Last month, a British Columbia Provincial Nomination Program (“BC PNP”) officer requested that one of my employer clients provide payroll documents for individuals who were not a part of the BC PNP application. We politely pointed out that the employer could not do this without the third party employees’ consent, as to provide the documents without their consent would be contrary to BC’s Personal Information Privacy Act. Alternatively, the BC PNP had to at least provide the statutory authority to compel the production of these third party documents The British Columbia Office of the […]
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Three years ago, I wrote about provincial nominees being denied entry to Canada at Ports of Entry. It proved to be very informative to many people who did not realize that Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC“) could refuse immigration applications from provincial nominees. While it is certainly the case that a provincial nomination certificate will generally lead to CIC approving a permanent residence application, this is not always the case. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (“IRPR“) provide that an immigration officer may issue a negative substituted evaluation and refuse an application where the […]
Read more ›The Saskatchewan Queen’s Bench (the “Court“) in Kaberwal v. Saskatchewan (Economy), 2013 SKQB 244 has released a decision clarifying the procedural fairness owed by provincial nomination programs to immigration representatives accused of fraud. To the best of my knowledge, it is the first decision on this issue. The Facts of the Case On December 31, 2012, Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Economy, Immigration Services (the “Ministry“) suspended an immigration consultant’s (the “Consultant“) right to submit applications to the Saskatchewan Immigration Nominee Program (“SINP“) for a period of two years. SINP officials accused the […]
Read more ›Demonstrating once again why it is important for representatives to contain “change of law” clauses in their retainer agreements, the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (“BC PNP“) has effective immediately suspended the Fast Track nomination option in the business immigration stream. The suspension will affect applications in processing. Applicants with applications in processing who as of November 15, 2012, had not signed performance agreements with the Province of British Columbia (the “Province“) will not be eligible for the Fast Track option. Such applicants can either (1) continue under the regular nomination process, or (2) […]
Read more ›On December 1, 2011, Citizenship and Immigration Canada released a new document check-list for people intending to apply for permanent residency as provincial nominees. Gone are the days when a province’s nomination certificate demonstrated that an individual could establish themselves economic establishment in Canada. Now, in addition to the nomination certificate, applicants will have to submit copies of educational diplomas and transcripts, as well as reference letters from all employers for the past ten years. Sections 3.6-3.8 of Annex B of the Canada – British Columbia Immigration Agreement states that: 3.6 […]
Read more ›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 […]
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On March 14, 2011, the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program expanded the Strategic Recruitment Stream to include both Compulsory and Designated Trades. Under the program, temporary foreign workers in Alberta can apply for permanent residency if: They intend to and be able to live and work permanently in Alberta. They have an Alberta Qualification Certificate in a compulsory or optional trade. They have an AINP invitation letter from Alberta Industry Training. They are residing in Alberta at the time of application and possess valid work permits from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) in […]
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On February 26th, 2011, Christy Clark won a hotly contested contest for the leadership of the B.C. Liberal Party. This means that she will become Premier within the next couple weeks. One of her priorities is to put “families first”. Few specifics have really yet been offered regarding what policies this involves. One way that Christy Clark can improve the circumstances of thousands of British Columbian families is to introduce a “Family Stream” into the British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program (“BC PNP”).
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On December 15, 2010, the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program for Business (MPNP-B) posted current processing times. As the table below demonstrates, for Chinese applicants, the wait time for an exploratory visit is huge.
Read more ›During the past couple months, our office has received several frantic phone calls from people (often real estate agents or bankers) telling us that a family who was immigrating to Canada under a Provincial Nominee Program was detained by the Canada Border Services Agency
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