Category Archives: Citizenship and Immigration Canada

Canadian Foreign Service Officers Picket in Front of PM Office

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Members of the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO) picketed in front of the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday (GOOGLE MAPS)

Canadian diplomatic staff belonging to the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO), a union for foreign service officers employed with the Canadian government, held a picket outside the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday to draw attention to their strike.

The dispute is over claims by PAFSO that foreign service officers receive less pay than public servants in similar position in other departments of the federal government.

For example, a foreign service officer on the level-2 pay scale starts out making $65,304 per year, which can increase to up to $82,630 with experience. The Treasury Board has offered to raise the maximum pay for foreign services on the level-2 pay scale to about $87,000. PAFSO says this is still not enough, as it is about $11,000 less than comparatively experienced employees at the same level in the commerce division.

The federal government says that positions in Canada’s foreign service are highly sought after, and earn benefits not available to other public servants, like partial reimbursement for dry cleaning, a vehicle, and an incentive allowance for working outside the country.

PAFSO members say these overseas benefits are available to all federal public servants that work overseas, including those working in federal departments which have employees that receive higher salaries than comparable foreign service officers, so don’t compensate for the pay deficiency of foreign service officers relative to other federal employees.

Strike action by PAFSO is affecting services at Canadian missions in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Jakarta, Bangkok, Washington, Delhi, Chandigarh, Bogota, and Sao Paolo.

There is concern that delays in processing visas as a result of the strike will hurt Canada’s tourism industry

CIC Releases Immigration Information Through New Open Data Portal

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The new Open Data Portal provides data under the ‘Open Government License’, which allows use, modification and re-use of the data by anyone (Government of Canada)

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) joined other departments of the government of Canada last week in the launch of the groundbreaking Open Data Portal, which promises to make much of the data collected by the Canadian government freely accessible to the public.

Praising the new data portal, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said:

“The new Open Data Portal is a remarkable tool that enables Canadians to easily access important information about immigration to Canada, and use this information to spur innovation and economic growth. I encourage all Canadians to visit our datasets if they have not yet done so as the information is useful and relevant, and there is great potential for its use.”

CIC says that its datasets are already among the most popular, with the six most downloaded belonging to it. Among the types of information included are the countries of origin of Canadian immigrants, the number who were admitted through each immigration program, the cities and provinces where immigrants settled, and application inventories and processing times.

The launch of the Open Data Portal is in line with the Open Data Charter of Principles that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper promoted at the last G-8 Leaders Summit in Northern Ireland. The Charter calls on governments to release data they collect in online registries and give users unrestricted rights to use and re-use the data.

The Charter also includes standards to raise data quality and increase interoperability and comparability, as well as prioritizing the early release of high-value data types.

The federal government says that its practices currently meet or exceed the requirements of the Charter, which demonstrates the country’s commitment to transparency and Open Government.

The Open Data Portal is hosted on data.gc.ca, and contains datasets provided by over 20 federal departments and agencies.

CIC Wants Input from Canadians on Immigration

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Ceremony celebrating Citizenship Week. Citizenship and Immigration Canada is asking Canadians for their input to shape the country’s immigration program (Government of Canada)

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) is asking Canadians for their input to decide on the country’s level of immigration and the mix of immigration programs used in selecting new Canadians.

The three main areas on which CIC is seeking feedback on are:

  • The right level of immigration for Canada
  • The best mix – or ratio – between the number of economic immigrants, family class immigrants and the refugee/humanitarian class immigrants
  • How immigration programs can best be structured to contribute to Canada’s economy

Currently the federal government has a target of admitting between 240,000 and 265,000 immigrants in 2013. While many argue this is too many, and placing pressure on Canadian workers, some provincial governments are calling for higher levels of immigration to meet their provinces’ growing demand for labour amid ageing population.

Determining the best ‘mix’ of the different types of immigrants admitted will require evaluating the values that Canadians want the country’s immigration program to represent.

Currently 40 percent of immigrants come through family class and refugee / humanitarian class programs, while 60 percent come through economic class programs, which include the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and Federal Immigrant Investor Program (FIIP).

