-New Program introduced will be in effect until October, 2024. In Response to the continued crises caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine the Government of Canada has launched a new pathway to permanent residence for Ukrainian nationals. The pathway is intended to keep families together. It provides a pathway for Ukrainian nationals to establish…
How do you maintain Canadian PR status? Residency obligation (1) A permanent resident must comply with a residency obligation with respect to every five-year period. (2) The following provisions govern the residency obligation under subsection (1): (a) a permanent resident complies with the residency obligation with respect to a five-year period if, on each of a total of…
When does a Permanent Resident lose status? If we read the proper section of the Act, it is quite clear: Permanent resident (1) A person loses permanent resident status (a) when they become a Canadian citizen; [This is self, explanatory, when one become a Canadian Citizen, he ceases to be a Permanent Resident] (b) on a final determination…
Are you still a Canadian Permanent Resident? Why are we looking at this question? With the present COVID pandemic, we are getting many inquiries from people who had lived in Canada as Permanent Residents (PR) in the past but have since moved overseas. In light of the fact that Canada has done relatively well with…
A new public policy announcement today, July 14, 2020, allow temporary residents who are out of status after January 30, 2020 to restore their status beyond the regular timeframe of 90 days, until December 31, 2020. Details of this policy may be found in the link and posted here for reference.This is certainly good news…
The current legislation sets the period of inadmissibility to Canada for persons who have been found inadmissible due to misrepresentation to five (5) years. The current law came into effect on November 21, 2014. Prior to that, the period of inadmissibility was 2 years. The Government was enforcing the five year ban on everyone who…
This month, the Honourable Justice McHaffie granted the judicial review of DAMIAN v. MCI IMM-5202-18, 2019 FC 1158. Wennie Lee who litigated the matter before the Learned Justice, noted several passages of the decision which are important in the determination of Humanitarian and Compassionate (H&C) applications pursuant to s. 25 of the IPRA. The Learned…
In the stated Objectives of Canadian immigration law, found in s.3 (1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, there are several references to the objectives being economic in nature. The Objectives talk about the need to pursue the “economic benefits of immigration” and to “support the development of a strong and prosperous Canadian economy”….
The overriding issue in “spousal sponsorships” is the question of the genuineness of the marriage. Clients often ask, “ we have a genuine relationship” but how do we prove it? First, you should understand that the following provision of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations defines what is meant by a “non-genuine relationship”; Bad faith…
The Gender Guidelines were established by the Immigration and Refugee Board, in recognition that women asylum claimants fearing gender-related persecution face specific problems at refugee hearings. The Board introduced the Guidelines as to how individual members should conduct claims to ensure that evidence is adduced and evaluated with sensitivity and to avoid re-traumatizing claimants. The…
The process for obtaining a Labour Market Impact Assessment must change to better reflect the reality of global commerce, according to a Toronto immigration lawyer. Positive LMIAs are required to obtain work permits for some applicants entering Canada under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, but Wennie Lee, principal at immigration law firm Lee and Company,…
People often believe that Canadian immigration laws are more lax than those of our southern neighbour, the United States, but in fact they are not. People are surprised that not only do we have similar grounds of inadmissibility but that these grounds can lead to refusals. For instance, it appears that in the United States…
