Canada Immigration News

A class action against the Canadian government opened in Ottawa last week. Lawyers for 1,000 people who had applied to emigrate to Canada under the Canadian Federal Skilled Worker Program are suing Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and the Minister for Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney after their applications were terminated in June 2012. Some of those affected had been awaiting a decision on their applications for permanent resident status for eight years.

Jason Kenney, the Canadian immigration minister, has warned Sri Lankans considering paying a 'human smuggler' to get into Canada, that they will be wasting their money if they do.

Mr Kenney was speaking at a press conference in Colombo, on January 7th 2013 during an official visit to Sri Lanka. 'Canada has a generous and open legal immigration system' he said, 'but those who try to get into Canada through the back door using human smugglers will not succeed and are wasting their money trying.'

Canada's new immigration programme for tradespeople opened for applications on 2nd January 2013. The scheme is intended to help skilled tradespeople such as plumbers, electricians and metalworkers to attain Canadian permanent resident status. It will do this by focussing on skills and trades qualifications and less on academic learning and linguistic ability than the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP); tradespeople typically did not gain enough points to come under FSWP.

The Canadian Minister for Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, has told Canadian press agency Postmedia News that he does not intend to scrap the Canadian Immigrant Investor Program (IIP). The program was suspended in July 2012 with a backlog of cases that could take up to ten years to clear. There had been press speculation that Mr Kenney might cancel all the undecided applications and change the rules.

Canada's Immigrant Investor Program (IIP) was suspended in July 2012. When it was established, it enabled wealthy people from around the world to gain Canadian permanent resident status if they had CAN$400,000 which they could lend to the Canadian government for five years, as well as showing assets, legally acquired, of at least CAN$800,000.

Canadian citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney has issued a statement from his ministerial department Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) wishing Canadian citizen Santa Claus good luck as he prepares to set off on an epic round-the-world voyage.

Mr Claus became a Canadian citizen on 20th December 2010 at a special ceremony presided over by Mr Kenney. This was good news for Mr Claus who was able to enter Canadian airspace that year without the need to obtain a visa for the first time.