The family and refugee class programs are meant to meet Canada’s commitment to the values of generosity and humanitarianism, while economic class programs are administered to benefit the country economically through their focus on admitting only the most skilled and qualified immigrants.

Stakeholders invited to provide input include employers, labour, academia, learning institutions, professional organizations, business organizations, regulatory bodies, municipalities, Aboriginal groups, settlement provider organizations and ethnocultural organizations.

The online consultations are open from June 21 to August 31, 2013, and are taking feedback here.

Canadian Diplomats Around the World Walk Off Job In Strike

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The Canadian High Commission in New Dehli, India. The walk out by Canadian diplomats will affect visa and permanent resident application processing in 12 Canadian missions around the world, including in India and China (Wikipedia)

Canadian diplomats stationed in 12 missions around the world walked off the job on Thursday in a dispute with the federal government over compensation.

The diplomats are members of the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO), a union and professional association representing foreign service officers working for the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) and Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

PAFSO is demanding a wage increase, saying its members are paid less than other employees of the federal government. The Globe and Mail provides an example of the difference in division salary schedules that PAFSO is protesting:

For example, an experienced foreign service officer on the level-2 pay scale makes about $83,000 a year, which would increase to about $87,000 under the Treasury Board offer, Mr. Edwards said. That would still be about $11,000 less than the salary of employees at the same level in the commerce division.

A spokesman for the federal government disputed the claim in a response to the Globe and Mail, saying foreign service officers receive other benefits that bring their total compensation up to the level of other public servants:

Mr. Conway added that foreign service officers receive additional benefits, including partial reimbursement for dry cleaning, help in shipping household belongings, a vehicle abroad and an incentive allowance for working outside the country.

Foreign service officers abroad can receive a “foreign service premium” of $6,600 to $31,300, depending on their seniority and the number of dependants accompanying them on a posting. A smaller, post-specific allowance is meant to help diplomats with the cost of travel.

The walk-off puts the federal government in a difficult spot, as much of its foreign operations, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s upcoming trip to Europe for the G8 summit, are dependent on foreign support staff.

Also affected will be visa and permanent resident application processing in large Canadian visa offices, including the ones based in China and India.

Citizenship Application Process to Get Easier With Test Re-Takes

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New Canadian citizens at the Oath of Citizenship ceremony. New rules will allow citizenship applicants who fail their citizenship knowledge test to re-take the test a few weeks later

Following recent changes to the citizenship application process that increased the difficulty of acquiring Canadian citizenship, including the introduction of proof of minimum language proficiency and an increase in the difficulty of the citizenship knowledge test, the federal government is reversing course to make it easier for permanent residents to meet citizenship eligibility requirements.

According to an announcement made on Monday, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has begun providing permanent residents who take their citizenship test their results immediately, and if they fail, allowing them to book another test a few weeks later.

The previous rules required a citizenship applicant who failed the citizenship knowledge test to wait months to have an interview with a citizenship judge who would then decide if they would be granted citizenship.

The new rules will also apply to applicants who are currently waiting to see a citizenship judge due to having failed their knowledge test, allowing them to take their test in weeks and obtain citizenship.

Furthermore, CIC announced that family members are now able to obtain their citizenship individually without all members of their family getting approval of their citizenship application.

The previous rules required all members of a family to obtain their citizenship together, which prevented some individuals who otherwise qualified for citizenship to have to wait because the citizenship application of one member of their family was not approved.

The two new measures are expected to speed up the citizenship acquisition process.

Approximately 200,000 people become Canadian citizens each year, which is about two-thirds of the number who receive permanent residency.

The percentage of citizenship test takers who failed their exam nearly quadrupled from 2009 to 2011 due to a March 2010 change that raised the passing grade of the test and increased the number of topics it covered.

Immigration Minister to Visit Silicon Valley to Promote ‘Start Up Visa’

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Waterloo, Ontario, sometimes called Silicon North, is one of Canada’s major tech centres. Citizenship and Immigration Canada hopes the new Start Up Visa encourages foreign technology entrepreneurs to start companies in the country

Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney will be visiting California’s Silicon Valley on Friday for a four day trip intended to promote Canada as a place to live for the region’s entrepreneurs.

