Category Archive

Mikal Skuterud is a professor of economics at the University of Waterloo. The paper on TR-to-PR transition rates can be found here: www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogu…01202200100002. The paper on outmigration can be found here: www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11f0019…012340-eng.htm.   3:00 – Does Canada economically need high immigration levels because of low-birth rights? 6:00 Is it short sighted from an economic perspective to focus on labour market needs and the wishes of people to have their parents live with them? 9:00 Is there a way to measure whether economic immigrants are increasing or decreasing GDP per capita? 19:00 What role should immigration play in resolving short-term labour shortages? 32:00 What would be the economic consequence if all foreign workers became permanent residents? 42:00 Is there data to support the notion that international students perform better economically in Canada? 53:00 How does the concept of utility play into macroeconomic planning in the context of immigration? 60:00 The economic integration of immigrants. 67:00 How should the CRS be re-weighted? 1:18:00 Is Canada becoming too reliant on immigrants propping up housing to support the Canadian economy?

A discussion about Canada’s low approval rates for study permit, work permit and temporary resident visa applications for people from Africa. Professor Christian can be found on Twitter @ProfXtian. The IRCC Anti-Racism Employee Focus Groups Final Report referenced in this episode can be found here – epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/200/301/pwgs…al_Report_EN.pdf

We took to Twitter to get listener questions for our first Ask Me Anything episode. Will a gay refugee be deported if her sexuality changes? Does Deanna have any insight or information into what is going on with caregiver applications? Why are local visa offices not processing already approved express entry applications? How do you think realistically IRCC should change their workflow and file processing? Do we need to mention previous visa rejections in spousal sponsorship applications? Why can spouses from visa exempt countries easily reunited with their loves ones in Canada while those who need visas cannot? Why is there a particular hatred towards outland spousal apps? What do you think about the IRCC’s local 3.5 workers to every 1 Canadian employed at the VO’s? Is this appropriate? Why does artificial intelligence refuse so many applications? Why is the IRCC so secretive?

The following is a summary of information about an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (“IRCC”) tool called Lighthouse. Lighthouse is a prototype risk detection tool developed by IRCC’s Advanced Analytics Solution Centre (“A2SC”).  Lighthouse aims to automatically identify and summarize historical risk patterns for IRCC officials.  It can be used to support frontline decision makers or to understand historical risk patterns. As the Memorandum to the Director General, Operational Planning and Perfromance Branch memo notes below,  it is essentially a data-mining tool that identifies and presents fact-based information. The pattern reports that are used in Lighthouse are intended to provide sufficient evidence of any individual pattern. All patterns are “self-contained” in that they are intended to stand on their own merit regardless of the rest of the system. Encrypted data and model information is currently being retained to allow A2SC to recreate a model on-demand and provide the underlying data to explain how Lighthouse patterns were produced and why applications matched against these patterns. In 2020 Lighthouse uncovered over 800 unique risk patterns, some of which led to identification of larger-scale fraud trends.  

Legislation Regulation 1(3) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (the “IRPR“) defines a family member as being: the spouse or common-law partner of the person; the dependent child of the person or of the person’s spouse or common-law partner; or a dependent child of a dependent child referred to in paragraph (b). Regulation 117 of the IRPR lists the following as being members of the Family Class. Spouse, Common-Law Partner, Conjugal Partner Dependent Child Adopted Child Parent, Grandparent Orphaned Brother, Sister, Niece, Nephew, Grandchild Other Relative Process The typical application process for a Family Class application is: Sponsorship and applicant’s permanent residence application is sent to the Case Processing Center; The Case Processing Center determines if the sponsor is eligible; and Applications are triaged by the Case Processing Center to be either processed inside Canada or overseas. The following was obtained through an Access to Information Act request.

On September 26, 2022, regulatory changes to Canadian immigration law took effect with the goal being to increase protections for temporary foreign workers.  All employers who currently employ, or wish to employ, foreign workers should understand these changes. In order to understand the changes, it is necessary to understand the distinction between the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (the “TFWP”) and the International Mobility Program (the “IMP”). In brief, the TFWP is a method of hiring foreign workers in which employers need to first obtain Labour Market Impact Assessments to demonstrate that the entry of the foreign workers will have a positive or neutral impact on the Canadian labour market. This is typically done through recruiting on prescribed locations for a four week period prior to applying, although there are recruitment exemptions. The IMP consists of workers who are exempt from the requirement to obtain a Labour Market Impact Assessment.  Examples include free-trade agreements, International Experience Canada, provincial nominees, charitable and religious workers, and more.   Many more, in fact. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has almost one-hundred exemption categories. Providing Information to Foreign Workers About their Rights The change which will likely take most employers by surprise is that employers must provide … 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.   The following PDF which was obtained through an Access to Information Act request contains IRCC guidance on handling requests from Members of Parliament. 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.