The following is collected and archived by CND-Canada. If you have any questions regarding the following information/message, please contact the original sender(s) listed below. Thank You. China News Digest - Canadian Regional Services (Bo Xiong) --------------- Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 09:33:00 -0400 Reply-To: FCSSCN-L stands for FCSSC News Release Sender: FCSSCN-L stands for FCSSC News Release From: "yuchen (y.) zhu" Subject: FCSSC News Release 6-08, Thursday Sept. 29 1994 ******************************************************************** * Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars in Canada * * FCSSC News Release 6-08 Thursday, September 29, 1994 * ******************************************************************** Table of Contents # of Lines ============================================================================ 1. The Current Processing Regime at Canadian Consulate in the U.S.A. 2. Immigration Selection Criteria- Anticipated Changes 1994 3. Canadian Seminar Schedule 4. International Dates and Hotels ============================================================================ VISA SCENE ADVISORY [Editor's Note] The Advisory of Immigration is offered by the cooperation of PR service group of FCSSC and the Visa Seminars International. Any questions or suggestions, please contact the FCSSC PR group by email at FCSSC-SA@sfu.ca. *************************************************************************** Current Processing Regime at Canadian Consulates in the United States *************************************************************************** By Carter Hoppe, M.A. L.L.B. ( Mr. Hoppe is a Barrister and Solicitor with the firm of Hoppe Bruner, Barristers and Solicitors in Toronto. Certified Immigration Law Specialist by the Law Society of Upper Canada; Former Chair of the Immigration Section of the Canadian Bar Association (Ontario)). There have been numerous complaints recently from both immigration law professionals and our clients concerning the quality of service at Canadian Consulates in the United States of America, especially with respect to processing timeframes and delays in processing. It should be remembered, however, that the processing time frames for immigration applications at Canadian Consulates around the world have historically been measured in months and years instead of weeks and months. What I mean is that the ability of a Canadian Visa Office to produce an immigrant visa inside 12 months is a relatively recent phenomenon. Having said that, those of us who practice immigration law and work as advocates in this field have been somewhat spoiled, perhaps, by the relative efficiency of the Visa Office located at the Canadian Consulates in Seattle, Detroit and Buffalo over the past year or so. We have come to expect that applications will be acknowledged relatively quickly after having been submitted; we have come to depended upon processing time frames on the order of 4 to 6 months for a completed application. Unfortunately, these relatively expedient processing time frames are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Partly due to the success of the Canadian Consulates in the United States, applicants from around the world have increasingly been submitting applications to those Consulates. Therefore there has been a corresponding increase in the work loads at all of those Visa Offices. Unfortunately, an increase in work load has not been accompanied by an increase in resources from Ottawa. Naturally, the result has been a general slow down in the operations of all of those offices. With respect to the Visa Office in Buffalo in particular, the Consulate and Program Manager recently advised me that in his own estimation about 10% of the files currently pending at the Canadian Consulate in Buffalo have some how "fallen off the rails". In my own opinion, however, I would estimate that probably about 20 or 30 % of the files pending at the Visa Office in Buffalo have "slipped between the cracks"; or, to put it another way, about 20 or 30 % of the files in Buffalo have suffered unexplained processing delays. The Consulate in Buffalo recently requested members of the Canadian Bar Association and the Immigration Consultant community to submit lists of files where there has been an unexplained delay of at least 6 months. In other words, there is an acknowledgement on the part of the management of the Visa Office in Buffalo that there has been a problem. In addition, the management of that office has undertaken to search for problem cases, where the problem is simply unexplained delay on the part of the Visa Office itself, and an attempt to remedy the situation is under way. However, if an application has not been responded to for a period of six months or more, then and only then will the office in Buffalo consider the matter to be of sufficient urgency to warrant a special search or remedy. Therefore, there is no point to inquiries demanding a status check of a particular file if the Visa Office has not exceeded the so called six month rule referred to above. On the other hand, if six months have gone by and there has been no response from the Visa Office with respect to what ever stage of processing an application has reached, it is then appropriate to contact the Program Manager at the Visa Office in order to register a complaint. *************************************************************************** IMMIGRATION SELECTION CRITERIA-1994 ANTICIPATED CHANGES *************************************************************************** By Carter Hoppe, M.A. L.L.B. The Canadian Government is nearing the completion of a process of national consultation on Immigration policy, including Canadian citizenship. The new Liberal government in October 1993 appointed the Honourable Sergio Marchi to be the new Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. This not only signalled that the Citizenship Department and the Immigration Department would be operating under a single minister as a single agency, it also meant that the new Liberal government was taking a new look and building toward a new approach to the Immigration and Citizenship portfolio. Minister Marchi then announced that the Government of Canada would begin a process