Canada's immigration program Archives - Immigration Lawyer Vancouver, Canada | Sas & Ing Immigration Law Centre
 

HomeTagCanada's immigration program Archives - Immigration Lawyer Vancouver, Canada | Sas & Ing Immigration Law Centre

Every US presidential election brings renewed interest in Americans seeking to come to Canada.  This is not unique to President Trump, but Trump brings some specific Canadian immigration consequences to his being elected President of the United States. Immediately following his election on November 8, 2016, the dramatic interest in Canadian immigration resulted in a crash to our online information system.   Many of his proposed policies piqued interest for many Americans and non-Americans without status seeking residency and/or protection in Canada. However, the Canadian immigration reality is very different from 2016 and Canada is not as welcoming as it has been in the past.  Prospective immigrants from the US need to know the current lay of the Canadian immigration landscape.

In my 30+ years as an immigration lawyer there is no single year that I can recall that has heralded the unprecedented level of change to Canada’s immigration program as 2024! Virtually every aspect of Canada’s economic immigration program has been altered and in many cases dramatically. Economic immigrants are what drives Canada’s immigration program: international students, workers, business immigrants, Express Entry and PNP applicants for permanent residence,

The delivery of Canada’s immigration program is a shared responsibility between Canada’s Minister of Immigration Refugees and Citizenship (IRCC), the Honourable Marc Miller and the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, the Honorable Dominic Le Blanc as is set out in Section 4 of the Immigration, Refugees and Protection Act (IRPA).

Adam Smith is often considered the father of modern economics and a significant proponent of the law of supply and demand. This economic theory postulates that when supply of a good is in abundance prices will fall and when the supply is diminished that prices will rise. Applying the principles of supply and demand to Canada’s immigration program, the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is in the enviable position of being able to “set their price” by being choosy as to who, how and when they will select which applicants to be able to come to Canada. A quick review of a few of our current immigration programs demonstrates this reality.

2015 promises to be a banner year for Canada's immigration program with dramatic changes in virtually every aspect of program delivery: selection of skilled immigrants, processing of inland spousal applicants, and new criteria for both business immigration and citizenship applicants. Here are the highlights of the many changes in Canada's immigration program in store for the year ahead:

Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Chris Alexander issued a news release this Monday entitled "Celebrating Citizenship week, Putting Canada First". Taking a look at processing times for citizenship applications, the Minister really doesn't have much to celebrate. The current citizenship processing time for a "routine application" is taking 25 months! 25 months! And non-routine cases are listed as taking 35 months but in reality are taking much longer. Applicants for a citizenship certificate for persons who are already citizens but require proof of their citizenship are facing waiting times of 6 - 18 months. Canada's processing times for citizenship applicants are deplorable and far from cause for celebration.

Fall’s “Back to School” season not only represents the start of another school year but also provides many opportunities for international students who are seeking to study and ultimately live and/or work in Canada. Opportunities for international students have changed dramatically over the years. Historically, it was often difficult for international students, who are seeking temporary entry into Canada, to demonstrate that they had a genuine intention to enter Canada on a temporary basis and yet at the same time have a desire to remain in Canada permanently at the end of their studies. Furthermore, students were historically limited in employment opportunities to only being able to work on campus. Recent changes have seen a dramatic shift in philosophy toward international students as Canada’s Immigration Department has come to realize that international students tend to make excellent workers and permanent immigrants who are able to establish themselves in Canada with considerable success.

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