RHYME & REASON

Filipiniana News – January 2013 RHYME & REASON If you are a permanent resident planning to travel outside Canada but whose permanent resident (PR) card is about to expire, please ensure that you apply for a renewal several months in advance of your intended travel date.   These days, there are much longer delays in the processing of PR cards, whether for initial,  renewal or replacement cards, due to CIC’s much stricter scrutiny of residency compliance.  It appears that the recent discovery of fraudulent citizenship and PR card residency claims have unfortunately led to the prejudice of everybody else, even for those not guilty of similarly fraudulent activity.  If a permanent resident needs to travel urgently and the PR card cannot be issued before one has to leave Canada, CIC can try to expedite processing if the application is submitted at least three weeks before departure and no issues arise during processing.   If this does not wo...

Filipiniana News – December 2012 RHYME & REASON Despite the entry into force of a laudable legislation termed, “Cracking Down on Crooked Consultants” (Bill C-35) in June 2011, it appears that ghosts consultants are still operating in these parts with relative impunity.      For those not familiar with the term, “ghost consultants” usually refer to people who accept fees or other consideration for providing immigration advice or services but whose identities are not on any of the documentation submitted to the government mainly because they are not duly-licensed lawyers, paralegals or immigration consultants.     Bill C-35 (officially called, An Act to Amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act), makes it an “ offence for anyone other than an authorized representative to conduct business, for a fee or other consideration, at any stage of an application or proceeding.” Ghost consultants therefore, are clearly punishable under ...

Filipiniana News – November 2012 RHYME & REASON     When people find out that I am an immigration lawyer in Canada, one of the most frequently asked questions is this:  “what is the easiest and fastest way to immigrate to Canada?”   The proper response to this type of question is that there is no short and simple answer as it would greatly depend on the specific qualifications and circumstances of the prospective immigrant.    However, a number of prospective immigrants (or their families) have told me that they were advised that the fastest and easiest way to immigrate to Canada is to be sponsored by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident spouse.   They were told that they can try to look for (or even pay) a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to marry them, submit an application for spousal sponsorship and voila, one can obtain permanent resident status in a few or several months.  Some are also told that they...

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...