On June 29, 2010, Bill C-11, the Balanced Refugee Reform Act, received Royal Assent. This Bill provided the most significant changes to Canada’s refugee law in several years. Getting it through Parliament proved to be extremely contentious, and it took a last minute deal between the Conservatives, the NDP, and the Bloc to pass it. It is now law, though many of its provisions have yet to take effect. The Bill introduced significant changes to Canada’s refugee system, including: Replacing the 28 days to prepare a Personal Information Form with an information-gathering interview which will occur no sooner than 15 days after a claim has been made; Reducing the wait for a hearing from approximately 18 months after arrival to 90 days after the informational interview for most claimants; Allowing the government to designate certain countries of origin. Whether a country is designated or not will depend on the approval rate of refugee applications from that country. If a claimant comes from a designated country, than their hearing will occur 60 days after the informational interview; Creating a Refugee Appeal Division. Decisions on appeals will be held within 120 days of the original decision unless a hearing is held. Decisions … Read More
Applying for Citizenship with a Criminal Stay of Proceedings
A person who is subject to a stay of proceedings will generally be unsuccessful in applying for Canadian citizenship.
Residence Under the Canada-Russia Tax Treaty
We often have clients approach us asking how they can immigrate to Canada without become tax residents. There are a variety of ways to do this, and the recent Tax Court of Canada decision in Denisov v. The Queen highlights one issue that those interested in not being tax-resident need to be prepared to address.
Canada Sharing Biometric Data
Citizenship and Immigration Canada has released Operational Bulletin 226, which discusses the sharing of biometric information further to the Five Country Conference (FCC) High Value Data Sharing Protocol. The FCC (Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand) meets annually at the Deputy Minister level to discuss ways to improve immigration. In 2007, Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia (New Zealand was not yet a member) to committed to work towards the systemic exchange of biometric data for immigration purposes.
Biometric sharing has now commenced.
Alberta Suspends US Visa Holder and Family Stream Categories
Effective August 23, 2010, the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program is no longer accepting applications under either the AINP U.S. Visa Holder Category or the Family Stream. Any applications that were postmarked before August 23rd will continue to be accepted.
Changes To Temporary Foreign Worker Program
On April 1, 2011, new regulatory changes came into effect that will significantly impact temporary foreign workers and the companies that want to hire them. If you are an employer who currently employs or is interested in employing temporary foreign workers then you need to be aware of these changes. The changes include: Assessing the genuineness of a Temporary Foreign Worker; Live-in-Caregiver Changes; The Employer Blacklist; Time limits for temporary foreign workers; and Labour Market Opinion Changes. Establishing a set of factors to guide the assessment of the genuineness of an employer’s offer of employment to a temporary foreign worker. The changes introduce a new s. 200(5) of the Regulations, which reads: Genuineness of job offer (5) A determination of whether an offer of employment is genuine shall be based on the following factors: (a) whether the offer is made by an employer, other than an employer of a live-in caregiver, that is actively engaged in the business in respect of which the offer is made; (b) whether the offer is consistent with the reasonable employment needs of the employer; (c) whether the terms of the offer are terms that the employer is reasonably able to fulfill; and (d) the … Read More
Visa Office Referrals and Joint Assistance Sponsorships for Refugees
Citizenship and Immigration Canada has released Operational Bulletin 228 – Visa Office Referred and Joint Assistant Sponsorships (JAS) for Refugees – New Templates and Instructions. This bulletin is somewhat timely given the recent media furor regarding Canada’s “failed” refugee system. It highlights that there are alternatives to becoming a refugee in Canada beyond showing up and declaring an intention to seek asylum. Indeed, the number of refugees who arrive in Canada through specific programs exceeds those who declare that they are refugees from within Canada. In 2009, 7,202 people became refugees by declaring upon arrival in Canada that they were asylum seekers. 7,425 arrived as government-assisted refugees. 5,036 people arrive as privately sponsored refugees. The Operational Bulletin highlights two programs designed to combined private sponsorship with government assistance. They are the Visa Office Referrals program and the Joint Assistance Sponsorship program. Visa Office Referrals (VOR) In the VOR program, visa offices identify refugees from their inventory for private sponsorship. Such a case is initiated either by the visa office or by the sponsoring group. According to the Bulletin, the program ensures that selected refugees who are ready to travel can proceed to Canada as quickly. The most appropriate cases for … Read More
Canada’s Ageing Demographics Compared to Other Western Nations
In today’s Daily Reckoning, Dan Denning analyzes the age demographics of numerous Western countries to determine the attractiveness of government treasuries. He summarizes the relationship between aging countries and government finances as follows: Through either low immigration or low birth rates, or a combination of both, aging countries face some grim demographic math. Pension (private and public) pensions are likely to increase even as the tax base shrinks. Taxes go up on younger people. But government borrowing probably increases too, unless benefits get cut. If the borrowing is not from domestic savings (where it would then NOT go to private enterprise) it must be done on global markets at whatever the market price for money is. Mr. Denning presents numerous US Census Bureau charts showing population tendencies for certain Western countries (and Iran). I have reproduced some of these to analyze how Canada compares to other Western countries. The charts show that the anglophone nations tend to not have as noticeable an aging pattern as other developed nations (in this case Italy and Japan). This suggests that our pension “crisis” will not be nearly as severe as what will be experienced in other Western nations. These nations have traditionally not … Read More
Singh v. Canada: The Charter Applies to Refugee Claimants
Singh v. Minister of Employment and Immigration) [1985] 1 SCR 177 was a 1985 Supreme Court of Canada decision that is to this day arguably the most significant decision that Canada’s Supreme Court has made in the area of Canadian immigration and refugee law. The Facts The Appellants were a mixture of Sikh and Guyanese individuals who sought refugee status in Canada during the late 1970s and early 1980s. At the time, the Immigration and Refugee Board did not yet exist. Rather, asylum claimants submitted refugee claims directly to Canada’s immigration department, who would determine whether someone was a refugee based on advice received from the Refugee Status Advisory Committee. If the claimant was unsuccessful, they could appeal to the Immigration Appeal Board. Both the initial claim and the appeal were based on written submissions, and at the initial petition for asylum a claimant would also be questioned under oath by an immigration officer. Applicants were not allowed to make oral appeals. Nor could they respond to arguments made against them by the Refugee Status Advisory Committee. The Appellants in Singh argued that the lack of a hearing violated Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Supreme Court’s Decision The Supreme Court of … Read More
Ministers Instructions Resulting From Changes to s. 25 H&C Applications
On Saturday, August 14, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC“) released Ministers Instructions regarding proposed changes to the Immigrations and Refugee Protection Regulations (the “Regulations“) that will correspond to changes to humanitarian & compassionate (“H&C“) applications under s. 25 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (“IRPA“) that resulted from the Balanced Refugee Reform Act (“Bill C-11“). The changes will impact H&C applications under IRPA s. 25, which provides that an individual who does not meet the eligibility requirements to apply within an immigration class may be granted permanent resident status or an exemption from any criteria under humanitarian and compassionate or public policy grounds. Prior to Bill C-11, s. 25 stated: 25. (1) The Minister shall, upon request of a foreign national in Canada who is inadmissible or who does not meet the requirements of this Act, and may, on the Minister’s own initiative or on request of a foreign national outside Canada, examine the circumstances concerning the foreign national and may grant the foreign national permanent resident status or an exemption from any applicable criteria or obligation of this Act if the Minister is of the opinion that it is justified by humanitarian and compassionate considerations relating to them, taking … Read More