June 2014

Canada Redefines ‘Dependent Child’ Term For Immigrants Canada’s federal government is changing the definition of the term “dependent child” for all of its immigration programs. As of August 1, 2014, the age at which a child will be considered as a “dependent” by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) will drop from the current ‘under 22’ […]

Canadian Government Tightens Rules, Raises Fees For Hiring Foreign Workers Hoping to repair the badly damaged image of its Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program, the Canadian government has announced a major overhaul of the laws governing the hiring of foreign workers. After weeks of screaming headlines about alleged abuse of foreign workers, and debate within

Hundreds of miles away from the bright lights of Canada’s biggest cities, immigration is spurring the growth in Canada’s prairie provinces. Recent statistics reveal that the sparsely populated province of Saskatchewan saw its population grow by 5,000 people in the first quarter of 2014, and more than 3,000 of those individuals were immigrants from other

As Western nations compete to attract more foreign students to their universities, Canada needs to do a better job at promoting itself as the first choice for higher education. That’s the finding of a new report released by the Council of Chief Executives and the Canadian International Council.  The report states that Canada—as the only

As one of the most contentious political debates in recent Canadian history rages on—and threats of legal challenges grow—the Conservative government is moving towards final passage of its sweeping new immigration bill. Bill C-24, the government’s reform of Canada’s immigration laws, is near passage in parliament, and concurrently under review by the Canadian Senate; political

With the belief that information is power, the Canadian government is planning to conduct two new workplace-related studies, with the goal of using the information from those studies to fix its troubled Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program. Citing sources, the Toronto Star reported that Employment Minister Jason Kenney will ask Statistics Canada to conduct two

A petition sponsored by the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) opposing the new Canadian immigration reform bill garnered more than 26,000 signatures, and was recently presented to the Vancouver offices of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). However, the petition opposing the Conservative government’s immigration bill may just be the first shot fired by the

It’s a battle between the lawyers and the politicians as the fallout continues from the cancellation of Canada’s Immigrant Investor Program (IIP) earlier this year. As predicted by many when the Conservative government canceled the IIP, several wealthy immigrant investors have filed lawsuits against the Canadian government claiming they were treated unfairly and that the

Only a few months after canceling a long-standing Immigrant Investor Program (IIP), Canada’s Immigration Minister Chris Alexander is consulting with business leaders in advance of introducing a replacement immigration program. Alexander has held a series of meetings with business leaders in major Canadian cities, seeking their advice on what to include in the forthcoming Investor

Some experts who were invited to Ottawa to discuss Canada’s new immigration law with federal legislators say they were shut out of those immigration discussions, as part of a wider effort by the government to limit debate. The immigration advocates, who were invited to testify to parliamentarians about the Conservative government’s sweeping new immigration law,