According to an article in San Jose’s Mercury News, a billboard is currently appearing near Silicon Valley advertising Canada to foreign tech workers struggling with H-1B visa restrictions:

On Tuesday, just days before Kenney was set to tour San Francisco and the South Bay to promote his new visa for startup entrepreneurs, a giant red maple leaf emerged on a billboard off Highway 101 on the route from San Francisco to the heart of Silicon Valley, part of a Canadian advertisement encouraging tech workers here temporarily to migrate north permanently.

Modeled on an idea first introduced but never passed in the U.S. Congress, Canada’s new “startup visa” grants permanent residency to entrepreneurs who can raise enough venture capital and start a Canadian business.

“H-1B problems?” asks the South San Francisco billboard, referencing America’s temporary visa for skilled foreign workers. “Pivot to Canada.”

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) hopes to capitalize on the frustration tech companies in the U.S. are feeling over immigration restrictions on foreign technology workers and encourage them to relocate to and invest in Canada.

The eventual goal is to help foster the development of a Canadian equivalent to Silicon Valley.

One challenge that CIC faces in this mission is the country’s top marginal income tax rate, which is significantly higher than that of the U.S. A Canadian entrepreneur can look forward to paying about 50 percent of their income to the government if they succeed in joining the top bracket of income earners.

Compensating for this disadvantage, the federal government is offering a perk that no other advanced economy offers foreign entrepreneurs: permanent residency status.

For foreign tech workers in the U.S. anxiously awaiting the six year limits on their H-1B visas, immigration to Canada offers a chance of stability that only permanent residency can provide.

Also working in Canada’s favor is the perception of being a safer country than the U.S., with significantly lower violent crime rates, particularly homicide rates. A better fiscal situation, with a much lower deficit to GDP ratio than the U.S., also gives foreign nationals more confidence in the country’s economic future.

Regardless of how successful CIC’s headhunting campaign in Silicon Valley ends up being, the federal government has a lot of ground to make up for, with total venture capital funding in all of Canada in 2012 coming to $1.5 billion -less than 15 percent of the $10.9 billion worth of deals that happened in Silicon Valley last year.

Passports to be Handled by Citizenship and Immigration Canada

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Passport services are not expected to change when Citizenship and Immigration Canada takes over responsibilities for them on July 2 2013

The federal government announced last week that Canadian passports would come under the responsibility of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) this summer.

Passport Canada is currently managed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), which will officially transfer control of the program to CIC on July 2 2013.

Service Canada, which is a part of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), meanwhile will manage passport operations, and Service Canada Centres will gradually offer more passport services, eventually also providing online applications for passports.

The federal government hopes to see efficiency gains from the move on account of CIC’s current responsibilities being more closely related to passports than those of DAIFT.

“The government is committed to making passport services more convenient and accessible for Canadians,” said Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. “As Citizenship and Immigration Canada is already responsible for determining Canadian citizenship, integrating the passport program into the department makes good sense.”

Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley added:

“Through Service Canada, we offer single-window access to a wide range of Government of Canada programs and services for citizens. Leveraging Service Canada’s resources and service delivery network across the country will make passport services more accessible and convenient.”

Canada Has Second Largest Immigrant Population In Developed World -StatCan

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Among the advanced economies, only Australia has more foreign born residents as a portion of its total population than Canada

Canada is behind only Australia in the relative size of its foreign born population, according to a new Statistics Canada report. Among the G8, Canada’s foreign born component, at 20.6 percent of the total population, is the largest.

The statistics follow the trend in recent years of Australia followed by Canada having the highest per capita immigration rates in the world.

Public opinion in the two countries, as well as in Finland and South Korea, has been the most accepting of immigration among the advanced economies.

The Statcan report shows that about 1,162,900 foreign-born individuals entered Canada between 2006 and 2011 and that combined they make up 17.2 percent of Canada’s total foreign-born population.

Among this group, 56.9 percent came from Asia and 78 percent are visible minorities. This is a reverse of the situation prior to 1970, when only 8.5 percent of the foreign born population was from Asia and 12.4 percent were visible minorities.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada Announces New Funding for Immigrant Settlement

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Children in preschool. The HIPPY Canada program provides parents with limited education and/or income, and with pre-school aged children with counselling on preparing their child for school

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced it would provide $2.6 million to the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) Program on Wednesday, saying that the funding will help new immigrants integrate more quickly after arriving in Canada.

