New language rules for Canada citizenship become effective 

 

Canada, 17th November: Canada’s new language rules for Canada citizenship have come into effect from 1st November onwards. 

So, all aspirants of Canada citizenship will have to fulfill new requirements for language proficiency in Canada.

New Canada citizenship requirements effective November—As per the announcement made by Canada immigration minister Jason Kenney on 28th September this year, Canada will have new stricter requirements for aspiring Canadian citizens.

All applicants from 1st November onwards will have to fulfill following to become Canada citizens

The new language requirements for Canada citizenship applicants will be required to--

• Possess adequate knowledge of either French;

•Or English (i.e. any of the two official languages of Canada).

So, applicants will be required to furnish evidence or proof of their language abilities in English or French at the time of applying for Canada citizenship.

Any application not submitting the required proof or evidence of language ability along with Canada citizenship application will get his or her application rejected. The requirement is meant for applicants aged 18 and 54 years.

What is adequate knowledge?—Adequate knowledge of official language means the applicant must be able to understand as well as speak basic questions and statements in either English or French, states Paragraph 5(!)(D) of the Citizenship Act(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-29).

Prior to the changes becoming effective 1st November this year, applicants for Canada citizenship were selected on the basis of a written Canada citizenship test.

In case of failing to clear the Canada citizenship written test, applicant was required to clear an oral interview held with any Canada citizenship judge.

It may be worth mentioned that for the knowledge of the applicants for Canada citizenship, some basic information is mentioned on the application form for Canada citizenship itself.

Such information is provided by Canada immigration department-CIC(Citizenship and Immigration Canada) for the benefit of Canada citizenship applicants.

Which are the acceptable proofs of language abilities for Canada citizenship applicants—

These include any of the following—

• Proof of completion of a post-secondary or secondary education in French or English; or

• Proof of getting appropriate language level in any language training programs funded by government; or

• Any CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada)-approved test conducted by third-party.

 

New Criteria for Canadian Experience Class to be launched in January 2013

changes in Canadian Experience Class would favor the temporary workers

   

Jason Kenney, Immigration Minister has announced the proposed changes in the criteria of Canadian Experience Class and Federal Skilled Worker Program.

The changes in Canadian Experience Class

The changes in this class would reduce the work experience for a temporary foreign worker from 24 months to 12 months.

This would be the criteria for the temporary foreign workers applying for permanent resident-ship.

The other requirements for CEC

The applicant must have a work experience of at least 37.5 paid hours per week.

The applicant should be a graduate. He should also fulfill the criteria of language. In fact, the proficiency of language will be very important criteria for giving weight to his application.

The intention of the changes

The changes are made with the intention of giving a fair chance to the temporary immigrants who hold a working experience in Canada rather than preferring those who would be coming from outside. The Department feels that they would be able to integrate with the society more than a new comer.

Information from the Minister

The Minister, Jason Kenney has informed that the micro details of the reached program would be published in the first half of the coming year.

Also, the New Year would accept a very few number of applications.

He says, “We have been making a lot of changes to our economic immigration system. We will take next few months to do a lot of the heavy lifting to get us closer to a fast and flexible immigration system.”

The past story

The world remembers the announcement in July of 2012 about returning the applications made post February 2008 wherein it was decided to refund the processing fee to the applicants too. The attempt was to clear the backlog as soon as possible.

Even now, the Department seems to be in a mood of accepting a fewer number of applications than they did before.

Canadian Experience Class is the category of Immigration which can attract the best talents across the world. Hence making it effective and fast as well flexible is a great measure to boost the economy of the nation too. This would invite more and more skilled people from the other nations to be a part of development process in the country.

30000 Canada Immigration Applications Rejected

Canadian Government Rejected 30000 applications filed under Federal Skilled Worker Programs before February 27, 2008

Eliminate the backlog:

 To reduce the massive backlog of 2, 85,000 Federal Skilled Worker applications, Canadian Government in the month of March 2012 announced that all the applications made before February 27, 2008 will be rejected. According to the government all these pending application were preventing them from making any kind of major reforms in the Canadian immigration system.

The Canadian government announced via local press note that they will refund the processing fees to all the permanent residence applications received before February, 272008. By rejecting 285000 applications the government will have to refund approximately $140 million to these rejected applications.

Re-apply: All the rejected applicants will get their refund from the permanent residency application with a communication note that if they wish to apply then they will have to go through the entire processes again.

Immigrants who want to work in Canada will have to file their application under the new Federal Skilled Worker Immigration program announced after February 27, 2008. They can apply under Canadian Experience Class program or Provincial Nominee Program.

There is discontent among the people who have been waiting for last 7 to 8 years to get their application approved. Many of them will not be able to qualify as per the new rules announced by the Canadian Government.

Lawsuit filed : Nearly 890 skilled professionals had taken legal action against the Minister of Immigration and the Canadian Government for going against the pledge to assess and for delayed response.

In a decision released on Thursday June 14th 2012, Justice Donald Rennie rejected the minister’s reasoningthat the pending backlog is correct and he has the authority to make policies. The broadcasting reports stated that the government has hit a dead end in this case of reducing the backlog.

The media reported that Ottawa has suffered a major setback in reducing the backlog after the federal court saidthat the government has to process all these applications in decent time frame.

The court also said that ministers can set directives by which he can reject some applications without taking it forward at all and there is no further going in case of those applications.

All the applicants who are eligible for processing as the new changes after 27th February 2012 should be assessed judiciously within a justified time frame.

Applicants for Federal Skilled Worker Program will get their fee refunded

Federal Skilled Worker Applicants have been asked by the CIC to confirm their contact information for the fee to be refunded

Citizenship Immigration Canada has estimated that they will be refunding the application processing fee to the applicants applying under Federal Skilled Worker Category. 

