MAJOR CANADIAN IMMIGRATION RULE CHANGES

Major Canadian Immigration Rule Changes

MAJOR CANADIAN IMMIGRATION RULE CHANGES

On Saturday, June 26, 2010, Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced major changes to the Independent/Skilled Worker Class and to the Investor Category of the Business Class with no advance notice.

A.            INDEPENDENT/SKILLED WORKER CLASS

1.            Changes

a.            As of June 26, 2010, to be eligible to apply for Permanent Residence in Canada in the Independent/Skilled Worker Class, an applicant must:

• include the results of his/her official language proficiency test, AND
• have a valid offer of arranged employment, OR
• have one (1) year of continuous full-time paid work experience or two (2) years of continuous half-time paid work experience in at least one (1) of the following twenty-nine (29) occupations:

0631 Restaurant and Food Service Managers
0811 Primary Production Managers (Except Agriculture) – click on link for job description
1122 Professional Occupations in Business Services to Management – click on link for job description
1233 Insurance Adjusters and Claims Examiners
2121 Biologists and Related Scientists
2151 Architects
3111 Specialist Physicians
3112 General Practitioners and Family Physicians
3113 Dentists
3131 Pharmacists
3142 Physiotherapists
3152 Registered Nurses
3215 Medical Radiation Technologists
3222 Dental Hygienists & Dental Therapists
3233 Licensed Practical Nurses
4151 Psychologists
4152 Social Workers
6241 Chefs
6242 Cooks
7215 Contractors and Supervisors, Carpentry Trades
7216 Contractors and Supervisors, Mechanic Trades
7241 Electricians (Except Industrial & Power System)
7242 Industrial Electricians
7251 Plumbers
7265 Welders & Related Machine Operators
7312 Heavy-Duty Equipment Mechanics
7371 Crane Operators
7372 Drillers & Blasters – Surface Mining, Quarrying & Construction
8222 Supervisors, Oil and Gas Drilling and Service

b.            A maximum of twenty thousand (20,000) Federal Skilled Worker applications will be considered for processing until July of next year. Within the twenty thousand (20,000) cap, a maximum of one thousand (1,000) Federal Skilled Worker Applications per eligible occupation (any one (1) of the twenty-nine (29) occupations that appears on Canada’s General Occupations (Demand) List) will be considered for processing until July of next year.

2.            What does this mean?

a.            Existing Clients of Abrams & Krochak

(i)            Application already filed

If you are already a client of Abrams & Krochak and your Application for Permanent Residence in Canada was filed with Citizenship and Immigration Canada BEFORE June 26, 2010, the changes to the eligibility requirements for the Independent/Skilled Worker Class do NOT apply to you.  Your Application will be processed in accordance with the eligibility requirements and General Occupations (Demand) List that existed from November 28, 2008 to June 25, 2010.

(ii)            Application not yet filed

If you are already a client of Abrams & Krochak and your Application for Permanent Residence in Canada was NOT filed with Citizenship and Immigration Canada BEFORE June 26, 2010, the changes to the eligibility requirements for the Independent/Skilled Worker Class DO apply to you.  Your Application will be processed in accordance with the new eligibility requirements and General Occupations (Demand) List that exist as of June 26, 2010.  Your eligibility MIGHT be affected.  If you ARE still eligible to apply, you should move to have your Application filed AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE before the quota for your particular occupation and/or the quota for the Independent/Skilled Worker Class is/are reached for the period of June 2010 to June 2011.  Please send an e-mail to info@akcanada.com to ascertain your eligibility status and/or the current status of your Application.

b.            Non-Clients of Abrams & Krochak

(i)            Eligibility already assessed

If you had your eligibility to immigrate to Canada in the Independent/Skilled Worker Class already favourably assessed by Abrams & Krochak and wish to have your eligibility re-assessed in accordance with the new eligibility requirements, please send an e-mail to askus@akcanada.com with your request.  You will receive your reassessment within one (1) business day.

