2022 - Immigration Lawyer Vancouver, Canada | Sas & Ing Immigration Law Centre
 

Home2022 - Immigration Lawyer Vancouver, Canada | Sas & Ing Immigration Law Centre

As we approach the holidays it is customary to pause and reflect on this past year’s milestones and challenges. 2022 was another busy year highlighted by numerous and significant immigration policy changes and, frankly, bad headlines for the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. You do not have to reach far into your memory banks to recall that the CBC published several articles in the summer reporting that there was a backlog of more than 2 million immigration applications. Just this week, the CBC published a scathing report that tens of thousands of immigration applications have been assigned to inactive immigration officer accounts for processing. Despite these negative headlines, however, there have also been many examples of positive immigration changes and today I will review what I think is one of this year’s most underrated immigration success stories.

This past Friday, December 2, 2022, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), Sean Fraser, and Tourism Minister and Associate Minister of Finance, Randy Boissonnault, introduced a significant expansion of employment opportunities for the spouses and working-age children of temporary foreign workers (TFWs) already in Canada. Recognizing the significant challenges that employers are facing in the current Canadian labour market, the changes introduced will now provide for employment opportunities for the spouses of lower and low skilled workers as well as for their working-age children. This new measure is set to be implemented in January 2023 and will last for a period of two years.

Canadian work experience is often the key necessity to qualifying for permanent residence in Canada. While several other features are important – such as foreign education and foreign work experience along with language proficiency, Canadian work experience is highly significant. Having practiced immigration law for over 30 years and employed many new and aspiring Canadian immigrants, I would like to share my observations. Currently, many Canadian businesses are struggling to find workers and our office is no exception. We are frequently searching for office administrators and/or legal assistants – two occupations that are amongst the most common as the basis for applying for permanent residence. As an employer and immigration lawyer, I would like to provide some insights to securing that vital Canadian employment on your immigration journey.

On November 1, 2022, the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced that his department plans on welcoming 500,000 new immigrants to Canada annually by 2025. The announcement comes on the heels of a record-setting year in 2021 when Canada welcomed over 405,000 newcomers. While most observers will focus on the 500,000 figure itself, it is important to also focus on the types of immigrants that the Minister is targeting.

Canada’s National Occupational Classification (NOC) coding system was first published in the 1990s to classify all the occupations in the Canadian labour market and has been used for decades to evaluate prospective immigrant’s work experience. It has been updated every few years such as the minor changes introduced with NOC 2016, but the newest update that the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is rolling out on November 16, 2022 is something to be on the lookout for.

Immigration practice encompasses a broad range of services such as submitting applications to the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Service Canada (ESDC). However, there are complimentary...

As a part of the Trudeau government’s 2022 Budget, Parliament passed new legislation prohibiting non-Canadians from purchasing residential property in Canada. The Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act received royal assent on June 23, 2022 and will come into effect on January 1, 2023, lasting for a period of two years. The introduction of the bill is in keeping with one of the Federal Government’s primary goals for this year’s budget which was to stabilize the housing market and provide more affordable housing to Canadians amidst record-high inflation rates and sky-rocketing housing prices.

On October 7, 2022 the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, the Honourable Sean Fraser, announced that international students will soon be able to work off-campus for an unlimited number of hours. Previously, international students were capped at working only up to 20 hours per week during the academic year. The Minister’s new policy will take effect from November 15, 2022 until December 31, 2023 and it is expected to apply to about 500,000 international students in Canada. While this policy is intended to benefit the Canadian economy during this period of economic recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the policy is unlikely to benefit international students for two main reasons that I discuss below.

It comes as no surprise to most Canadians that we are facing an extreme shortage of doctors across Canada.  Many people have been lacking a family doctor for years.  With a view to alleviating this problem, this past Friday, September 23, 2022, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, the Honourable Sean Fraser, announced significant changes to the way that doctors are assessed for permanent residence to Canada under the Express Entry selection program. 

Canada’s international student program has long been a cornerstone of our immigration strategy to address Canada’s long-term labour shortages. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it much more difficult for recent graduates to make the transition from being temporary residents to becoming Canadian permanent residents, and many of them feel that they are being left behind in a rapidly changing immigration environment.

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