Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

Interesting: "...all federal skilled worker and Canadian Experience Class applicants must submit the results of an independent language test before they will be considered." I imagine that 'all' means all applicants, including those from England, US, Australia, etc. Seems unfortunate but in line with the department's apparent new philosophy of decreasing the role that discretion plays in the immigration regime. Read more →

Tories forced to compromise on refugee reform

Looks like the proposed refugee reforms have undergone some changes. Because of a last minute withdrawal of support by the Liberals, Jason Kenney approached the NDP and Bloc. This political compromise has resulted in some changes to the bill that will eventually become law. The most significant change is that all rejected refugee claims would be able to seek an appeal with the Refugee Appeal Division (the Tories had wanted the RAD appeal process available only to those individuals not from a so-called 'safe' country). Looks like the 'safe' country list will become a reality; I think it won't be surprise to see Western Europe, India, most of South America and Mexico on it. Non-democracies (think Cuba, North Korea, Burma/Myanmar) and countries with no effective or functional government (Somalia, Congo) can't naturally be included on the list. Read more →