of national consultations on policy issues related to immigration and citizenship on a hitherto unprecedented scale. As a result, meetings have been held across the country over the past year, numerous groups of concerned citizens, non-governmental organizations; governmental organizations such as Provinces and Municipalities have expressed their views to the Minister and his departmental officials at great length. Recently a conference was held in Ottawa on September 12th and 13th at which some 200 delegates from across the country attended for the purpose of summarizing some of the concerns expressed by Canadians throughout the consultation process. Unfortunately, following the conclusion of the conference on September 13, there was a report prepared by some bureaucrat or bureaucrats within the Department of Citizenship and Immigration that was leaked to the press and which purported to make certain immigration program decisions without the benefit of the advice from the delegates to the conference. Apparently, the Minister himself had not seen the report and would comment only that no decisions with respect to the immigration program have yet been made; and further that any final decisions with respect to Canada's Immigration program for the future would be made only by the Minister and the Government and not by any bureaucrat or bureaucrats. However, it is plain from a reading of the report that certain elements within the Immigration department are pressing for radical changes in certain areas which will have the effect of reducing the immigrDtion intake in terms of the overall numbers of immigrants accepted into Canada annually and further changing the nature of the immigrants who are going to be accepted as permanent residents of Canada in the future. The Family Class has been increasingly targeted by critics as needing drastic revision. It has been pointed out that Family Class immigrants are less well educated than immigrants coming in the independent selection categories (skilled workers and business immigrants). It has been pointed out as well that Family Class immigrants often do not speak English or that their proficiency in English is wanting and therefore there has been a great increase in the cost of educating immigrants in one of Canada official languages. (ESL or FSL) The bottom line is that Canadians are being asked to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in program expenditures and there is a wide spread feeling that Canada can no longer afford those kinds of expenditures. For example, in a Family Class application the Canadian citizen or Permanent Resident sponsor signs an undertaking promising the Government that the sponsors dependants will not require public assistance for a period of up to ten years. Unfortunately, recent statistics show that as much as 14% of sponsorships break down, i.e. in 14% of the cases the sponsored dependants seek public assistance such as welfare. The costs in 1993 of sponsorship breakdown amounted to some seven hundred million dollars. It is also unfortunate that there is no good mechanism in place for the Government to require sponsors to honour their undertakings, or in the alternative, for the Government to recover welfare program expenditures from the sponsors. Therefore, it has been suggested by both delegates at the conference in September (referred to above), and by the bureaucrats who authored the leaked report that the family class be reconstituted so as to give priority to spouses and children of Canadian Citizens or Permanent Residents. The idea would be to limit the ability of Canadians to bring their parents to Canada. Further, it has been suggested that the Canadian Sponsors be required to either pay an increased application fee for sponsorship undertakings or in the alternative, that sponsors be required to post a bond w,hich could be refunded to the sponsor after a number of years if the sponsored dependants did not seek public assistance. In the event that the sponsored dependants did seek public assistance, the bond would be forfeit, and the provincial and municipal governments would receive the money necessary to pay out the welfare costs associated with a sponsorship breakdown. In addition, there has been an apparent decision by the bureaucrats who wrote the leaked report to cancel the Live-in Caregiver Program (foreign domestic worker program) and to cancel the Family Business Job Offer Program. The Live-in Caregiver Program has been a contentious program for many years and it apparently now is no longer in favour with the bureaucrats who wrote the report. There is reference in the report to a recent study showing that theLive-in Caregiver program is not fulfilling Canada's Immigration policy objectives, but the study has not been made public. The selection criteria for Business Immigrants will be radically changed according to the authors of the report, in ways which have not yet been explicitly defined. There is a great concern in the NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) community that the bureaucrats will not improve the Business Immigration category properly, especially given the poor track record of Canada Immigration in this area. With respect to the Independent Selected Worker category, there has been much written about the deficiencies in the present selection criteria for independent skilled workers. At the moment, persons who do not have at least 12 months experience in an occupation on the so called "Open List of Occupations" are barred from proceeding with an immigrant visa application in the selected worker category. The open occupation list, however, bears little relationship to reality in terms of labour market demand, and many people have questioned its validity over the years. There is now a recognition by senior officials in the Immigration Department that an occupation list based selected worker program is not appropriate for the 90's. Rather, it is felt by most observers including senior officials of the bureaucracy that it would be more appropriate to design selection criteria which would produce individuals who have the flexibility to survive in the labour market in the latter part of this century and on into the decades to come. Therefore, qualities such as higher