RHYME & REASON

Filipiniana News   -   December 2016 Rhyme and Reason More Immigration Policy Updates Last month, a number of changes were introduced by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and were summarized in this column.    Early this month, a few more changes were announced that could significantly impact the lives of many who intend to make Canada their home.   Faster Processing of Spousal Sponsorship Applications On 7 December 2016,   immigration minister John McCallum announced that the IRCC will further expedite the processing of all spousal sponsorship applications.    He said that new spousal sponsorship applications will be completed in less than 12 months.    All pending spousal sponsorship applications or those   submitted prior to 7 December 2016, will also be processed quickly and "should have a decision no later than the end of December 2017."      However, "complex" c...

Filipiniana News   -   November 2016 Rhyme and Reason Recent Immigration Policy Updates On November 8, the night of the US presidential elections, the website of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) crashed as the election results started showing a trend in favor of Donald Trump winning over Hillary Clinton.   This led many to suspect that many Americans were scrambling to find more information on how to move to Canada if Trump becomes the next US president (as many had threatened during the long and bitter campaign period).   When the IRCC website was restored later the next day, November 9, others wondered whether the high traffic was also due to the last minute scramble to apply for electronic travel authorizations (ETA) which was due for strict implementation starting 10 November 2016.      In any case, there is no doubt that the IRCC website (http://www.cic.gc.ca) continues to be a very much in demand and d...

Filipiniana News   -   October 2016 Rhyme and Reason Temporary Residents and the Removal Process Legal temporary residents in Canada   consist of those who have valid status as students, workers or visitors.   Due to the ever changing state of Canada’s immigration laws and regulations, they are often the most negatively affected to the point of losing their status due to plain ignorance, misinformation or even carelessness.   Those who may have lost their status are understandably fearful of being removed anytime soon and thrown on the next flight back to their home country.   However, misconceptions about the removal process abound and are misleading even temporary residents who may still have valid status in Canada.   For instance, there are those who are   here as visitors, workers or students whose initial permits may have expired but whose extension applications are still pending, who fear that they may just be picked up...