Group Suing Government Over Wipe-Out of 280,000 FSW Application Backlog Making One Last Try in Court

A group of immigration-hopefuls whose applications for permanent residence in Canada were wiped out by legislation passed by parliament on June 29th are asking a federal court judge to order CIC to process their applications on 'humanitarian and compassionate' grounds. (Montrealais)

A group of approximately 900 people whose applications for permanent residence in Canada were closed after the federal government wiped out the back-log of 280,000 Federal Skilled Worker program applications are making one last attempt in court to force the federal government to process their applications.

The group had previously scored a victory when a federal court justice ruled that the federal government must assess their applications due to the legal obligation it had to process applications in a timely manner once it had filed them. Soon after the ruling, Bill C-38, legislation which includes a legal provision that wipes out the back-log of applications that were filed before February 27th 2008, was passed, which the federal government argues invalidates the court ruling.

The lawyers representing Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) stated that the federal government would process the applications of 165 of the litigants whose files were not among the 280,000 applications in the backlog, but that the applications of the remaining litigants would not be processed as they were eliminated by Bill C-38 when it was passed on June 29th.

The group’s lawyer, Tim Leahy, is making a final effort to save the group’s applications and asking the presiding judge to order CIC to process the group’s applications on ‘humanitarian and compassionate’ grounds.

Federal Government to Place Moratorium on New Skilled Worker and Investor Immigrant Applications

Tradespeople like welders will be given greater preference in the revamped Federal Skilled Worker program after the moratorium on the program is lifted

Postmedia News has reported that the federal government is going to place a moratorium on accepting new applications for permanent residence under the Federal Skilled Worker and Federal Immigrant Investor programs, which were set to begin accepting applications for the year on July 1st.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) plans on revamping both programs to maximize their contribution to the Canadian economy, create a faster application review process and deal with the backlog of applications that have not been processed, before restarting the program, which it expects to do by January 2013.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has previously said that the Federal Immigrant Investor program’s $800,000 minimum investment requirement for applicants, which was increased from $400,000 in 2010, is still too low, and that the type of investment should be changed from the current no-interest five year loan to a permanent investment into the Canadian economy.

Last year, the 700 applicant annual quota for the investor program was filled in 30 minutes, with wealthy foreigners chartering private planes to be the first to submit their applications to the Sydney, Nova Scotia intake office. Mr. Kenney says that given the demand, the federal government will be able to increase the price of permanent residency status in Canada for wealthy foreigners.

The revamped Federal Skilled Worker program meanwhile is expected to get a new stream for skilled tradespeople which will replace formal education requirements with a requirement for applicants to be skilled in trades that are in demand in the Canadian economy, particularly in the resource sectors.

 

Federal Government Loses Legal Battle over 900 Cases in Application Backlog

A lawsuit by 900 individuals who sued the federal government for the delay in the processing of their application for permanent residence in Canada succeeded today, as a federal court ruled in their favour. The ruling puts into question the entire wipe-out of the 280,000 Federal Skilled Worker Program backlog.

The federal government’s efforts to wipe out the 280,000 Federal Skilled Worker Program application backlog through legislation had a major setback today, as a court ruled that the government must process the applications of 900 people who sued the federal government for the delay in the processing of their application, and whose applications were among the 280,000 closed as part of the wipe-out.

The presiding judge, Justice Donald Rennie, wrote in his decision that the federal government has the legal right to refuse to process an application, but that once it has begun processing an application, it is obligated to finalize the processing in a timely manner. This opens the door for the remaining 280,000 individuals affected by the legislated wipeout of their application to sue to have their application re-opened and processed.

Justice Rennie also rejected the federal government’s request for appeal, and ordered that the federal government finalize the application of the lead litigant, an IT project manager in China, by October 14th.