Canada Immigration News

A new government report says that the Canadian province, British Columbia, will need more skilled immigrants to fill skills shortages in the province. The Immigration Task Force (ITF) released their final report, confirming that British Columbia still needs more immigrants to fill skill shortages.

Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has announced that temporary residents with a valid study visa or work permit can have their visa renewed from within Canada. Applicants can now apply at the Case Processing Pilot Office in Ottawa.

If you are from the UK and Ireland and are interested in going to Canada on a working holiday visa you will have to wait until next year to apply; The quota for the International Experience Canada (IEC) 2012 has been reached for applicants from the UK and Ireland and is now closed for people from these Countries.

As Canadian immigration begins to implement their biometrics system for visa applicants, an internal report urges the government to create a proper appeals process for visa applicants who are rejected because the biometrics system says that their fingerprints do not match the fingerprints stored on the biometrics system.

Earlier this year Canadian immigration announced their plans to stop the processing of Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) visa applications submitted before 27 February 2008 and reject these applications in order to reduce the backlog of visa applications. However, more recently, the immigration department has reportedly instructed its visa officers not to return the applications and continue processing the visas.

The Canadian government announced they are phasing out the plastic Social Insurance Number (SIN) card issued to millions of Canadians and others in order to save money and help avoid identity theft.