Immigration Blog

  Canada’s Federal Court is conducting a review of its rules. We discuss some of the proposals, which include letting consultants do judicial review, an upcomming pilot project to simplify judicial reviews, whether filing fees should be increased, ways to reduce the number of judicial reviews, and more. Cheryl Robinson is an immigration lawyer in Ontario.

Frances Mahon is a criminal defense lawyer in Vancouver at Pender Litigation. Connie Campbell is an immigration lawyer at Edelmann & Co. We discuss the law of prostitution / sex worker in Canada in the criminal context, restrictions on foreign nationals finding employment in industries such as massage parlours and strip clubs and whether foreign nationals can set up Only Fans accounts.

Here are IRCC visa approval rates for Turkey.

Lev Abramovich is a Canadian immigration lawyer in Toronto. We discuss ongoing security screening delays at IRCC, particularly for Chinese and Iranian nationals, mandamus applications, the expanded definition of espionage in Canadian immigration law, and how recently legislation to combat foreign interference in Canada may further hinder access to justice. Previous episodes discussing this growing issue include Episode #85 and Episode #96.

Martin Levine was a Visa Officer and Analyst at Citizenship and Immigration Canada from 1978 – 2009. He then worked as a contract employee as an ATIP Analyst for numerous federal departments. He previously appeared on Episode #108. We discuss locally engaged staff, reconsideration requests, recording visa office interviews, IRCC office politics, visa officers as police officers vs. social workers, rude lawyers and whether people should join the civil service.

Kyla Lee is a criminal defense lawyer at Acumen Law and the host of the Driving Law podcast. In this episode Kyla answers dozens of questions about common driving offenses, including impaired driving and dangerous driving. Topics include how these offenses work, roadside prohibitions vs. criminal charges, defenses to impaired driving charges, distracted driving and more.

The history of caregiver programming in Canada, aimed at providing pathways to permanent residency for caregivers, dates back decades, with key developments occurring after the introduction of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). There have been four main caregiver pathways since the 1950s: Live-in Caregiver Program (1992 to 2014): This program was established to bring qualified temporary workers to Canada to provide in-home care for children, the elderly, or the disabled. It allowed caregivers to apply for permanent residency after accumulating sufficient work experience in Canada, defined as at least 24 months or a total of 3,900 hours within a minimum of 22 months. Caring for Children and Caring for People with High Medical Needs pilots (2014 to 2019): These pilot programs were introduced for caregivers with two years of full-time Canadian work experience in eligible occupations, including registered nurses and licensed practical nurses. The pilots required specific language and education qualifications and were closed to new applications in June 2019, with existing applications processed by October 2019. Interim Pathway for Caregivers (March 4 to July 8, 2019): This temporary pathway allowed caregivers who were already in Canada and met specific criteria—including work experience and language proficiency—to apply for … Read More

Regulation 65 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, SOR/2002-227, provides that: 65 A foreign national is a permit holder and a member of the permit holder class if (a) they have been issued a temporary resident permit under subsection 24(1) of the Act; (b) they have continuously resided in Canada as a permit holder for a period of (i) at least three years, if they (A) are inadmissible on health grounds under subsection 38(1) of the Act, (B) are inadmissible under paragraph 42(1)(a) of the Act on grounds of an accompanying family member who is inadmissible under subsection 38(1) of the Act, or (C) are inadmissible under paragraph 42(1)(b) of the Act on grounds of being an accompanying family member of a foreign national who is inadmissible (I) under subsection 38(1) of the Act, or (II) under paragraph 42(1)(a) of the Act on grounds of an accompanying family member who is inadmissible under subsection 38(1) of the Act, (ii) at least five years, if they are inadmissible on any other grounds under the Act, except sections 34 to 35.1 and subsections 36(1) and 37(1) of the Act; (c) they have not become inadmissible on any ground since the permit was … Read More

Section 40(3) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, SC 2001, c 27, provides that: (3) A foreign national who is inadmissible under this section (misrepresentation) may not apply for permanent resident status during the period referred to in paragraph (2)(a). Jurisprudence In Baloch v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), VC3-01413, the Immigration and Refugee Board affirmed that if someone applied for permanent residence before they were found inadmissible for misrepresentation then IRCC could still process the application.

Martin Levine was a Visa Officer and Analyst at Citizenship and Immigration Canada from 1978 – 2009. He then worked as a contract employee as an ATIP Analyst for numerous federal departments. This episode is like reading the results of an Access to Information Act on how IRCC works, and then asking questions of the person who wrote it. We discuss the culture at IRCC, whether artificial intelligence will improve decision making, whether visa officers should have more discretion, budget cuts and training issues and how the biggest obstacle to meaningful change at IRCC might be the Treasury Board.