RHYME & REASON

Filipiniana News –  October 2015 RHYME & REASON Caregiver Reforms in the Time of Elections Early this month, an email invitation was circulated to members of the Filipino-Canadian community to attend a supposed "major policy announcement"  by the former Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) Jason Kenney at the Mt. Zion Church in Toronto.  Based on the press release circulated shortly afterwards, the announcement simply reiterated the promises and pronouncements made by CIC Minister Chris Alexander in late October 2014 upon launching the supposed "Improvements to the Caregiver Program." Excerpts from the related press release are reproduced in italics below while my non-italicized comments follow.  The Harper Conservative government remains on track to admit 60,000 caregivers in 2015 and 2016, the highest admissions for caregivers in Canadian history.   When the supposed improvements to the Caregiver Program was laun...

Filipiniana News –  September 2015 RHYME & REASON Refugees and Migrants It took one heartbreaking photo of the lifeless three-year old Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, for the world to suddenly pay attention to a bloodbath which had in fact been going on for years.  Prior to this, it seemed that the rest of the world is just content in passively watching if not ignoring the massive exodus of people from Syria and several other countries in Africa and the Middle East caused by widespread persecution, social and political unrest, extreme poverty and other systemic problems within those countries.    While the recent collective awakening and outpouring of compassion and support is a welcome development, this had also been giving rise to a lot of confusion, misinformation, fear and paranoia owing to the very complex origins of the crisis, varying perspectives and  wide range of human emotions and experiences involved.   For one, people ...

Filipiniana News –   August   2015 RHYME & REASON Although I have discussed this issue in a previous article, the recent spate of CIC refusals due to alleged non-compliance with CIC instructions prompted me to resurrect this topic.   Hopefully, this will save applicants from suffering similar grief that others had to undergo needlessly.     Summer being a time when many government workers are taking vacations or simply enjoying the nice weather, many could be getting too relaxed (i.e. careless) or too stressed   out with the sudden deluge of work left behind by the vacationers.   Hence, mistakes may even more likely occur if applicants will not put their best foot forward in ensuring that they have made things as easy as possible for any officer who will review his/her application.    First of all, I find it quite bizarre to learn of CIC refusals based on "non-compliance" after the   applicants allegedly fai...

Filipiniana News –   July   2015 RHYME & REASON Having reached the six-month mark after the implementation of the much-touted Express Entry system, many people are still trying to figure out the kinks in this new system and to understand what it is truly all about.     Although much of these have been discussed in previous columns, it may help to review some of the main features of the Express Entry system to avoid further misinformation and resulting frustrations for all concerned.   First, the Express Entry system did not create another immigration or permanent residence category.   It is simply a new way of admitting applicants to the existing immigration programs, namely: the Federal Skilled Worker, Federal Skilled Trades, Canadian Experience Class and selected Provincial Nominee Programs.    Second, the Express Entry system has reversed the immigration application process in that instead of the applicants being allow...

Filipiniana News –   June 2015 RHYME & REASON   The controversial Bill C-24, or the "Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act", was introduced last year and became law on 19 June 2014.   However, most of the new provisions which will substantially affect the qualifications of Canadian citizenship applicants have just entered into force this month, on 11 June 2015.   Among other changes which already took effect last year, the Canadian citizenship processing fee had been increased to $530 per adult and $100 per child plus a right of citizenship fee of $100, which adds up to a whopping $630 fee per adult application.   This is more than triple the previous cost of citizenship applications which was only $200 per applicant.   With the rest of the Bill C-24 provisions taking effect this month, among the significant changes include stricter residency requirements.   Under the former Citizenship Act, an applicant for Canadian citizenship only ...