Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

Canada's Exclusionary Immigration Laws and Policies

Canada's immigration laws have sacrificed fairness on the altar of efficiency. The reality is that in many ways, we have returned to the same exclusionary times as the Komagata Maru, the Chinese Head tax and the MS St. Louis. The Chinese head tax was a fixed fee charged to each Chinese person entering Canada from 1885 to 1923. The amount imposed was significant.. The Canadian Pacific Railway aided by the government bean counters of the day needed Chinese labourers to build the railway and paid them 1/3 or 1/2 less than their co-workers. They wanted cheap foreign labourers, but racist government officials in line with the prevailing sentiments of the day, also had to discourage the Chinese from settling here or bringing their family here. This head tax prevented these Chinese men from bringing their women and children here to join them. The Chinese community thus became a "bachelor society". Fast forward to 2013. We have a legion of temporary foreign workers in Canada today. Over 210,000 TFW were admitted last year, 190,000 the year prior, 180,000 prior to that. Of these, tens of thousands are so called low skilled workers are admitted each year. Just like the Chinese railway... Read more →

Blog Posting - CEC now excludes Cooks and Others from Consideration

On November 8, 2013, Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced new "improvements" to the Canadian Experience Class. The changes (not sure on what basis they can be called improvements) put a quota of 200 on the number of persons who can apply under this class for each National Occupation Classification Skill Level B occupation. Additionally, due to what CIC calls "overrepresentation" in the below categories, applicants are now unable to apply at all if their work experience in Canada occurred as a:· cooks (NOC code 6322);· food service supervisors (NOC 6311);· administrative officers (NOC 1221);· administrative assistants (NOC 1241);· accounting technicians and bookkeepers (NOC 1311); and· retail sales supervisors (NOC 6211). What is disturbing with these new changes is that the government has not provided any statistics validating their position that these occupations are over represented. Further, positions such as cooks and food services supervisors are overwhelmingly staffed by visible minority foreign workers. This adds a racialized element to the changes which can only be considered disturbing on many levels. Finally, from a policy point of view, the government has cited studies which indicate that persons who have skilled work experience in Canada and English language ability most are the most... Read more →

Update on Backlog Reduction Post

Update on Resolution of Foreign Services Officers Strike and Backlog of Visa Applications For many of our clients, the recent six month strike by Canadian foreign service officers resulted in very lengthy delays to the processing of their applications. The strike created a six month backlog in assessing of applications with many applications languishing well beyond established processing times. In any event, the latest news on the backlog of files is that the government has put a plan in place to deal with the backlog in early 2014. The bottom line is that if you have an application in process stay patient. The risk with any attempt to process files expeditiously by the government is that, often, in their zeal to ensure applications are processed, government officials do not properly review files and poor determinations are made. When our files are processed we will work to ensure that the files are not simply processed, but also processed fairly. Read more →

Minimum Necessary Income for Parental Sponsorship 2014

Size of Family Unit LICO plus 30% 1 person $30,288 2 persons $37,705 3 persons $46,354 4 persons $56,280 5 persons $63,833 6 persons $71,992 7 persons $80,153 More than 7 persons, for each additional person add $8,148 Read more →

Blog Posting - Misrepresentation - 5 Year Ban

Misrepresentation is a serious issue in Canadian immigration law and the consequences are going to become much more severe in the coming months. Misrepresentation does not only encompass the act of "telling a lie", but rather can occur by mistake or where an individual fails to advise immigration of a material fact even where a question is not directly asked. A material fact is any fact which could cause the maladministration of Canadian immigration laws. For example, if an individual has a serious criminal conviction, and they fail to disclose this conviction on entry to Canada (whether they are asked about the conviction or not), this would constitute a misrepresentation as the individual would have been considered inadmissible to Canada (and likely barred entry) if the conviction were disclosed. Instead, having failed to report the material fact they were allowed entry when they should not have been (maladministration). The most common misrepresentations are related to the existence or age of children as well as the existence of spouses or common-law partners. Usually these misrepresentations are of marginal materiality and render no benefit to a would be immigrant, but cause untold damage to their ability to sponsor the undisclosed family member... Read more →

Calgary Father United with Daughter at Long Last

Immigrating to Canada is not easy. A myriad of regulations and stipulations need to be navigated. Then, once you're here, it's often not easy to bring your loved ones to join you. Complicating things further is an (infamous) regulatory provision, section 117(9)(d) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations. This particular regulation states that if you do not indicate or list your non-accompanying family members on your application for permanent residence, you can never sponsor them in the future. Insofar as the regulation is meant to curtail those individuals that intend to deceive our immigration authorities, it makes sense. However, the regulation becomes punitive and disproportionate when there are extenuating circumstances. For example, in many cases, an immigrant to this country is unaware of a family member and can not, therefore, list them on his or her own application for permanent residence. This is what happened with one of our clients. Global News Calgary has a story and video of the emotional reunification of our client with his daughter. We were gratified to assist on this meritorious application and help this father navigate the roadblocks that were facing him. Read more →

Blog Posting - Expression of Interest Immigration System

OMNIBUS BILL - CHANGES TO SKILLED WORKER PROGRAM - EXPRESSION OF INTEREST REGIME The government's latest omnibus budget contains legislative changes to the immigration system. Of particular interest, is the modification from a passive immigration scheme to an "expression of interest" immigration scheme. In general, the theory behind the new system is that it is meant to respond to the needs of Canadian employers and the Canadian economies rather than the general skill set of an overseas applicant for permanent residence. Under the new scheme, a prospective immigrant to Canada would express interest in immigrating and provide particulars regarding their skills and work experience. Citizenship and Immigration would then try to match the applicant with an employer seeking an individual with a similar background and skill set. Once a match had been made and the employer had demonstrated labour shortages for the position, the offer would be validated by way of labour market opinion. After CIC was notified of the validated job offer, the applicant would be invited to apply directly for permanent residence under the Skilled Worker category. The new process would differ from the current regime in several important ways. Employers would be front and centre in defining... Read more →