On March 7, 2013, the National Post reported that Citizenship and Immigration Canada decided “two identical bids” for a government contract by coin toss. I was quite surprised when I read this, and have since obtained a copy of the contract which was used to create a legally enforceable coin toss. When I was in law school friends jokingly asked me if I would create contracts for hiking agreements and calling “shotgun!” No one ever asked me to draft a coin toss contract, but it is useful to know that there is a precedent if I am ever asked to do so. Please note that the document below was obtained through an Access to Information and Privacy Act Request, and to my knowledge is not otherwise publicly available. I have also obtained copies of the coin toss contracts which show the names of individuals and companies involved with the coin toss, but have decided not to publish them. The reproduction of this document has not occurred with the affiliation of the Government of Canada, nor with the endorsement of the Government of Canada.
ATIP Results for CAPIC Presentation
I will be presenting in Vancouver tonight at the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants annual general meeting on the recently changed Federal Skilled Worker Class and the Canadian Experience Class. This follows up on a presentation I made on the same topic at the Canadian Bar Association annual immigration conference in Montreal. As part of my presentation, I have made available the following ATIP result publicly available. This ATIP contains training manuals and internal procedures used at Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Centralized Intake Office in Sydney, Nova Scotia. It can be viewed by clicking the link below. ATIP CIO TRAINING MANUALS – https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.stevenmeurrens.com/docs/compressed.PDF I have also reposted the following copies of ATIP results which I made available for the Canadian Bar Association conference in Montreal. ATIP 1 – https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.stevenmeurrens.com/docs/ATIP1.PDF Contains: An e-mail discussion on substituted evaluation; Several e-mail discussions regarding issues with the PhD program; Processing delays with the CEC; Issues with the 2D barcode and GCMS; Addressing problems with Indian Birth Certificates; and more. ATIP 2 – https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.stevenmeurrens.com/docs/ATIP2.PDF Contains: An e-mail discussion on working overtime to process capped applications; Clarifying the use of Academic IELTS; E-mails on processing reconsideration requests; and Several OBs (most already public, and some not). ATIP 3 – https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.stevenmeurrens.com/docs/ATIP3.PDF Contains: GCMS … Read More
Changes to the Foreign Worker Program, Parent Sponsorship Program, and the Age of Dependency
On April 29, 2013, the Government of Canada announced that numerous changes were being made to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, particularly the Labour Market Opinion (“LMO“) program. While most of the changes will be phased in, some of them, including the suspension of the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion (“ALMO“) program, took effect immediately. Just over one week later, on May 10, 2013, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (“CIC“) announced that the Parent and Grandparent Sponsorship Program (the “P&G Sponsorship Program“) would reopen in 2014 and accept 5,000 applications in its first year. Several changes have been made to the program. Finally, CIC also announced that it would soon reduce the age of dependency for all immigration programs from 22 to 18. In other words, only children under the age of 19 will be able to accompany their parents when they immigrate to Canada. Changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program There are numerous, significant changes being made to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. All of the changes appear aimed at making LMOs more difficult to obtain. Effective April 29, 2013, the ALMO has been temporarily suspended pending review. Effective April 29, 2013, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (“Service … Read More
ATIP Results for CBA Presentation
I will be presenting in Montreal tomorrow at the Canadian Bar Association National Immigration Law Section’s annual law conference on the recently changed Federal Skilled Worker Class and the Canadian Experience Class. As part of my presentation, I have made the following copies of ATIP results below publicly available for download: ATIP 1 – https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.stevenmeurrens.com/docs/ATIP1.PDF Contains: An e-mail discussion on substituted evaluation; Several e-mail discussions regarding issues with the PhD program; Processing delays with the CEC; Issues with the 2D barcode and GCMS; Addressing problems with Indian Birth Certificates; and more. ATIP 2 – https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.stevenmeurrens.com/docs/ATIP2.PDF Contains: An e-mail discussion on working overtime to process capped applications; Clarifying the use of Academic IELTS; E-mails on processing reconsideration requests; and Several OBs (most already public, and some not). ATIP 3 – https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.stevenmeurrens.com/docs/ATIP3.PDF Contains: GCMS Shortcuts and Tips; Case Studies on Removal Orders and ARC; Cheat Sheet on Calculating the Start of the 5 Year Period for Rehab; Training guides for misrepresentation; Assessing medical specializations and professional degrees; Assessing Skilled Workers (Islamabad Caseload); Exercises on assessing Ministerial Instructions; Federal Skilled Worker Cheat Sheet; C-50 Summary; Australian Police Certificates; Criminality in the UK, equivalency sheets, and a whole lotta rehab stuff; War Crimes (including a chart of … Read More
Court Cases Discuss on Misrepresentation from China [Updated]
We have recently noted an increased trend involving cases of misrepresentation allegations out of mainland China. The success of litigants appealing these cases is extremely unpredictable. In this post I have summarized two cases with very similar facts, and opposite results. He v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2012 FC 33, provides a good example of how a finding of misrepresentation can occur, as well as how the Anti-Fraud Unit works to verify employment. The facts of the case were: H was a citizen of China who had been nominated by the province of New Brunswick to immigrate to Canada. On March 8, 2010, H submitted an application to immigrate to Canada as a member of the Provincial Nominee Class. In the application, H stated that she had worked as a sale manager at the Building Company. The immigration officer assessing her application asked the Anti-Fraud Unit to verify her employment. Officer R of the Anti-Fraud Unit called the Building Company. He spoke to Huang, an individual at the Building Company responsible for maintaining the company’s list of employees. Huang stated that he had never heard of H. Officer R then spoke to the president of Building Company, Boss Deng. Boss … Read More
