Canadian immigration lawyers grandparent parent sponsorship program

Immigration Lawyer Discusses 2016 PGP Applications

The Parent and Grandparent Program Reopens Soon, and Canadian Immigration Lawyers Can Help

As we approach the beginning of a new year, many families will be beginning the process of applying to the Parent and Grandparent Program (PGP), a sponsorship program that is opened every year to allow citizens and permanent residents alike to help parents who live overseas to relocate to Canada. The 2016 program will open at 8:00 a.m. EST on January 4th, and will accept an as-yet unspecified number of applications. While it is possible to apply without assistance, some families opt to apply with the assistance of an immigration lawyer. Canadian immigration lawyers know the complexities of the system and can help people navigate the immigration process, reducing the risk of errors which could render an application invalid.

In the past two years, the PGP has begun accepting applications early in the year, and in both years, the application cap was met very quickly. In 2014, the 5,000 entry cap was met within weeks; in 2015, an identical cap was met in a matter of days. However, during the 2015 election, immigration issues—and especially family reunification and the Syrian refugee crisis—were central to many of the candidate’s platforms. In fact, the Liberal Party of Canada stated that, if elected, they would work to either raise the cap on PGP, or erase the cap altogether. Now that the Liberals have formed government and announced the opening date for 2016’s program, Canadian immigration lawyers are waiting patiently to discover what the application cap will be. While the application package is available online, the 2016 cap has yet to be announced—leaving some understandably anxious about whether or not there will be room for them.

To sponsor a parent or grandparent, you must prove (with or without the assistance of a citizenship lawyer) that you meet several major criteria. You must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident yourself, and be 18 years of age or older. There is also a minimum necessary income level that must be met to be eligible for the program. To prove that you meet this criteria, you will have to submit for an assessment issued by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). If the sponsor has a spouse or common-law partner, the combined income may be considered. The final major criteria is committing to support the sponsored relative financially for 20 years after the date on which they become a permanent resident.

If you’re worried about the strength of your application for the Parent and Grandparent Program, please feel free to contact an experienced citizenship lawyer. A trained legal professional can answer any questions that you have and assuage your concerns. Canadian immigration lawyers are here to help you!


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Canada’s New Immigration Minister

Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship to Reverse Healthcare Cuts Refugee Lawyers Have Advocated Against

After the 2015 election, the government of Canada changed hands from the Conservative Party of Canada to the Liberals—and upon assuming the role of Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau appointed a new cabinet. Several new positions were created, while other, pre-existing positions were modified. One of these was that of John McCallum. McCallum is the 11th immigration minister, but the first since the post was created in 1950 (it was discontinued in 1966 until 1994) to hold the new title of Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.

So who is John McCallum? How will his appointment affect Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and the ongoing issues such as cuts to health care that refugee lawyers and advocates have been fighting for several years now?

About the New Minister

After an 18-year career in academia and a brief stint as an economist for the Royal Bank of Canada, John McCallum first achieved a cabinet position in 2002 under then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. From 2002 to 2003 he served as the Defense Minister, during which time he laid the groundwork for the current disability benefit to military personnel who are wounded in service. From 2003 until 2004, he served as the Veteran Affairs Minister under Paul Martin, and during the Harper years he worked in the Expenditure Review Committee, where he implemented an 11 billion-dollar reduction over five years.

In November of this year, he succeeded former Minister of Immigration and Citizenship Chris Alexander. Alexander and his predecessor, Jason Kenney, were in charge of the department Citizen and Immigration Canada during a period of extensive and controversial reform, including the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and healthcare cuts for refugees.

What Will Change?

To the joy of refugee lawyers and advocates throughout Canada, the change in job title seems to signal the new government’s commitment to helping refugees in our country. And in an interview with McCallum from before the election, this position can be confirmed—the soon-to-be Minister took a stance on the refugee health care cuts, agreeing with the Federal Court ruling that called the cuts “unconstitutional” and confirming that if elected, the Liberals would change it. “We’ve had all the refugee lawyers and doctors involved in this case for many months,” he told Maclean’s Magazine. “It is well documented that there are no so-called bogus refugees. It is refugee applicants, many of whom will have their cases succeed. It is a wide range of people who need our help. As the court said, it’s cruel and unusual not to provide it.”

A court hearing on the case of the healthcare cuts has been postponed, and may be scrapped entirely if Citizenship and Immigration Canada reverses its position under new leadership—a major victory for refugee rights.


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The Canadian Council of Refugees 2015 Fall Consultations

Sharing the Courage, Contributions and Resilience of Refugees

The Canadian Council of Refugees (CCR) held its fall consultations in Hamilton, Ontario this year from November 26-28, where hundreds of participants, including Canadian immigration lawyer Ms. Arghavan Gerami of Gerami Law PC, engaged and discussed critical refugee related issues. The three day Consultations covered a range of topics covering the global refugee crisis, the need for accountability and oversight of the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), access to mental health services for refugees, issues for newcomer youth, court challenges in immigration and citizenship law and strategies for the future. The participants attended from across Canada, and from different sectors (such as private sponsors, settlement agencies and inland claimant organizations) and brought to the table their experiences, expertise and commitment to help refugees in their successful settlement and integration in the Canadian society.

There was an excellent workshop which focused on the development of recommendations for an independent, external accountability mechanism for the CBSA. Participants considered the CCR’s Proposed Model and heard from Laura Track of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association on a Project the organization is developing related to this area.

Another workshop focused on access to mental health care for newcomers and examined the complexities in navigating access to those resources. Input from the participants on approaches and barriers as well as access to mental health care for refugees in Canada was encouraged. At the present time, newcomer service providers across Canada are negotiating access to mental health services for their clients according to immigration status and availability of care, which seems to vary significantly by region.

