RHYME & REASON

Filipiniana News – October 2012 RHYME & REASON In case you missed the previous month’s announcements from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), discussed below are some highlights of further developments relating to Canadian  citizenship matters.     For Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) participants, also discussed below is a relevant update regarding the cancelled hotline for live-in caregivers that was created in 2009 by the Ontario Ministry of Labour to help protect and promote caregivers’ employment rights.      New Language Requirement for Citizenship Applicants Effective 1 November 2012, CIC will be having stricter requirements for proving the applicants’ knowledge of either the English or French language.    Before this change took effect, the only way that CIC assessed a citizenship applicant’s knowledge of English or French is through casual interaction with CIC staff and by assuming the ap...

Filipiniana News – September 2012 RHYME & REASON Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced that as of 1 July 2012, it has temporarily stopped accepting applications under the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) category while awaiting changes to the program that are expected to take effect in early 2013.  In the interim, only those with qualifying job offers, as well as PhD students and graduates, are able to apply under the FSWP.  On 17 August 2012, CIC released the details of the proposed regulatory changes to the FSWP which are based on the skills and qualifications that are perceived as “most likely to lead to success for skilled immigrants.”  The major changes relate to the factors of language, age, work experience and arranged employment as well as spousal language ability and Canadian experience.  The pass mark remains 67 points.  Minimum Threshold and Increase in Points for Language The proposed changes recognize langua...

Filipiniana News – August 2012 RHYME & REASON     A recent controversial bill introduced in Parliament is called the “Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act”.   If one were to rely solely on the bill’s title, it seems that only non-Canadians and permanent residents will be affected by the proposed changes.  However, a closer review of the bill’s contents will reveal that even permanent residents are included in the definition of “foreign criminals”.   If anything, this bill reminds us that “permanent residence” in Canada is not so permanent after all.  Canada’s immigration laws underwent a major overhaul when the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) was enacted in June 2002.  Nearly ten years hence, several misconceptions still abound regarding the requirements and guidelines for maintaining one’s permanent resident status.    When permanent resident (PR) cards were created, many thought that as lo...

Filipiniana News   -  July 2012 Rhyme and Reason Amidst the ongoing changes to Canada’s immigration laws and regulations in the past few years, many individuals have been adversely affected to the point of losing their status due to misinformation or even carelessness.  Those who may have lost their status are understandably fearful of getting deported anytime soon and thrown on the next flight back to their home country.  However, misconceptions about the removal process abound such that fears are raised even among  temporary residents although they may actually still have valid status in Canada.  For instance, there are those here as visitors, workers or students whose initial permits have expired but whose extension applications are still pending, who fear that they may just be picked up by the authorities and detained since they could not show any proof of legal status.   Such fears are misplaced if the temporary resident has submit...

Filipiniana News   -  June 2012 Rhyme and Reason By Maria Deanna P. Santos     Despite the changes to the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) in the last few years that were meant to improve the situation of its participants, there are still  many caregivers who  fail to complete the program or end up losing their temporary resident status.  Upon further inquiry, it turned out that many of these caregivers were either terribly misinformed or had no knowledge of even the most basic requirements of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) and its regulations in maintaining their temporary resident status in Canada. Thus, I hope that the following review of the most basic requirements of  IRPA as they relate to participants of the LCP will help avoid further instances of caregivers inadvertently losing their temporary resident status.     1.   The initial LCP work permit issued by an immigration offic...

Filipiniana News   -  May 2012 Rhyme and Reason Please pardon the seemingly self-serving topic, but I thought that it may be worth further discussion in the interest of assisting those who may be in urgent need of a legal advocate but are very hesitant to approach one.    For many of us, there would come a point in our lives when we, or a family member, will require the services of a lawyer, paralegal or legal consultant (collectively referred to as  “legal advocates”).   Justifiably or not, many are apprehensive about working with legal advocates. This article is meant to provide some guidance towards reducing if not eliminating such apprehensions.  As in most everything else, achieving a good and satisfying relationship with a legal advocate involves a two-way process.   If you are thinking of consulting with or retaining a legal advocate’s services, here are a few tips that could hopefully make the experience a positive...

Filipiniana News –  April  2012 RHYME & REASON It appears that Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is truly living up to his reputation as an “energizer bunny” in that he just keeps on going with seemingly nonstop major changes to Canada’s immigration laws and regulations.  After all the recent changes that I summarized in last month’s article, the CIC Minister recently announced yet another major change.  Simultaneous with the government’s annual budget announcement, Minister Kenney announced the plan to return the applications and refund the processing fees paid by most skilled worker applicants submitted before 27 February 2008.  This is allegedly meant to eliminate the backlog and is estimated to affect about 300,000 applicants worldwide, while facilitating the implementation of a “fast and flexible” and “just in time” immigration.  CIC states that the affected applicants are welcome to reapply under the new rules, but no d...