RHYME & REASON

Filipiniana News   -   January 2017 Rhyme and Reason New Minister and New Rules for the New Year When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced some changes to the members of his Cabinet, not a few were pleasantly surprised by the appointment of a rookie Member of Parliament as Minister of the Immigration department.    The new Minister of Immigration will replace the outgoing Minister John McCallum, who will leave politics to be become Canada's ambassador to China.   From all accounts, the new Minister, Ahmed Hussen, appears to be a   perfect fit for the job, who will hopefully bring a fresh and informed perspective to this very important position.   Here are a few excerpts from newspaper articles describing the new Immigration Minister:   ”Ahmed Hussen, MP for York South-Weston, is the first Somali-born member of Parliament, who came to Canada as a refugee at the age of 16 and will serve as minister of immigration in place of...

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...