HIPPY Canada describes itself on its website as:

an evidenced-based program that works with families in the home to support parents, primarily mothers, in their critical role as their child’s first and most important teacher. HIPPY strengthens families and communities by empowering mothers to actively prepare their children for success in school.

Over the past 13 years, HIPPY Canada has reached out to provide more than 6,000 low-income newcomer, Aboriginal and other Canadian mothers with structured lessons and practical information that develop their own and their child’s personal skills, ensuring both children and families a better opportunity to succeed in school and society.

In Canada, HIPPY’s efforts to measure results, combined with more than 20 years of research in the United States and eight other countries, have proven the benefits of the program for children, mothers, families and communities.

Commenting on the funding, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said:

“Though programs like HIPPY, our government is giving newcomers the best chance possible to integrate into Canada and contribute to a prosperous society. The government has had a strong affiliation with the HIPPY Program for many years and is proud to help immigrant parents in their vital role as their child’s first and most important teacher.”

CIC will spend about $600 million this year on settlement services for new immigrants, up for $200 million in 2005-06. The funding is motivated in part by the federal government’s mission to improve immigrant integration in order to reverse the growing income and unemployment gap between new immigrants and other Canadians.

Toronto Star Reports On Government Efforts Against Marriage Fraud

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Efforts by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP seem to be reducing the number of fraudulent marriage sponsorships (Ra Boe)

The Toronto Star, the most widely circulated newspaper in Canada, published a story on Wednesday that describes the marriage sponsorship fraud that authorities are clamping down on and some of the obstacles the anti-abuse measures are imposing on Canadians seeking to sponsor foreign spouses.

The article, by the Toronto Star’s immigration reporter, Nicholas Keung, profiles Sarem Soomro, whose marriage sponsorship application was rejected by Canadian immigration officials due to the education and age gap between the younger, high-school educated, Soomro, and his Pakistani wife, who has a degree in economics.

Despite showing logs of Facebook chats, wedding photos, receipts, and a wedding certificate, authorities did not accept the sponsorship application.

In another case, a spouse who was already living in Canada while the sponsorship application was being reviewed received a surprise visit at her home which convinced the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) that the marriage was a fraud:

That occurred in a case where border officers noticed the address on Xiu Yi Xuan’s driver’s licence was different than the address of her Canadian husband.

In a scene reminiscent of the 1990 romantic comedy Green Card, about a marriage of convenience, the Canada Border Services Agency made an unannounced visit to the couple’s Markham home to investigate.

Xuan, a failed refugee claimant from China, was home at the time and unable to produce her husband’s toothbrush (she claimed they shared one). She couldn’t say whether her husband used an electric razor or a disposable one, nor could she show the officer any evidence of his socks or underwear.

Despite other indications it was a genuine marriage — joint bank accounts, joint insurance, joint donations and ownership of a Stouffville property — Xuan was arrested. The couple’s spousal sponsorship was rejected and, most recently, their appeal to Federal Court denied.

The two types of immigration fraud that Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) encounters, Keung notes, are cases where a foreign national manipulates and defrauds a Canadian, in order to get sponsored by them for permanent residence, and then leaves them once they have gotten what they wanted, and cases of collusion between the Canadian and the foreign national, where both understand that the primary purpose of the marriage is to provide the foreigner with Canadian permanent residency.

CIC has made changes to sponsorship rules to reduce the incidence of the first type, including instituting an initial two year probationary permanent resident status for sponsored spouses. Under the new rules, if the foreign spouse leaves their Canadian partner within that two year period, due to reasons other than neglect or abuse, their conditional permanent residency status is repealed.

The RCMP has had some successes prosecuting crime rings involving the second type of marriage fraud, including one where nearly 300 Canadian women, mostly of Haitian descent, were sponsoring men from North Africa in exchange for money.

The changes by the involved government agencies seem to be having an effect, with more people being deported on charges of sponsorship fraud annually, and a higher percentage of marriage sponsorship applications being found inadmissible due to lack of evidence of a genuine marriage.