Читать книгу Immigrate to Canada - Nick Noorani - Страница 6

For someone who immigrated five years ago, Canada’s immigration landscape has been completely transformed. Catherine has people coming into her office and asking to do things which no longer exist and fighting with her about why they can’t be done the way they want! Our readers need to be prepared for changes to the system.

Here are some of the changes:

• Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) wants to make assessing applications fast and transparent so it is requiring objective third-party services to evaluate language skills and educational qualifications. Applicants will need to have the results of these evaluations before submitting an application. This will enable applicants to see whether they qualify from the outset of the process.

• CIC is going electronic. More and more applications are being made online. This trend will continue but it may have potential challenges. You have to be sure you understand the entire online application process. Make sure that you have a complete copy of your application and supporting documents before you submit them. Once you hit “send” your application is gone to CIC cyberspace.

• CIC wants to be able to process applications quickly and manage its workload, which could mean the end of wait-lists. Expect to see annual caps on the number of applicants eligible in all program categories.

The Minister has also introduced two new immigration programs and announced a third:

• The Federal Skilled Trades Program: In order to address Canada’s shortage of tradespeople, this new program allows certain skilled tradespeople to come to Canada under their own unique program

• The Start-up Visa Program: This new business program is the first of its kind “in the world,” as described on the CIC website, by granting immediate permanent residence to promising entrepreneurs who are selected by and matched with approved industry partners.

• Express Entry Program: This program will commence in early 2015. Express Entry will transform Canada’s immigration program from a passive/responsive system, to a new active recruitment model that will prioritize processing for people with the skills to succeed in Canada.

On May 1, 2014, federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Chris Alexander, introduced the latest changes to the Federal Skilled Worker category. The Minister increased the total number of applications in this category to 25,000 through to April 30, 2015, in 50 different occupational categories with a 1,000 sub-cap for each occupation.

You should also be aware of the following changes:

• Language proficiency is now the single most important factor to qualify under the skilled worker category. A principal applicant can earn up to 24 points for his or her first official language and a further four points for his or her second language for a total of 28 points out of a required 67. Points are now allocated for a spouse’s language proficiency rather than education. The message is clear; Canada needs immigrants who can communicate effectively in one of the two official languages — English or French. This overall emphasis on language proficiency can also be seen in the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), Live-in Caregiver, Skilled Trades, and Citizenship programs. Expect this to continue.

• There is a new focus on younger immigrants. The old system gave ten points to anyone between 21 to 49 years of age and continued awarding points until age 53! The revised selection grid will favour younger immigrants by awarding a maximum of 12 points for applicants aged between 18 to 35; one point will be deducted per year after age 35.

• The number of points allocated for past (foreign) work experience will be reduced to 15 from 21. The rationale for this change is that research reveals an ongoing difficulty in transferring work experience from different countries. Concurrent with a reduction of points for foreign work experience is an increase of ten points in the adaptability category for one year of Canadian work experience.

• To achieve speedier processing objective-testing services will be required for both language proficiency as well as educational credential evaluations. Applicants will need to include a language test as well as an education credential evaluation at the time the application is submitted.

• Permanent Labour Market Opinions (LMO) are now called Permanent Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs).