WHAT'S NEW June 28, 2010

Canada announces changes to Immigration rules

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced substantive changes to the Federal Skilled Worker class and Immigrant Investor Class and minor changes to Canadian Experience Class, effective June 26, 2010.

Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) Class:

Effective immediately, to be eligible to apply as a federal skilled worker, applicants must either have a job offer, or they must have experience in one of 29 in-demand occupations.

The government will limit the number of applications considered for processing to 20,000 per year as a way to better manage the supply of applications with labour market demand. Within the 20,000 limit, a maximum of 1,000 applications per occupation will be considered. The limit does not apply to applicants with a job offer.

In addition, the applicants must provide the results of recognised language test with the initial application.

The new rules also abolish Category 3 – International Students or Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW) in Canada, who were eligible to apply without regard to their occupation code (NOC) or an Arranged Employment Opinion.

Canada Experience Class:

Like FSW, the applicants must provide the results of recognised language test with the initial application.

Federal Investor Class:

The Government is also proposing new eligibility criteria for the immigrant investor program so it makes an even greater contribution to the Canadian economy. Proposed regulatory changes will require new investors to have a personal net worth of $1.6M, up from $800,000, and make an investment of $800,000, up from $400,000.

Until the changes are finalized, the Government will stop accepting new investor applications to prevent a flood of applications before the new criteria take effect, which would stretch processing times even further. When the new criteria are in place, new applications will be processed alongside the old ones.

For more information on the above changes and for advice on your immigration prospects, email us.

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