embassy in Lagos (the “Environmental Overview”). The Environmental Overview was prepared as part of the Citizenship and Immigration Canada 2013-2014 planning exercise, and is current as of January 2013. The quoted areas below are all copy/paste from the Environmental Overview. Environment The Canadian Embassy in Lagos (“CIC Lagos”) provides temporary resident visa services to citizens of Nigeria. The Canadian High Commission in Accra is responsible for processing permanent resident applications from Nigeria. Relationships with the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) were quite strained due to lengthy visa processing times in the fall of 2012. The recent announcement of biometric imposition for Nigeria effective October 2013 has not improved the bilateral relationship. Modernization As of January 2013, CIC Lagos appeared to be experiencing significant resource issues. Although the LES and ELES staff are able to navigate through GCMS to get the work done, There is an urgent requirement for more in-depth training on best practices and streamlining of various processing steps so to increase efficiency and capacity in this office. At the moment, planning and scheduling for training is extremely difficult due to the current ongoing backlog of applications in … Read More
PAFSO Strike Jeopardizing CIC Client Services
As many people know, the Professional Association of Foreign Services Officers (“PAFSO“) is currently taking strike action. According to the PAFSO Facebook page: [As of July 10] members who have not been identified as essential have withdrawn services in San Juan, Costa Rica,Sao Paulo. Guatemala, Brasilia, Moscow, Warsaw, Singapore,Manila, Islamabad,Chandigarh,Ankara, Hong Kong, and Delhi. Some instances involve trade and political officers as well. While this action does not mean that the entire visa office is closed, it does mean a significant increase in processing times. It is true that there is some processing going on at Canadian missions abroad. Yesterday, an immigration lawyer shared a letter which he had received from the Canadian High Commission in Istanbul. He has given me permission to reproduce it below. I have never seen a letter from Citizenship and Immigration Canada which contained as many typos as this. I don’t know if a PAFSO member wrote this, or if someone who is filling in for a PAFSO member did. What I do know is that this is embarrassing for Canada.