Regulation 76(1)(b) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations provides that:
For the purpose of determining whether a skilled worker, as a member of the federal skilled worker class, will be able to become economically established in Canada, they must be assessed on the basis of the following criteria:
(b) the skilled worker must
(i) have in the form of transferable and available funds, unencumbered by debts or other obligations, an amount equal to one half of the minimum necessary income applicable in respect of the group of persons consisting of the skilled worker and their family members.
Applicants are not required to have settlement funds if the applicant is authorized to work in Canada and has been awarded points for a qualifying offer of arranged employment under Express Entry or for arranged employment in Canada.
The funds must be
- available and transferable;
- unencumbered by debts or other obligations; and
- sufficient to support initial establishment in Canada.
IRCC Questions and Answers
The following are two questions that lawyers asked IRCC’s IMMrep department, and the response.
Question – To what extent are people able to use funds within “investment accounts” to satisfy the proof of funds requirement?
Question – To what extent are outstanding debts such as credit card debt, loans, mortgages, etc. assessed against the positive balance in bank and investment accounts for those required to provide Proof of Funds?
» Read more about: Settlement Funds »
Read more ›The following PDF contains internal Canada Border Services Agency documentation regarding removals from 2012-2019.
It includes removals broken down by inadmissibility, the number of administrative deferrals of removals, yearly removal priorities, breakdowns by top country, cost of removals, the number of outstanding removal orders and temporary suspensions of removal.
» Read more about: Statistics on Removals »
Read more ›The following is the 2018 Migration Office Overview for Berlin.
» Read more about: Migration Office Overview – Berlin »
Read more ›Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (“IRCC”) will often tell people that they do not need to hire a lawyer or consultant in order to immigrate to Canada. They are right.
In 2018 IRCC approved 191,337 applications for permanent residence.
Of these, 7,334 were represented by a lawyer, 11,262 were represented by a regulated consultant, 52,066 were represented by a family member or friend, and 191,337 had no representative.
IRCC in 2018 also approved 17,678 applications in which there was a lawyer as representative, 17,554 in which there was a regulated consultant, 258,802 in which the representative was a family member or a friend, and 2,448,311 in which the person was unrepresented.
While the above statistics do not show approval rates or refusals, which are not publicly available nor do I possess, and it is possible that there is a prevalence of ghost representation that is not reflected in the statistics, the approval figures certainly demonstrate that it is not necessary to hire a representative to immigrate to Canada.
Do You Need a Lawyer
When someone asks whether they need a representative in their application I typically tell them to review the IRCC website, forms and document checklists and to then decide whether they are comfortable submitting an application on their own. If they are not, then they should hire a representative, or at least schedule a consultation with one to discuss what is causing them to be uncomfortable.
For those individuals who are more or less comfortable with the material on the IRCC website, the decision of whether to hire a representative is a cost-benefits analysis.
» Read more about: Tips on Hiring a Representative »
Read more ›A frequent question that people ask is what role their Member of Parliament can play in assisting them.
Requests
In my opinion, the biggest role an MP can play is getting a timely status update. MPs typically can get an update in 48 hours, as opposed to 30 days for an Access to Information Act request or 14 days for a Case Specific Enquiry.
Letters
MPs can also write letters on files. As Justice Ahmed noted in Nagarasa v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2018 FC 313, visa officers have to take these letters into consideration when assessing applications.
» Read more about: Approaching Members of Parliament »
Read more ›Sergio Marchi was Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration from 1993-1995.
Borderlines · #46 – An Interview with Sergio Marchi, Canada’s Immigration Minister from 1993-1995
3:00 – Does someone keep the Minister title their whole life?
4:50 – What was the political consensus regarding Canadian immigration at the end of the 1980s? How did the Reform Party impact things?
8:00 – The mix of immigrants between economic, family and humanitarian immigrants.
11:15 – What dictates whether IRCC meets its level targets?
14:30 – The Brian Mulroney government was considering moving immigration under Public Safety. Under Sergio Marchi it instead became it’s on Ministry. What prompted this?
17:30 – Canadian attitudes to refugee resettlements and misconceptions.
20:45 – Sources of resistance to refugee resettlement. Resettled refugees vs asylum seekers.
23:00 – Changes that Minister Marchi made to the refugee determination process.
25:00 – What was Minister Marchi’s approach to intervening on specific cases? When would Minister Marchi help Members of Parliament on constituent files? Did it matter which political party the MP was from?
32:00 – The impact of a police officer who was shot by an illegal immigrant on deportation policy.
36:00 – Whether the Canada Border Services Agency should be under the immigration umbrella.
37:30 – What Minister Marchi considers to be his main accomplishments and the implementation of the right of landing fee.
45:00 – Minister Marchi’s push to remove the Queen from the citizenship oath.
Read more ›Syed Farhan Ali shares his Canadian immigration story. During the time that his spousal sponsorship application was in process he was denied temporary entry to Canada, missed the birth of his first child and missed her first steps. He recently arrived in Canada after a three year application process.