Certified Question on Affect of Convictions on a Stay of Removal
The Federal Court in Carran v. Canada (Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness) has certified the following question of general importance: During a stay of removal order, does subsection 68(4) of the IRPA only apply to convictions for subsection 36(1) offences committed after the beginning of the stay? The case involved a permanent resident who had several criminal convictions. On May 13, 2008, a Minister’s delegate referred the permanent resident to an admissibility hearing. The delegate noted that the individual had 14 convictions, as well as an outstanding criminal charge. On April 23, 2009, the permanent resident and the Canada Border Services Agency (“CBSA“) made a joint recommendation to the Immigration Appeal Division (the “IAD“) to stay the deportation of the individual for a period of 24 months. The IAD accepted the joint recommendation, and stayed the deportation. On December 2, 2010, the permanent resident pled guilty to the outstanding charge, and received a sentence of one day incarceration, and 18 months probation. The CBSA upon discovering this conviction made an application to cancel the stay of removal, and deport the permanent resident. The IAD canceled the stay, citing section 68(4) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (the “Act”), which states that: If … Read More
Presenting The Customs Enforcement Manual
The Canada Border Services Agency is responsible for the detection and prevention of border-related offences such as smuggling, fraud, and wilful non-compliance with immigration, trade, and tax law. The CBSA Enforcement Manual, also known as the Customs Enforcement Manual, serves as the guide for CBSA officers in the execution of their enforcement related responsibilities. It has been relied upon in several court challenges. To the best of my knowledge, the CBSA Enforcement Manual is not publicly available. However, we have obtained a copy of it through an Access to Information and Privacy Act request and have made it available for purchase on this blog. The price for this document, which is a massive 1,274 pages, is $4.95. Our goal in providing the CBSA Enforcement Manual is to help you save valuable research time, and to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of how the CBSA operates. We have provided as a free preview the first page of the CBSA Enforcement Manual. We have also provided an outline of all of the information, policies, and guides which are found in it. The Customs Enforcement Manual is divided into parts as outlined below.
Immigration Related Resolutions at the 2013 NDP Convention
In 2011 I wrote about a resolution at the Conservative Party Convention to strip the citizenship of people who take up arms against Canadian soldiers or other types of treason. Fast forward to 2013, and it seems like the government may adopt a similar policy. So with the New Democratic Party, the Official Opposition in Canada, about to have their Policy Convention in Montreal, I thought it would be prudent to state the resolutions of theirs directly related to immigration (as opposed to resolutions which would indirectly influence immigration by impacting Canada’s standard of living). 3-16-13 Resolution on Equal Access to Employment Insurance Benefits for Temporary Foreign Workers Submitted by UFCW Canada, UFCW Canada Local 1518, UFCW Canada Local 1000A WHEREAS An estimated 800,000 temporary foreign workers in Canada pay full premiums with employers into the Employment Insurance (EI) program but are not eligible for the primary benefit when laid off and return home due to residency regulations implemented by the federal government; and WHEREAS Temporary foreign workers were eligible for the secondary benefits under the EI program for Parental and Maternal benefit; and THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED That the NDP call on the Harper Government to repeal this regulation and restore access to these secondary … Read More
The Cost of Detaining “Illegal Immigrants”
When the Canada Border Services Agency began dramatically increasing enforcement operations, many wondered where the Department was going to detain individuals. The provinces, especially Ontario, has indicated for many years that they do not want to be in the “detention business.” The internal document below shows that at one point the Department went so far as to approach the Department of National Defence to host some immigration detainees, particularly in the case of mass arrivals and security certificate cases. Ultimately, as the document below also indicates, the Department of National Defence was not interested. Neither the provinces nor DND appear to be interested in using their facilities to detain “illegal immigrants.” Given this, I am always surprised when a few CBSA officers (certainly not all, or even most) decide to detain people as a matter of course, only to have them be released only a few days later by the Immigration Division. Please note that the document below was obtained through an Access to Information and Privacy Act Request, and to my knowledge is not otherwise publicly available. The reproduction of this document has not occurred with the affiliation of the Government of Canada, nor with the endorsement of the … Read More
Temporary Foreign Workers to Canada by Year and Job
The debate over temporary foreign workers is back in the news. I have received a copy of the results of an Access to Information and Privacy Act request which shows the breakdown of admittance of foreign worker by year and occupation. (I am not publishing this document on my blog, however, if you want a copy feel free to e-mail me.) The table below shows the breakdown in 2005 (the last year that the Liberal Party of Canada was in government) and 2011 (the most recent year available). That I have chosen these years of course has limitations in terms of detecting trends (who knows if an occupation had an “on” or “off” year?). However, the data is nonetheless interesting, and shows an explosion in the number of people in certain occupations. Occupation 2005 2011 Percentage Change Legislator and Senior Management 1,205 2130 77% Administrative Service Managers 610 1005 65% Managers in Financial and Business Services 200 390 95% Managers in Communication (Except Broadcasting) 25 40 60% Managers in Engineering, Architecture, Science and Information Systems 610 1615 165% Managers in Health, Education, Social and Community Services 55 90 64% Managers in Public Administration 25 35 40% Managers in Art, Culture, Recreation, and … Read More