The back ground of refund

Way back in June 2012, CIC had cancelled the processing of Federal Skilled Worker applications which were submitted before February 2008. Till March 2012, CIC looked indecisive about the way or process of making the refund to the applicants.

The step was taken after a much debated announcement was made by the Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, wherein he had announced that the country needs to clear the backlog of applications coming under various categories of aspiring immigrants.

The Minister had also announced that along with the returning of applications the “processing fee” would also be returned back to the applicants. 

The latest development

In a recent announcement, CIC has made it clear that it would be refunding the application processing fee to as many as 100,000 applicants who had submitted their applications under Federal Skilled Worker Category.

The first and foremost step the applicants need to make is to confirm their contact information.

The formalities for the Applicants

This can be done by filling up the form return of Processing Fee, Right of Permanent Residence Fee or Right of Landing Fee Form to CIC.

The most important to be noted here, is that there refund will not include any kind of interest on it.
FSW applicants who are not sure of the fate of their applications are free to write to the CIC to understand the status of the same.

Those applicants, who had experienced their applications standing rejected before the introduction of the new law, will not get a second consideration. Hence, CIC suggests them to not get their applications status evaluated. Also, they wold not get their processing fee, because their application did not get rejected due to the enforcement of law, rather there might have been other reasons to it. 

The fate of the refund

CIC further announces that they will refund the processing fee to the applicants, but, the same cannot be adjusted with a new set of application, in case an applicant wishes so. This clearly indicates that if an applicant is interested in making a fresh application, he has to submit the form and the fee all over again.
As a matter of fact, CIC has not made any announcement on the new date or criteria to submit the applications afresh.

One-year extension to Canada Super Visa program

Canada, 13th December: Here’s some great news for parents and grandparents wanting to meet their children living in Canada.

Canada Super Visa program extended—The government of Canada has decided to extend Canada Super Visa program for another year. This is being done in response to increased number of applications received under Canada Super Visa program since its launch about a year ago.

Canada government has announced a one-year extension to its immigration program named Canada Super Visa.

Canada Super Visa program has been a super hit with immigrants, especially those hailing from India’s Punjab state, says consul general of Canada, Scot Slessor.

This becomes evident from the fact that nearly 7,000 Canada Super Visa applications were received by consulate office of Canada immigration department-CIC(Citizenship and Immigration Canada) within a period of 12 months since the program’s launch. In the short span of one month, the consulate received a whopping 1,000 applications for Canada Super visas in December 2011.

Canada Super Visas—Canadian immigration department announced launch of Parent and Grandparent Super Visa for foreigners wanting to visit their children or grandchildren living in Canada. Such parents or grandparents need to make an application for Canada Super Visas.

This Canada visas enables them to stay in Canada for a period of up to 24 months at a stretch. So, such Canada visa category is aimed to allow longer period of stay in Canada(Canada visitor visa allows a maximum stay of up to six months after which foreigners need to apply again for getting extension of their stay in Canada) at much lesser cost.

Parent and Grandparent Super Visa does not require any renewal of immigration status for a stay of up to 24 months in Canada. And the best thing is that it’s a multiple entry Canada visa having validity for a period of up to ten years.

Eligibility for Canada Super Visa—Any applicant needs to —

• Provide evidence of parent/grandparent relation to the Canadian permanent resident or Canadian citizen;

• Provide a proof of private medical insurance from any Canadian insurance firm and this should be valid for a minimum of one year from the entry date;

• Have undergone a medical checkup and must be admissible on the basis of health;

• Provide a written promise duly signed with regard to financial or monetary support(it can be an invitation letter from the child or the grandchild in Canada hosting them for the duration of their stay in Canada).

Skilled Worker Immigration Program to be re-launched by the mid of 2013

Jason Kenney announces the re-launch of Skilled Worker Immigration Program in May, 2013  May, 2013 is likely to bring “good news” for the immigrants, as this is the time scheduled for the announcement of re-launching “Skilled Worker Immigrant Program”.      The federal Government will be re-launching the program and there is an assurance from immigration Minister Jason Kenney that this time well qualified professionals will not land up serving as a “driver” in order to survive in Canada.   The program which was halted sometime in June this year will now be launched with a change in the selection criteria.  The changes in the selection criteria  • Preference will be given to younger applicants and also to those who are proficient in the official languages of the nation. • An applicant should be well conversed with either French or English for standing a better chance for getting the visa. • Also, the spouse of any applicant will also be judged on the basis of language proficiency. • An applicant holding Canadian Work Experience will be scoring more points than the one with no Canadian Work Experience. • The credentials earned by an applicant will be cross verified and checked against the Canadian standards.  The suggested outcome of the changes  Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says, “The reforms are designed to dramatically improve the economic outcome of newcomers and to help the productivity of the country.” He also adds that the workforce in the nation has been shrinking due to an aging population.  He assures that “an Engineer will be working as an Engineer and a Doctor as the same; this will help the country to meet its national goals too.”  He also informs that steps would be taken to ensure that the earnings made by the immigrants are quite close to the native burns, even if it can’t be made the same.  He is aware of the fact that the ultimate decision to employ and pay an immigrant will be taken by the regulatory agencies, yet every effort will be taken to place the immigrants in the right kind of jobs within a year of their arrival.  The scores earned by an applicant will also decide his or her eligibility for becoming “permanent resident” of the country.  The impact of freezing the application process  Ever since the applications under this category have been frozen, the Department could clear as many as 100,000 backlogged applications. Apart from this, the Government had already returned as many as 280,000 applications submitted before February 2008. Along with this, the government had to make a refund of more than $1 Million in the form of application fee which was submitted by eh applicants.