If you had your eligibility to immigrate to Canada in the Independent/Skilled Worker Class already favourably reassessed by Abrams & Krochak OR you are certain that you meet the new eligibility requirements and you wish to apply for Permanent Residence in Canada as a Skilled Worker with our assistance, it is IMPERATIVE that you retain/engage our services AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE so that we can file your Application for Permanent Residence before the quota for your particular occupation and/or the quota for the Independent/Skilled Worker Class is/are reached.  Otherwise, you may have to wait until next year’s List is announced; however, should you do so, you run the risk that your particular occupation might no longer appear on that List, thereby rendering you ineligible to immigrate to Canada as a Skilled Worker.  If you no longer have instructions on how to retain/engage Abrams & Krochak’s services, please visit http://www.akcanada.com/resources/ind.cfm.

(ii)            Eligibility not yet assessed

If you are interested in immigrating to Canada as a skilled worker but you have not yet had your eligibility to do so assessed by Abrams & Krochak, we invite you to complete our Free Online Assessment Questionnaire at http://www.akcanada.com/assessment.cfm.  You will receive your assessment within one (1) business day.

B.            INVESTOR CATEGORY OF THE BUSINESS CLASS

1.            Changes

The Government of Canada is proposing new eligibility criteria for the Immigrant Investor Program. These proposed regulatory changes would require new investors to have a personal net worth of 1.6 million CAD, up from 800,000 CAD, and make an investment of 800,000 CAD, up from 400,000 CAD.  As a result, Citizenship and Immigration Canada will temporarily stop accepting new Applications until the changes are finalized. Only Applications postmarked or received before June 26, 2010, will be accepted. This will prevent a flood of Applications before the new criteria take effect, which would stretch processing times even further.

2.            What does this mean?

a.            Existing Clients of Abrams & Krochak

(i)            Application already filed

If you are already a client of Abrams & Krochak and your Application for Permanent Residence in Canada was filed with Citizenship and Immigration Canada BEFORE June 26, 2010, any changes to the eligibility requirements for the Investor Category of the Business Class will NOT apply to you.  Your Application will be processed in accordance with the eligibility requirements that existed from November 28, 2008 to June 25, 2010.

(ii)            Application not yet filed

If you are already a client of Abrams & Krochak and your Application for Permanent Residence in Canada was NOT filed with Citizenship and Immigration Canada BEFORE June 26, 2010, any changes to the eligibility requirements for the Investor Category of the Business Class MIGHT apply to you.  Furthermore, you will be unable to file your Application with Citizenship and Immigration Canada until such time as the moratorium on new Investor Applications is lifted.  Current speculation is that the moratorium will not be lifted until the fall of 2010.

In the circumstances, you have one (1) of two (2) options:

1. You can wait until the moratorium is lifted and, if new eligibility requirements are enacted, see whether you meet them and then decide what to do.

OR

2. You can consider migrating to Canada NOW in the Entrepreneur Category of the Business Class, assuming you meet the eligibility criteria (click on the word “Entrepreneur” to learn about the eligibility criteria for this category).

Please send an e-mail to info@akcanada.com to ascertain your eligibility status and/or the current status of your Application.

b.            Non-Clients of Abrams & Krochak

(i)            Eligibility already assessed

If you already had your eligibility to immigrate to Canada in the Investor Category of the Business Class favourably assessed by Abrams & Krochak and wish to apply for Permanent Residence in Canada as an Investor with our assistance, you have one (1) of three (3) options:

1. If you wish to formally retain/engage our services (i.e. because you believe that you will meet the new eligibility criteria should they be enacted), you can do so; however, we would not be able to file your Application until such time as Citizenship and Immigration Canada lifts the moratorium on new Applications.  Current speculation is that this will occur in the fall of 2010.

2. You can contact our office, again, in the fall of 2010 for a reassessment of your eligibility to immigrate to Canada in the Investor Category of the Business Class in accordance with the eligibility criteria in existence at that time.

3. You can consider migrating to Canada NOW in the Entrepreneur Category of the Business Class, assuming you meet the eligibility criteria (click on the word “Entrepreneur” to learn about the eligibility criteria for this category).

If you no longer have instructions on how to retain/engage Abrams & Krochak’s services, please visit http://www.akcanada.com/resources/bus_inv.cfm.

(ii)            Eligibility not yet assessed

If you are interested in immigrating to Canada as an Investor but you have not yet had your eligibility to do so assessed by Abrams & Krochak, we invite you to revisit our website in the fall of 2010 (when there is more certainty as to the eligibility requirements for the Investor Category of the Business Class)  and complete our Free Online Assessment Questionnaire at http://www.akcanada.com/assessment.cfm.  You will receive your assessment within one (1) business day.

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