Category Archive

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.

The following is a 2014 training manual for processing temporary residence applications. Although it is quite old it is one of the better pieces of training materials that I have seen, and I recommend it for anyone looking to understand temporary resident processing, or a refresher.

Part 7 Division 3 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (the “IRPR”) governs who can be a sponsor. It provides that in order to sponsor family members, a sponsor must: be 18 years of age or older; be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident; currently residein Canada if they are a permanent resident; file a sponsorship application in respect of a family member in accordance with section 10; and if the sponsor landed as a principal applicant through a family reunification stream, wait 5 years since the date of landing before they submit the sponsorship application. Although the IRPR does not explicitly state it, Registered Indians are also eligible to sponsor family members. Legislation Training Manuals Several Family Class training manuals.

The following are several Memorandums to the Minister about the immigration program for out of status construction workers.

Regulation 4.1 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, SOR/2002-227 (the “IRPR“) provides that: 4.1 For the purposes of these Regulations, a foreign national shall not be considered a spouse, a common-law partner or a conjugal partner of a person if the foreign national has begun a new conjugal relationship with that person after a previous marriage, common-law partnership or conjugal partnership with that person was dissolved primarily so that the foreign national, another foreign national or the sponsor could acquire any status or privilege under the Act. This section is often referred to as prohibiting “divorces of convenience.” Jurisprudence In Fang v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2020 FC 851, Madam Justice Walker explained that regulation 4.1 of the IRPR “prevents a couple from appearing to dissolve an existing relationship to permit one spouse to obtain immigration status in Canada, for example through a non-genuine relationship with a Canadian citizen [or permanent resident], only to subsequently resurrect the initial relationship.” Madam Justice Walker also stated that section 4.1 is premised on three conjunctive elements to determine whether someone is caught by the provision.  Justice Southcott succintly summarized the test as follows in Zhang v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2021 FC 744: the immigration … Read More

The following PDF is the Instructor’s Guide and Participant’s Guide for processing permanent residence applications.

Aditya Mohan is the founder of Robometrics, a company at the forefront of the intersection of artificial intelligence and human emotions like empahty. We discuss the increasing use of artificial intelligence in Canadian immigration legislation, its benefits, and ways to increase transparency and oversight.   8:00 – What are deep learning systems? 14:00 – How does the use of artificial intelligence intersect with the rule of law? 21:00 – How do machines learn? 24:00 – Benefits of machine learning and immigration. 27:00 – Ways to improve transparency. 41:00 – Artificial intelligence providing reasons for refusals.

A discussion about the increasing use of artificial intelligence to decide immigration applications. Mario Bellissimo is a Canadian immigration lawyer in Toronto, and the former past Chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s National Immigration Law Section.   4:00 How imprecise wording in the forms can result in misrepresentation findings where immigration becomes a game of gotcha. 10:30 How the laws of procedural fairness and discretion will need to be re-written as a result of the implementation of artificial intelligence and predicative learning in immigration systems. 13:30 How using AI to triage applications is itself a form of automated decision making and why is there a lack of transparency about this? 19:25 The history of the introduction of AI at IRCC. 28:20 What is Chinook and ? 36:00 How processing delays can lead to applications being denied simply because they are moot. 39:00 How does one learn what AI is being used or whether a decision was made by AI? 44:45 If AI flags a file as being problematic does that create a proxy decision wherein a visa officer will want to affirm the AI. 55:00 Is it possible that AI will lead to a better immigration system as the AI … Read More