In June 2010, the Canadian Government has made further amendments to its immigration system, aiming to both reduce the backlog of pending visa applications in order to improve processing times, at the same time as putting more emphasis on its intake of skilled economic migrants.
Mr Kenney highlighted that previous changes (in 2008) had already helped reduce the backlog of “in-process” federal skilled worker applicants from 640,000 to 380,000. The majority of decisions on new applications are being made in six to 12 months, compared with up to six years prior to the changes. The current changes are aimed at further refining the application system to ensure processing times remained manageable.
Mr Kenney also reconfirmed Canada’s planned immigration quota for 2010, as a total of 240,000 – 265,000 immigrants and advised that CIC anticipates achieving the upper end of this range, allowing Canada to welcome more immigrants in the economic category than originally planned. This includes federal skilled workers and record-level numbers of provincial nominees, without reducing the number in the family or humanitarian immigration categories.
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In 2009, the Canadian Government announced a tough campaign to crack down on migration consultants who make false claims and fail to deliver promised services. In addition, efforts have been made to provide information on how to contact authorized migration consultants, and how to take action if applicants believe that they have been cheated.
The Canadian Government launched a promotional campaign in April 2009 to highlight changes to the citizenship law. “In enacting this law, Parliament gave its unanimous support to extending the privilege of Canadian citizenship to many who lost it or who never had it due to outdated legislation,” said Minister Kenney. “Because of this legislation, the government can take concrete action to help many who had their citizenship questioned in the past.” The changes to the Citizenship Act mean that certain people who became Canadian citizens on or after January 1, 1947, when the first Citizenship Act took effect and who then lost their citizenship, will have their status restored to the date they lost it. Others, who were never Canadian, but who are part of the first generation born outside Canada on or after January 1, 1947, to a Canadian parent, will become Canadian. Their citizenship will be retroactive to their date of birth. The new law also protects the value of Canadian citizenship for the future by limiting citizenship by descent to one generation born outside Canada. The promotional campaign included a short video – “Waking Up Canadian” – which has been posted on YouTube.
Are you eligible to emigrate? Find out now. Click here for a FREE initial immigration assessment provided by the Migration Bureau (officially recognised Canadian immigration and visa consultants). For information on the Migration Bureau Click here.
