RHYME & REASON

Filipiniana News –   December 2018 By Maria Deanna P. Santos In January 2019, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is expected to relaunch the online form where permanent residents and Canadian citizens can express interest to sponsor parents or grandparents (PGP) for permanent residence under the family class.   The old lottery system for PGP sponsorships had been eliminated and will be replaced by a first-come, first served system.   That is, IRCC will issue invitations to apply to those who have submitted their intent to sponsor based on the order that they were received, until the new annual quota of 20,000 applications had been reached.   The detailed guidelines for the revised PGP sponsorship application process have not been issued by IRCC as of this writing.   Nonetheless, it is expected that as in the current system, the sponsors who have been invited to sponsor their parents or grandparents will be given 60 days within wh...

Filipiniana News   -   November 2018 Earlier this year, Canadian immigration policy on medical admissibility due to "excessive demand" had   been updated to "strike a balance between protecting publicly funded health and social services" and becoming more consistent with "current views on the inclusion of persons with disabilities."   These changes, which took effect on 1 June 2018, consist of the following:   1. increasing the cost threshold for medical inadmissibility to three times the previous level;   2.   amending the definition of social services by removing references to special education, social and vocational rehabilitation services and personal support services; and 3.   implementing administrative reforms such as providing further training to immigration and medical officers, centralizing medical admissibility assessment in one office and improving language that will explain the process to applicants.   Although no...

Filipiniana News –   October 2018 By Maria Deanna P. Santos After having gone through hoops to obtain their much-coveted status in Canada, many immigrants sadly remain ill-informed on some important issues relating to their status, including the issuance or renewal of permanent resident (PR) cards.    When PR cards were created under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), many erroneously thought that as long as they possess valid PR cards, their status as permanent residents will be safe.   Conversely, some are surprised to learn that the lack of a valid PR card will not automatically negate one’s PR status.   The present law requires permanent residents to meet the residency obligation of two years (or 730 days) within every five-year period to maintain their PR status.    The two-year within every five-year period residency requirement to maintain PR status is a rolling requirement, i.e. the five-year period refers to ...

Filipiniana News –   September 2018 By Maria Deanna P. Santos In the latter part of August 2018, the IRCC Minister Ahmed Hussen announced the elimination of the lottery system for parent/grandparent (PGP) sponsorships by 2019, to be replaced by a first-come, first served system.    The annual quota will also be increased to 20,000 effective next year.    Thus, in January 2019, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will relaunch the online form whereby prospective sponsors can express their interest to sponsor their parents or grandparents and enter some required preliminary information.    Instead of randomly choosing sponsors who will be invited to apply via a lottery system, IRCC will issue invitations in the order by which the 'interest to sponsor' forms are received.    The sponsors will then be given 60 days within which to submit the complete sponsorship and permanent residence application packages to IRC...