October 2023 - Immigration Lawyer Vancouver, Canada | Sas & Ing Immigration Law Centre
 

Home2023October 2023 - Immigration Lawyer Vancouver, Canada | Sas & Ing Immigration Law Centre

At our immigration law office we frequently consult with clients about spousal sponsorships, which involves an application by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to sponsor their spouse or common-law partner for permanent residence in Canada. These applications are quite commonplace and represent a large proportion of approvals each year. To illustrate, in 2021 over 69,000 foreign nationals were admitted to Canada as permanent residents under a spousal sponsorship and this represented about 17% of the total admissions approved for the entire year.

When Canada’s Start Up Visa (SUV) was first introduced in 2013, the uptake from applicants was very slow with few applications in the first several years. Things started picking up by 2018 and 2019 with the program building up momentum, largely due to immigration lawyers and consultants becoming more familiar with the program and recommending it to aspiring business immigrants. One of the most attractive features of the program was that SUV applicants would be given permanent residence (PR) on a proposed innovative business concept and that applications would be approved quickly - within 12 months or less. Then the global pandemic hit and immigration processing ground to a halt. Yet the momentum of ongoing SUV applicants continued unabated. By October 2021, “LexBase” editor Richard Kurland reported a backlog of approximately 6700 applicants and opined that the processing of applications would take several years. His prediction has come true! The combination of an increased number of applications and lengthier processing times of several years, has changed the way that SUV applications are assessed by visa officers and current and prospective applicants should be aware that the SUV playing field has changed!

There is a constant discussion in mainstream media about the need for foreign workers to maintain and support the Canadian economy. Practically, however, it is not that easy for employers to bring foreign workers to Canada in a timely fashion. At our immigration law firm, we find that employers are often surprised at the numerous steps that they need to take to bring foreign workers to Canada to assist them with their business obligations. What does an employer need to know to be able to streamline the process of bringing workers to Canada?

Sas and Ing Immigration Law Centre LLP

A partnership between Catherine Sas Law Corporation and Victor Ing Law Corporation

Copyright © sasanding 2021