On August 4, 2010, the Federal Court released its decision in Sayed v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2010 FC 796 (“Sayed“) The decision involved a discussion of many Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (“PRRA“) issues, including when a PRRA officer will be required to call a hearing. The PRRA is based on the principle of non-refoulement, and provides that persons should not be removed from Canada to a country where they would be at risk of persecution, torture, risk to life, or risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. Approved applications generally result in the same refugee protection afforded to persons whose refugee claims are approved by the Immigration and Refugee Board. PRRA is generally carried out through a paper review process. However, officers have the discretion to hold an oral hearing in certain cases, as outlined in s. 167 of the Regulations. This section states that: Hearing — prescribed factors 167. For the purpose of determining whether a hearing is required under paragraph 113(b) of the Act, the factors are the following: (a) whether there is evidence that raises a serious issue of the applicant’s credibility and is related to the factors set out in sections 96 and 97 of the Act; … Read More
Am I a Tax Resident in Canada or China?
A person who is a Canadian tax resident must pay income tax on his/her worldwide income. As previously noted in this blog, people who try to evade paying taxes in Canada on income earned abroad face heavy penalties.
Competing for Foreign Students
The Economist this week has published an interesting article called Foreign University Students: Will they Still Come? While the focus of the article is Britain, the same conclusions that it reaches apply to Canada.
PR Card Renewal Wait Times Continue to Increase, plus: Use of a Representative : 說不出代辦名字易惹官質疑
Less than three weeks ago I commented on the increased delay in processing PR Card Renewals. The processing time had gone from roughly 40 days in January, to 80 days in April, to 171 days on July 16th.
Canadian Refugee Board Member Offered Visa for Sex
The Toronto Star is reporting that Steve Ellis, a former Immigration and Refugee Board member, has been sentenced to 18 months in jail. He was found guilty of breach of trust and bribery after being caught on videotape trying to pressure a Korean refugee claimant into having sex in return for a favorable decision.
Student Partnership Program Expands to China : 中加學生合作計劃
The Canadian embassy in Beijing has expanded the Student Partnership Program originally launched in India to China. The program creates a special processing channel at the Beijing visa office for students destined to member institutions of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges, whose membership includes Camosun College, Douglas College, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and Vancouver Community College. Students using the program will experience a far shorter wait time than normal applicants, in some cases less than two weeks. The application form can be viewed here: http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/china-chine/assets/pdfs/immigration/beijing/documents/SPP_Application_Kit_2010_07_EN.pdf This story broke in today’s Ming Pao, both as a front page story, and as a small story with my comments here: 在技術移民難度顯著增加的情況下，加國駐中國大使館新推出的中加學生合作計劃，有望成為中國一般社會人士移民加拿大的新途徑。 移 民律師辛湉王(Steven Meurrens)指出，先到本地學院習得一技之長，又有實習經驗的留學生勢必更受加國移民部歡迎，只要符合規定，無論通過聯邦經驗類(CEC)，還是省 提名類別(PNP)移民均更易成功，因為加國非常需要這些能夠通過技術服務社會、能有效融入本地的青壯年，他認為SPP有望成為一個新的移民增長點。 留 學顧問丁方方表示，通過留學移民的途徑日漸熱門，許多私立學校亦以此招攬生源，但實際上這些學校良莠不齊，其課程更可能完全不符合移民政策的要求，因此 SPP計劃中的公立學院是好得多的選擇，它們提供多種多樣的文憑或證書課程，比大學更注重職業性和實際操作，兼有帶薪實習課程(Co-op)，有利於就 業。她認為，這對於有意移民的普通人，SPP計劃可能是個比技術移民或投資移民更可行的選擇。
Wait Times for PR Card Renewal Dramatically Increase : 申請人及律師炮轟 中國新移民遭歧視
The processing time for PR Card renewals has ballooned from roughly 42 days to 171. There are several reasons for this, including personnel reductions at Case Processing Centre Sydney, a higher than expected number of permanent residences wanting to renew their permanent resident card instead of applying for citizenship, and increased complexity of some of the files. I was quoted on this matter in yesterday’s Ming Pao: 不增人手 問題更惡化 移民律師辛湉王(Steven Meurrens)則說，移民部完全錯估了楓葉卡第一次5年到期後、仍未累積夠居住時間而須再更換楓葉卡的人數。他指出，2002年楓葉卡推出5年 後，2007年開始接受換卡，今年才是接受換卡的第3年，人數已多到令現有人力無法負擔的程度，如果再不加人手，問題只會更惡化。 辛湉王 說，楓葉卡更換的過程比想像中複雜，例如被派到國外加拿大公司工作的永久居民，必須盡可能繳足所有證明在當地居住的文件，由於之前有個案造假，移民部對派 駐海外工作永久居民的楓葉卡更換申請，調查特嚴格，如此均拖慢所有的申請進度。 Yesterday I also recommended to an individual who is a frequent flyer and whose PR card was set to expire in February that he start the application process now. He replied that this would cause great difficulties because he would have to turn in his existing, still valid, PR Card. This is not the case. From Immigration Canada’s website: If you are applying to renew your present card and: your card has expired, you should return it with the completed application for a new card or your card is still valid, you may hold on to it and return it to a CIC officer when you pick-up your new card at a local CIC office. If you are applying to replace your damaged card, you … Read More
Does Party Affiliation Affect Views on Immigration?