Chantal Dube is a Spokesperson for Spousal Sponsorship Advocates, a group with more than 5,000 members in Canada that argues for reforms to the family reunification process.
Borderlines · #45 – Spousal Sponsorship Delays and Refusals, with Chantal Dube and Syed Farhan Ali
3:15 Said tells the story of his spousal sponsorship application. His application took 34 months to process. During the processing of his application Canada denied his visitor visa applications. He missed the birth of his children and their first steps, although he was able to reunite with his wife during brief trips to the United States, which did grant him a visitor visa.
21:00 We discuss the refusal of temporary resident visas for people with spousal sponsorship applications in process, people with frequent travel histories, people with American multiple entry visas, and judicial reviews.
25:00 How long a judicial review takes.
29:50 Assessing genuineness in a spousal sponsorship application, and the distinction between “low risk and high risk” in the checklists.
33:00 The strange quirk in the Family Class where people have to prove that their relationship is genuine but immigrants and foreign workers do not. The same is true for work permits, where the spouses of Canadians cannot apply for work permits from abroad, but the spouses of foreign workers can.
38:00 What are major issues that Sponsorship Advocates seeing?
39:45 What things can trigger genuineness concerns? » Read more about: Borderlines Podcast Episode 45 – Spousal Sponsorship Delays and Refusals, with Chantal Dube and Syed Farhan Ali »
Read more ›Last updated on March 16th, 2021
In this page I will be posting assorted statistics on asylum claims that I find interesting.
1) In 2010 the rate of asylum claimants claiming social assistance was 84% in Ontario, 79% in Quebec, 57% in BC, and 48% in BC.
2) Interesting chart showing asylum claimants based on country of citizenship and province of claim in 2013-14.
3) Charts Showing the Increase in Claims from Nigeria
4) Refugee Claims Analysis Report (RCAR)
» Read more about: Statistics on Asylum Claimants »
Read more ›A Labour Market Impact Assessment (a “LMIA“) is an assessment by the Department of Employment and Social Development Canada (“ESDC“) that the hiring of a foreign worker will have a positive, neutral or negative impact on Canada’s labour market.
An LMIA is often a requirement to hire a foreign worker.
There are certain situations in which ESDC will refuse to issue a LMIA. This effectively precludes employers from utilizing the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (the “TFWP“).
The Sex Industry
Regulations 183(b.1) and 196.1 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (the “IRPR”) provides that temporary residents are prohibited from entering into an employment agreement, or extending the term of an employment agreement, with an employer who, on a regular basis, offers striptease, erotic dance, escort services or erotic massages.
Regulation 200(3)(g.1) of the IRPR further provides that work permits cannot be issued to workers who intend to work for employers who, on a regular basis, offers striptease, erotic dance, escort services or erotic massages.
Because of this, ESDC will not issue LMIAs to employers who regularly offer services in the sex industry (striptease, erotic dance, escort services or erotic massage).
Ineligilibity List
Employers who hire temporary workers may be inspected to make sure they meet their responsibilities as an employer under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program or International Mobility Program. If an employer is found non-compliant, they can receive either a monetary penalty or a ban from hiring temporary workers for a specified period of time.
As such, ESDC will not issue LMIAs to employers who are on the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada ineligibility list which includes employers who:
- have been found non-compliant as result of an employer compliance review
- have been banned from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program because non-compliance was discovered during an inspection
- are in default of payment of an administrative monetary penalty.
» Read more about: Refusal to Process a Labour Market Impact Assessment »
Read more ›During the COVID-19 pandemic Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (“IRCC”) has implemented numerous policies to try to process applications as normally as possible and also provide applicants who are unable to provide certain documents or meet deadlines with flexibility. Applicants should know that while IRCC is providing more flexibility than it normally does to incomplete applications that it is still returning applications that are technically incomplete where applicants do not provide an explanation. The return of these applications sometimes takes months due to pandemic related intake delays at IRCC, and it is very important that applicants submit complete applications.
IRCC’s COVID-19 Policy with Regard to Missing Documentation
Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations provides that IRCC can return applications that are missing mandatory information or documents.
During COVID-19, IRCC’s policies are that new, complete applications will be processed as normally possible.
If a new application is missing supporting documentation or information, then an applicant must include an explanation with their application that they are affected by a service disruption as a result of COVID-19. IRCC will then essentially put the application aside, and wait for the document to be provided.
If a new application is missing supporting documentation or information, and an applicant has not provided an explanation, or if the reason why the document or information is missing is not related to a disruption of services caused by COVID-19, then IRCC will return the application for being incomplete.
IRCC’s Public Messaging vs. Reality
IRCC officials have stated in public that during COVID-19 they have not returned incomplete applications, but rather contacted applicants to remedy the situation. On November 25, 2020, for example, Marco Mendicino, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada told the House of Commons Committee on Citizenship and Immigration that in the spousal sponsorship context visa officers work with Members of Parliament to troubleshoot incomplete applications with the goal being to reunited as many families as possible.
» Read more about: Returning Applications During COVID-19 »
Read more ›Social Media
