Update on Canadian Government’s slashing of pre-2008 Skilled Worker applications

Posted on April 11, 2012 by CICS Immigration Team

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As posted earlier, the Conservative government proposed to eliminate 280,000 applications filed before February 27th 2008 for the Federal Skilled Worker Program.

Here are some questions that you may have:

Will I be affected by the proposed changes?

Under the proposed changes, CIC would close Federal Skilled Worker applicants’ files if they:

applied before February 27, 2008, and
have not had a decision made by an immigration officer based on selection criteria by March 29, 2012.

It is expect this would affect around 280,000 people including dependents.

Who will not be affected by the proposed changes?

Any application that has received a file number after February 27, 2008 so you will not be affected if your file number was received after this date.

What is being done to respond to this decision by the Canadian government?

Immigration consultants are looking into a joint effort to stop the finalization of the proposal. It is expected that the changes will happen as the Conservative party holds a majority and it will receive enough votes to pass through.

There is a good chance that this issue will drag on and head to the Supreme Court. However, once or if it gets to that, it will not be for another few years as complaints against the government must go through many legal hurdles.

What options do I have if my application is removed from the backlog?

This depends on the individual applicant. Unfortunately, some applicants will not have any options under the new rules and regulations. There are currently over 60 immigration programs under both federal and provincial governments.

Will I receive a refund?

Your government application fees will be refunded. The professional fees will be treated as per the particular agreement each client has with their consulting firm.

Europe’s Economic Problems Causing Rise in European Immigration to Canada

Posted on March 29, 2012 by CICS Immigration Team

The increase in the unemployment rate in many European countries due to the economic problems those countries have been facing after decades of very high social welfare spending levels, and most recently, the financial crisis of 2008, has led to a significant increase in the number of Europeans applying to immigrate to Canada, as described in a new report by Brian Stewart of the CBC:

More than 40,000 Irish workers poured into Canada in 2010-11 after economic calamity took down the so-called Celtic Tiger. In Toronto alone, a special Irish-Canadian immigration centre is being launched to help the more than 10,000 who arrived on working visas. If the past is any judge, this kind of out-migration from Ireland may be just a modest beginning.

This month thousands of carpenters, electricians, machine operators and the like lined up for hours to attend the Working Abroad Expo in the city of Cork. There they listened to pitches from Canadian and Australian companies who are in strong competition to recruit trades people for mining, construction and health-care.

But even the 300,000 unemployed in Ireland today is but the grim tip of the iceberg when it comes to Europe’s economy.

The latest estimates are of 24 million unemployed men and women in the European Union, with jobless numbers running at 23 per cent in Spain (a devastating 49 per cent among young people) and roughly 20 per cent in Greece.

European immigrants more easily assimilate into Canada than immigrants from Asia and Africa due to cultural affinity to the majority, better English and French language skills, and skills more relevant to an advanced economy, so the expected shift in immigration patterns is likely to be welcomed by Canadian immigration officials.

Changes made to Canada’s immigration assessment system in the last few years have given immigration applicants from English and French speaking countries an advantage in immigrating to Canada due to a greater emphasis placed on language skills in how points are awarded in the assessment process, so this group of applicants is expected to be more successful than the average in getting accepted.

Canadian sanctions on Iran create panic

Posted on January 27, 2012 by CICS Immigration Team

Ever since the newest Canadian sanctions on Iran were implemented in late 2011, there has been a lot of panic among Iranians looking to immigrate to Canada and also in the Iranian-Canadian community.

Applications that were already in the works are now in limbo because banks won’t grant loans to make their mandatory investment. Quebec’s immigration ministry has now suspended its parallel program until Ottawa fine-tunes the rules. Meanwhile Canada is losing out on many millions of dollars of capital and denying entry to people likely to create new jobs at a time when they are desperately needed.

The sanctions have also created a difficult situation for many Iranian-Canadians with the devaluation of the Iranian currency and a ban on financial transactions.

Canada’s sanctions against Iran were meant to stop Tehran’s ability to build nuclear weapons, but they are also having a devastating impact on Canada’s large Iranian diaspora, community leaders say.

The Canadian government has said all along that the sanctions were put into place to put pressure on the Iranian government, but results show that the pressure is being felt by Iranians and Iranian-Canadians.

CICS Immigration Consulting has been working hard in lobbying the government and to find a solution. Fortunately, there looks to be a window of hope for Investor applicants and those who want to send money to Canada from Iran through a special permit.

(Source)

CICS Client Communication Procedure

Posted on May 22, 2011 by CICS Immigration Team

At CICS Immigration, we strive to keep our standards high. We take pride in the quality of our work and we know that a successful business must have a successful service/product.

In one day, we may receive over 60 emails. Emails are ranked based on their urgency. For example, an email from a client who has a deadline approaching, will most likely receive a quicker respond than someone whose matter is not as urgent. We usually attempt to respond to these emails within 2-3 days of when we have read them. This means that emails sent on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and on holidays, will be seen on the following business day.

Because not everyone is fluent in Farsi at our office, emails that are written in Farsi can only be responded to by certain members of our team and this could mean that they might receive a slower response.

It is also important to note that some emails are wrongfully sent to the spam folder. In case you do not receive a response to your email within 3 days, we appreciate if you contact us (another email account or phone call) to make sure that the email has been received. We also appreciate if our dear clients would acknowledge the receipt of our emails.

Sometimes, our clients ask us why we have not contacted them about their immigration process. The reason is because in immigration applications, there are usually long waiting times, which can take between 6 months to 3 years. This is when the application is in line, waiting to be processed. So unless there is a need for us to contact our clients, we wait until there is an update in the application.

One last note that we’d appreciate if our clients would know, is that the immigration office does not take phone calls. They only respond to emails and not to all emails. They do not like receiving too many emails about an application as they are quite busy as well.

If you have any other questions or concerns about our processes, please ask.