The session with the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) Chari, Mario Dion and other senior IRB officials touched on the recent policy of expediting the claims by Syrian refugees, which has been designated based on a high pattern of acceptance (96%). Once designated, the individual’s claim will be decided and refugee status granted without a hearing, where there is no intervention by the Minister and no security related concerns. Some of the other issues discussed and questions answered included an update on the number of appeals being heard by the Refugee Appeal Division (21% successful appeals; 13% no jurisdiction cases; 11% abandoned; 55% unsuccessful appeals) and the serious access to justice and procedural fairness issues that has arisen from the closing down of the IRB offices in Ottawa, the nation’s capital, forcing all refugee claimants to travel to Montreal for their refugee hearings.

The workshops were extremely informative and well prepared, and the organizers of the conference deserve much thanks and congratulations for their excellent work and extensive preparations to ensure the success of these Consultations.


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5 Reasons Immigration in Canada is Great for the Economy

Canadian Immigration Lawyers Discuss the Importance of Welcoming Immigrants into the Country.

One of the greatest aspects of living in Canada is being a part of this rich multicultural patchwork, made of hundreds of different ethnicities and incorporating people from all wake of life. It is an endearing trait that makes Canada so welcoming and appealing to families and people simply looking to make a new start in a beautiful region of the world. Not only is immigration to Canada a boon for the cultural landscape of the nation, but it is also an effective tool for economic growth.

1. Immigrants are workers. - Canada is experiencing around 7% unemployment following a period of recession, meaning it is important to make sure the workforce maintains its robust vigour, without losing momentum. Embracing those immigrating to Canada, and making sure they are in positions that properly utilize their skills, will ensure the economy stays on the right track. The world is in competition for bright, skilled minds, and each country is vying for the same limited number of people.

2. Immigrants are patriotic. - More than just a common trope, immigrants are often highly patriotic, and enthusiastic about contributing to the prosperity and progress of their new homes. Immigration to Canada has already inspired hundreds of thousands of people to become hard-working members of the Canadian workforce, many of whom later become proud citizens. A Canadian immigration lawyer can help them along every step of that journey, working with immigrants to promote a prosperous future for Canada.

3. Immigrants are inventors. - Canada has a culture of innovation, and has been on the forefront of discovery in every field for decades, from the telephone to stem-cell research. With an influx of new minds, from new places, new discoveries will occur as they always have. A Canadian immigration lawyer would be happy to facilitate the process of immigration to Canada, by advocating on their behalf.

4. Immigrants are energetic. - Many immigrants are young people with families just starting out, and students. All over the Western world, the working populations are growing older and thinner. Bringing in as many people as possible to not only work here, but to learn and to build their lives in a safe environment.

5. Immigrants are global citizens. - By virtue of having two homes (at least), immigrants have interests in seeing multiple regions of the world prosper and flourish. Most have family members and friends “back home,” and remain in contact with them, despite the distance. Canadian immigration lawyers make sure that Canada remains an attractive immigration destination by fighting for the increased flow of avid, loyal, and industrious individuals from all over the world.

There are countless hurdles for an immigrant looking to join the Canadian population, some even more disheartening than others, but they can be overcome. None of it would be possible without the Canadian immigration lawyers who fight tirelessly for the just and expedient treatment of immigrants.


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Business Immigration Lawyer on TPP, Foreign Workers

Corporate Immigration Law Firm Weighs In on Potential Changes to TFWP under New Trade Deal

Life for a corporate immigration law firm includes a lot of acronyms. There are the obvious ones, like CIC—Citizenship and Immigration Canada. There are the more specific ones, such as TFWP (Temporary Foreign Worker Program), which are undoubtedly still tied to immigration. And then there are the surprising ones, like TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), which may not seem to have an immediate link to immigration issues. But if you look more closely, the controversial agreement could have some profound effects on the Temporary Foreign Workers Program and how business immigration lawyers do their jobs.

What is TFWP?

For those unfamiliar with the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, it’s an immigration program through which skilled individuals living in other countries can be hired and brought into Canada to work for a term of four years. After this, their work visa expires, and they are disallowed from re-entering Canada on another work visa for at least four years. The goal of this “four in, four out” system is to ensure that Canadians—in this context, citizens and permanent residents—have priority access to available jobs. This is not the only economic immigration program in Canada, but it has been perhaps the most scrutinized by corporate immigration law firms and other critics. This is because it has created opportunities for corporations to create a “revolving door” of cheap labour that is damaging both to Canadians and to the foreign workers brought in through the program. There has been more than one case where a business immigration lawyer has needed to step in, and calls for program reform have followed too.

How Will TPP Affect It?

Under current conditions, a company must prove to the CIC and applicable labour authorities that they made an effort to hire a Canadian for the job first. However, once Canada becomes a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, these conditions may change. An off-shoot of TFWP, the International Mobility Program, allows for intracompany transfers and importing labour from countries with which Canada has free-trade agreements—without the requisite stage of first seeking to fill the jobs in question with Canadians. Business immigration lawyers, as well as other experts, are concerned that since several nations in the TPP are still developing nations, this can create a new situation within which corporations will be able to displace existing workforces with foreign nationals who will be underpaid and unprotected.

However, since much of the partnership’s specific language and provisions are still secret—and Canada has seen a significant change in government, with not just a new Prime Minister, but a new minister for Immigration, Citizenship, and Refugees, since the deal began—the situation is very fluid. It is certainly the hope of this corporate immigration law firm that the TPP deal creates positive opportunities, without creating opportunities for exploitation.