Applying for Permanent Residence in Canada November 7, 2022 Applications for Permanent Residence in Canada are no longer paper-based applications. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) requires that applications for Permanent Residence be filed through an online website portal. The portal itself is a work-in-progress. IRCC is constantly changing the format, details, flow and requirements. …
Maintaining Temporary Resident Status in Canada Under section 47 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), all temporary residents (visitors, workers, students) have an automatically imposed condition that they are required to leave Canada after their authorized period of stay ends. However, section 181 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR) states that…
IRCC Announces Changes to Open Work Permit Program November 2, 2021 Canada recently announced changes to the Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP) program that will make it more accessible to more people. BOWPs are available to eligible work permit holders who have applied for Canadian permanent residence. The purpose of the BOWP is to allow these workers to…
New Classification System for Express Entry and Temporary Workers November 1, 2021 Canada’s immigration system will overhaul the way it classifies occupations in fall 2022. The changes will affect some economic class and foreign worker applicants, although the federal government has yet to communicate which sorts of applicants will be affected. The Current National…
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Challenges for 2021 & 2022 November 1, 2021 During the pandemic, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has accumulated a backlog of hundreds of thousands of applicants. This past summer, the Toronto Star reported there were more than 561,000 permanent residence applications to process, 748,000 temporary residence applications (visitor, workers and students), and 376,000 citizenship applications. These figures…
What Happens to Work Permit Holders Who Have Lost Jobs Due to COVID-19? Foreign nationals who have lost their jobs due to coronavirus have the added burden of wondering whether they will also lose their status in Canada, and how the loss of employment will affect their Canadian immigration applications. What are my options? There…
New Window of Opportunity for Challenging Immigration Decisions March 23, 2020 By Hans John Kalina On December 19, 2019 the Supreme Court of Canada released the decision in Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65. The “Vavilov” decision changes the way Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (“IRCC”) will be required to…
As a lawyer practicing both criminal and immigration law, I often receive requests from colleagues for professional advice on issues they are facing when the two branches of law intersect. Recently, I was consulted by a client on behalf of a fellow criminal defence lawyer to provide an opinion letter for a judicial pretrial on the effect of a discharge for a domestic assault an accused was facing. The client was accused of assaulting his wife. He, and his wife, were also facing potential deportation. Fortunately, we were able to resolve their predicament.
With the Supreme Court decision in Tran v. Canada, non-citizens (permanent or temporary residents of Canada) will no longer be subject to inadmissibility proceedings and possible deportation as a result of being sentenced for to a conditional sentence of imprisonment.
Tax and Customs evasion charges do not fall under the Criminal Code of Canada, and have not historically resulted in individuals being denied entry to the United States. With the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) reported new plan to fingerprint individuals accused of these offences starting on April 1, 2017 this could change.
