On March 20, 2026 the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced that new income calculation rules for Canada's Super Visa program will take effect starting March 31, 2026. This update will make it easier for Canadian citizens and permanent residents to bring their parents and grandparents to Canada as long-term visitors. The Super Visa program allows parents and grandparents living abroad to obtain visas to Canada and authorizes them to stay for five years at a time as visitors. This five-year period is also extendable by two years after arriving in Canada. In exchange, Super Visa applicants must meet certain income and medical insurance requirements, since visitors are not allowed to work in Canada and are not eligible to receive provincial or territorial health coverage.
BlogImmigration Minister Diab announces Mini TR-PR pathway: Ready, Set, Go!
10 March 2026by Catherine Sas, K.C.
Last November 2025, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), Lena Diab, introduced the annual levels plan which featured an “In-Canada Focus” for permanent residence including a repeat of the popular “Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident” pathway specifically targeting 33,000 applicants. The TR to PR pathway was originally introduced in 2021 in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic which saw increased numbers of temporary residents in Canada and provided them with an opportunity to transition to permanent residency. See the Minister’s announcement here: CIMM – Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence Pathways. With the levels of workers and students remaining at relatively high levels, IRCC’s “in-Canada focus” is good news for aspiring immigrants already working in Canada.
On February 18, 2026, the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) released its finalized list of skills and occupational categories that will receive priority invitations to apply under Canada’s Express Entry system in 2026. For most of 2025 IRCC’s list included only six categories but it has now been revamped to include the newly created category targeting foreign medical doctors with Canadian work experience, which we recently blogged about, as well as four new additions for researchers and senior managers with Canadian work experience, candidates with experience in select transport occupations, and skilled military recruits. In this blog, we will review these major changes to the Express Entry system and let you know what to look out for in the coming months.
BlogFinally…Canada spreads out the welcome mat for foreign trained doctors!
17 February 2026by Catherine Sas, K.C.
As the first lawyer in a family of doctors - specifically family physicians - I have always been perplexed at the failure of our federal, provincial and territorial governments to come together to offer a solution to allow foreign trained doctors to integrate into the Canadian health care system as immigrants and ultimately as practitioners in their field. When I first started practice, (over 35 years ago) the rationale was that our provincial governments spent a lot of money educating our Canadian medical students and that any places at the employment table should be reserved for our own medical graduates and not others. It took less than a decade from starting my practice for federal, provincial and territorial governments, as well as the corresponding regulatory bodies, to realize that this restrictive approach was actually limiting the supply of doctors that Canada needed overall. It is no secret that the wheels of government turn slowly and finally on December 8, 2025, our federal government introduced an immigration program to be delivered in conjunction with the provinces and territories through the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) to facilitate permanent residence for doctors already working in Canada. Let’s examine how this new program is supposed to work.
There is an ugly word in immigration practice that no one really wants to speak about: deportation. Yet deportation is a fact of immigration life, and few clients really understand the practical steps of Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) effecting a deportation order. Let’s review this unfortunate reality.
BlogEmployer Alert: Vancouver’s Unemployment Rate Dips Below 6% – Act Fast!
20 January 2026by Victor Ing
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) released new data on January 9, 2026 showing that Metro Vancouver’s unemployment rate fell below 6%. This is a pivotal threshold for employers looking to obtain permission through a Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIA) to hire low-wage foreign workers, which includes any foreign worker being paid a wage of $36.60 or less per hour. In this blog we’ll discuss why this development is so important and what employers and foreign workers alike need to know over the next few months and beyond.
BlogThe Repercussions of Immigration Program Changes- 2025 in review and what’s in store for 2026
16 December 2025by Catherine Sas, K.C.
I have repeatedly said in the past year or so that in my many years as a Canadian immigration lawyer, I have not seen so many changes to our immigration program in so short a period of time as in 2024 and 2025. As the changes have taken effect, we are now seeing the outcomes on applicants. Let’s review some of the most significant effects on immigration processing and the implications.
On October 8, 2025 the Minister of Public Safety introduced to Parliament Bill C-12, entitled the Strengthening of Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act. Bill C-12 providessweeping powers to the government to control all facets of immigration processing, affecting both potential immigrants as well as those already living in Canada. Suffice it to say there has been no shortage of concern over exactly how the government plans on using these incredible powers, but in this blog we will provide an overview of what the buzz is about and why some of the concern may be overblown.
BlogHeartwarming stories of compassion: When IRCC gets it right!
25 November 2025by Catherine Sas, K.C.
The past year has not been a year of good news in our blogs. Since at least December of 2024 our messages have been about restrictions, delays, limitations and refusals. However, three cases that we have had in our office in the past few months demonstrate that sometimes Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) does show compassion in times of crisis reuniting family members together in Canada. Let’s look at the circumstances of these cases and the steps that applicants took to earn IRCC’s trust to bring their family members to Canada.
BlogCanada’s New Normal: Temporary and permanent immigration to Canada will stay low and flat for years to come
18 November 2025by Victor Ing
On November 7, 2025 the Honourable Lena Diab, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, released her department’s annual report on immigration admission levels, setting out key immigration objectives for the next three years. Like all previous reports, this one features concrete data regarding last year’s (2024) immigration levels in Canada, while setting new admission targets for the next three years from 2026 through to 2028.
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