Recently, the Conference Board of Canada published a series of articles relating to immigration. One of them, written by Nick Nanos, talks about extensive polling on Canadian opinions regarding immigration. It has been widely quoted in the media that while Canadians approve of immigration, they generally want the numbers to stay the same. I made summaries of four of the seven questions that Mr. Nanos asked respondents. In making the following tables, I merged “% agree” and “% somewhat agree” into one category. I did the same for disagree. The results are as follows: Question 1. Immigration is a key positive feature of Canada as a country? Voter Profile % Agree % Disagree Liberal 87.8 10.5 Conservative 79.6 18.4 NDP 86.9 10.0 Bloc 77.1 22.9 Green 90.5 9.5 Undecided 73.9 21.1 Question 2. In 2008, Canada admitted 247,202 permanent immigrants. Do you think Canada should increase, decrease, or keep the same number of new permanent immigrants each year? Voter Profile % Increase Numbers % Keep Same % Decrease Liberal 21.7 40.0 31.6 Conservative 19.1 38.4 36.3 NDP 29.5 41.4 23.5 Bloc 17.3 47.8 31.1 Green 29.3 45.3 23.5 Undecided 18.6 33.2 36.1 What these two tables indicate is that Liberals … Read More
Decline in Chinese Immigration to British Columbia : 渥京改政策 省推薦名額增
On Tuesday, June 29th, I was quoted in Ming Pao, Vancouver’s largest Chinese daily newspaper. 另一本地移民律師辛湉王(Steven Meurrens)則認為，技術移民及新推出的加拿大經驗類別(Canadian Experience)移民均甚多限制，有意申請人士最好另走他途，他認為PNP仍是移民最快增長點，但許多人對PNP仍認識不夠。 辛湉王 續稱，雖然近日投資移民的投資額及資產額都提高了一倍，但聯邦及省府均有充分信心，認為投資移民金額提高一倍不會影響申請人數，這是政府迅速增加收入的有 效途徑。 My comments were a response to recent Chinese immigration trends to British Columbia. The interviewer wanted to know my response to the following statistics compiled by BC Stats: PRC LANDINGS TO BC Family Refugee FSWP PNP LIC Entrepreneur Investor Other Total 2009 2,269 59 1,702 872 73 101 3,977 322 9,375 2008 1,957 43 3,235 654 32 120 3,712 161 9,914 2007 2,387 90 2,872 369 6 222 2,162 151 8,259 2006 2,412 147 4,795 229 8 259 2,894 186 10,930 2005 2,065 210 7,749 52 3 209 3,306 94 13,688 It is clear that in the 2005 to 2009 period there has been a decline in PRC immigrants to British Columbia. This certainly runs counter to popular myth. Second, that decline can be largely explained in the near collapse of immigrants under the Federal Skilled Worker Program (“FSWP“). This decline has occurred across Canada, and is not limited to China. Third, there has been a huge increase in the amount of immigrants under the Provincial Nominee Program. I was also asked whether I thought that there was a … Read More
The Federal Skilled Worker NOC List
As part of its recent changes to the Federal Skilled Worker Program (“FSWP“), the government has changed which National Occupational Classification (“NOC“) categories are eligible under the program. In short, the FSWP requires that a prospective immigrant either have a job offer or sufficient experience in a designated NOC occupation. These are typically occupations of which there are a shortage of skilled Canadians. The following table shows the eligible NOC categories before and after the changes. It shows which occupations have been removed, and which have been added. NOC Before Now 0213 Computer and information systems managers 0311 Managers in health care 0631 Restaurant and food service managers Restaurant and food service managers 0632 Accommodation service managers 0711 Construction managers 1111 Financial auditors 2113 Geologists, geochemists, geophysicists 2143 Mining engineers 2144 Geological engineers 2145 Petroleum engineers 3111 Specialists physicians Specialist physicians 3112 General practitioners and family physicians General practitioners and family physicians 3141 Audiologists 3143 Occupational therapists 3142 Physiotherapists Physiotherapists 3151 Head nurses 3152 Registered nurses Registered nurses 3215 Medical radiation technologists Medical radiation technologists 3233 Licensed practical nurses Licensed practical nurses 4121 University professors 4131 College and other vocational instructors 6241 Executive chefs Executive chefs 6242 Cooks Cooks 7213 … Read More