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On September 17, 2017 the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) came into force providing for the exchange of services between Canada and the European Union (EU). CETA provides for the entry of business visitors, independent professionals and contractual service providers as well as intra-company transferees.

We are frequently consulted by prospective immigrants who want to know IF THEY qualify for permanent residence to Canada under the Express Entry program. Express Entry is Canada's immigration selection system for the majority of economic immigrants and it has been in operation for nearly three years now, having been introduced on January 1, 2015.

In this age of information technology, Canada's department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) provides considerable online information for prospective immigrants. A visit to IRCC's website (still listed under the former CIC acronym) on their home page provides the following:

The hard truth is that not all immigration applications are approved.  Clients often come to us asking what their options are for challenging a negative decision.  The course of action to take depends upon the type of application that has been made.

Canada has experienced ongoing labour shortages for many years causing more employers to hire foreign workers to meet their business needs. The growth of Canada's foreign worker program has led to the introduction, in recent years, of strict compliance measures for employers in all aspects of Canada's immigration delivery system with Service Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

Canada's Express Entry Immigration program is a selection system for economic immigrants comprising four distinct immigration streams - the Federal Skilled Worker stream, the Canadian Experience Class, the Federal Skilled Trades Program and the Provincial Nominee Program. Each of these Immigration categories has their own distinct criteria both federally for the first three programs and provincially or territorially for the PNP programs.

One of the leading immigration platforms of the Liberal government's 2015 election campaign was to restore the age of dependant children to "under the age of 22". The previous Conservative government had reduced the age for sponsoring dependant children to under the age of 19 - which in plain language means 18 or younger -  as of August 1, 2014.  

Canada’s Express Entry system continues to make headlines with more upcoming changes announced to the points scoring system called the “Comprehensive Ranking System” or CRS. Starting June 6, 2017, additional CRS points will be awarded to Express Entry candidates with strong French language ability and those with siblings living in Canada.

People frequently tell me that they want to obtain Canadian citizenship when what they mean is that they want the ability to be able to live and work in Canada for which they need permanent residence status.  

On March 9, 2017, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour announced that Canada’s new Global Talent Stream will be launched on June 12, 2017. The Global Talent Stream is part of Canada’s Global Skills Strategy to attract highly educated and highly skilled workers to enable Canadian companies to compete on the world stage. Originally announced in 2016, the Global Skills Strategy is built upon the cornerstone of an ambitious promise to establish a two-week service standard for processing work visas and permits to bring in-demand and highly skilled workers to begin employment in Canada. The Global Talent Stream will operate under the framework of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program starting June 12, 2017.