The tragedy of young Alan Kurdi and his mother and brother is made even more acute in that it could have been avoided entirely.
The new Express Entry program is going to completely transform Canada’s Immigration Program. Historically Canada's economic immigration program was an applicant driven responsive program. Individuals who decided that they wanted to immigrate to Canada, submitted an application and the government was bound to consider and assess that application. The number of applications received was always far greater than the number of applications that the government could process and over time a considerable backlog developed of Skilled Worker, Entrepreneur and Investor applicants which ultimately led to the suspension of these categories. The Skilled Worker program was eventually re-opened in 2013 with significant changes but the Investor and Entrepreneur categories have been formally terminated. In order to avoid future backlogs the government has devised a new program entitled Express Entry which is still in the process of being finalized. However, recent Ministers of Immigration have been publicizing CIC's newest immigration model which is set to be introduced by January 2015.
The topic of illegal workers has been featured prominently in the news recently with Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) in Vancouver conducting raids on several construction sites with television cameras in tow. This has drawn considerable media attention and has resulted in the BC Civil Liberties Association filing a formal complaint with the Privacy Commissioner against CBSA for filming migrant workers for a reality television series.
People often ask me what the most serious immigration infraction is. They expect that I will say something like, “working illegally, living underground without status, or being deported” but actually it’s the consequences for misrepresentation. The Immigration Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) sets out the criteria for misrepresentation as well as the penalties which are significant and can include loss of status, permanent separation from family members, fines and even jail time. Furthermore the trend in the past few years for Canada Immigration is a zero tolerance policy towards misrepresentation with penalties likely to increase.
On October 25, 2012, Minister Kenney implemented new legislation aimed at targeting marriage fraud. The new spousal sponsorship provisions provide that couples who have been in a spousal relationship for less than two years or that do not have children together, will be given conditional permanent residence that requires the couple to live together as spouses for a period of two years from when the sponsored spouse arrives in Canada as a Permanent Resident.
Sas and Ing Immigration Law Centre LLP
A partnership between Catherine Sas Law Corporation and Victor Ing Law Corporation
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