education, especially at the University level, fluency in English or French, and a well rounded background of work experience may be much more appropriate factors when selecting selected worker immigrants. It is my opinion, based upon information that I have been able to receive, that major immigration program changes will be announced at the end of October. The Minister is also considering introducing changes to the Canadian Citizenship Act. These changes were supposed to be introduced into Parliament in September, but it appears that the Citizenship Act amendments will be introduced only after the major Immigration program announcements in October. The important message for those interested in immigration to Canada is simple: if you now appear to qualify for immigration to Canada, submit your application now. In other words, do not wait - adverse changes restricting your ability to immigrate to Canada or the ability of your relatives to immigrate to Canada may be coming soon. The Canadian Government has the power to enact retroactive legislative and regulatory changes. Canada has never yet enacted a regulation with retroactive effect. However, that potential does exist in our law. It should also be noted that Australia has a similar legal ability in its immigration laws to retroactively change immigration selection criteria, and Australia retroactively changes its criteria on a regular basis. It is hoped that Canada will not find it necessary to change immigration selection criteria retroactively, but it is certainly a possibility that must be borne in mind. Therefore, there is all the more reason to make an immigration application now at the earliest opportunity so that the possibility of retrospective adverse changes will be prevented. The ability of a Canadian to sponsor a foreign relative will in my opinion most definitely undergo major revisions. These revisions can only serve to restrict the ability of Canadians to sponsor their relatives. Its seems to me that the writing is on the wall and that Canada is concerned about the ability of sponsored immigrants to integrate appropriately into our society. Therefore, if you are considering sponsoring a relative, my advice would to do so with out delay. The Minister and the Government are intent on embarking on a "ten year frame work" for immigration planning, which will be initiated by a 5 year plan. The idea is to minimize the effect of short term economic conditions, such as a rise or fall in unemployment statistics, or a rise or fall in interest rates, from disrupting the orderly progression of quality immigrants to Canada. The ten year framework concept will serve to act as a buffer,to protect the immigration program from the changing vicissitudes of public opinion, which in the immigration social policy context is very volatile in my opinion.. The events of the summer of 1994 have placed the immigration program in Canada in great jeopardy. Indeed, there seems to be anti-immigrant sentiment sweeping all of North America. As a practitioner in the area, it is to be hoped that a sensible and rational immigration program for Canada will carry the day. ************************************************************* SEMINAR UPDATE ************************************************************* From: John P. Ryan, Yan Changmin Visa Seminars International will be holding Immigration Information Seminars at the following Universities: University DATE TIME ****************************************************************** The University of Western Ontario Sept. 27 7 to 9 pm The University of Manitoba Sept. 28 6 to 9 pm The University of Alberta Sept. 30 7 to 9 pm The University of Calgary Oct. 01 2 to 4 pm Simon Fraser University Oct. 04 7 to 9 pm The University of British Columbia Oct. 05 7 to 9 pm The University of Victoria Oct. 06 7 to 9 pm The University of Guelph Oct. 12 7 to 10 pm University of New Brunswick Oct. 19 7 to 9 pm Dalhousie University Oct . 21 7 to 9 pm The University of Saskatchewan pending ****************************************************************** INTERNATIONAL ITINERARY FOR THE TRIP TO CHINA ****************************************************************** Mr. John P. Ryan of Visa Seminars International will visit China and give seminars there. For more information, please contact FCSSC PR group at Email: FCSSC-SA@SFU.ca or Mr. Changmin Yan at 058194@Uottawa.bitnet. (Tel: 819-246-9298) Mr. Ryan will be staying at the following Hotels during his trip to China. CITY HOTEL DATE *********************************************************************** Beijing, Palace Hotel Oct. 30/94 to P.R. of China 8 Goldfish Lane Nov. 5/'94 100006 Wangfujing 861-512-8899 Shanghai, Westin Tai Ping Yang Nov. 6/94 to P.R. of China 5 Zun Yi Nan Rd Nov. 10/94 86-21-275-8888 Hong Kong Mandarin Oriental Hotel Nov. 11/94 to 5 Connaught Road Nov. 14/94 Central Hong Kong 852-522-0111 Jabal, Jordan Inter Continental Nov. 15/94 to Amman Jordan Queen Zein Street Nov. 17/94 962-6-641361 Berlin, Forum Hotel Berlin Nov. 18/94 to Germany Alexanderplatz Nov. 22/94 49-30-23890 ********************************************************************** If you should have any questions or suggestions about the PR consulting service of FCSSC, please feel free to contact with us at : FCSSC-SA@SFU.ca. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Executive Editor: Yao Li | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | This FCSSC NR is sent to 5,000--10,000 worldwide subscribers and readers.| +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | To sub/unsub FCSSCN-L, send your request to LISTSERV@VM.UCS.UALBERTA.CA | | The message body should contain only one of the two commands below: | | "SUB FCSSCN-L Your Name" or "UNSUB FCSSCN-L" | | Please send technical requests to fcssc-cic@md.physics.uoguelph.ca | | Send news contributions and comments to fcssc-nr@md.physics.uoguelph.ca | | All issues of NR are on the ftp site: cnd.org:pub/fcssc/nr/nr5|nr6 | | To sign on other FCSSC public lists: | | Discu.: send "SUB FCSSCD-L Your Name" to LISTSERV@VM.UCS.UALBERTA.CA | | FHY GB: send "SUBSCRIBE FHY-GB Your Name" to listserv@cunews.carleton.ca | | CM HZ: send "SUBSCRIBE CSSADS-L Your Name" to listserv@ucalgary.ca | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+