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) --------------- From: wshen@superior.ccs.carleton.ca (Wei Shen) Subject: CANADA:IMMIGRATION POLICY Summary: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO IMMIGRATION POLICY FOR INDEPENDENT IMMIGRANT Organization: Carleton University Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 18:23:50 GMT Lines: 264 Status: R The following information has been prepared by the members of Carleton Immigration Aid International for the general enquiry from the Chinese student community with regards to immigration to Canada. WHO MAY APPLY AS AN INDEPENDENT IMMIGRANT? A person with special occupational skills and experience may qualify as an independent immigrant. These skills must be readily transferable to the Canadian labour market. HOW DOES THE SELECTON SYSTEM WORK? All applicants are assessed according to the "selection system". Points are calculated based on the following: Factors Maximum Point ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * age; 10 * occupation; 10 * arranged employment/designated occupation; 10 * demographic factor; 10 * specific vocational preparation(SVP); 18 * work experience; 8 * language ability; 15 * education; 16 * personal suitability; 10 * close relative in Canada. 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ An applicant should achieve a score of 70 points to qualify. WHAT ARE THE KEY AREAS TO A SUCCESSFUL APPLICATION? There are four arears that are critical to an application. In fact, the lack of any of these areas can result in an automatic refusal. They are language, education, occupation and experience. Language: The lack of fluency in one of Canada's two official languages can prejudice an application and may result in a refusal. It follows, of course, that anyone who is doing a degree at a university in which English or French is an instruction language must obviously have a fair degree of fluency. Education: The lack of the equivalent of a grade 12 education results in a zero point assessment and may also result in a refusal. If you are in some capacity at a university, this is not an issue. Occupation: Your application for an immigration visa will be assessed mainly on your qualifications, skills and experience in the occupation you wish to have in Canada. You must have at least one year's experience in your occupation. Your occupation must be listed on the General Occupation List. All occupations are assessed against Canadian standards for that occupation. You should be aware that job titles in your country may not correspond to the same positions in Canada. The General Occupation List is updated regularly based on government estimates of how many workers are needed in various occupations. The numeric value (between 1 and 10 points) is a measure of level of demand. It is important to note that an occupation which appears on a current list may not appear on the next and vice versa - timing can be very important. There are 1127 occupations listed currently. Experience: You must have at least one year of experience closely related to your occupation. This need not be experience in Canada. Experience as a research assistant may be accepted if proposed in the right way. We have found that many visa officials can see this relationship. Please note that experience as a "hands on" work. Time spent in a co-op program and volunteer work can be included as experience. The point is that Canada is not seeking to immigrate students. Canada is selecting intending workers. Workers must have had prior experience in that occupation, which will qualify them to accept employment upon issuance of an immigrant visa. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE DISCRETIONARY AUTHORITY OF A VISA OFFICER? Immigration Regulation 11(3) gives Canadian visa officers the discretionary authority to refuse an application of a person who meets the 70 points assessment cutoff or approve an application made by a person who does not meet this cutoff point "if, in his opinion, there are good reasons why the number of units of assessment awarded do not reflect the chances of the particular immigrant and his dependents of becoming successfully established in Canada". Any number of reasons can lead to a discretionary approval or disapproval. For example, a person who meets 70 points but presented himself/herself in a very poor fashion could be refused. This points to the importance of a good presentation, both in the written submission and at interview. WILL THE CURRENT IMMIGRATION POLICY CHANGE SOON? The answer is Yes. The Canadian Government is nearing the completion of a process of national consultation on Immigration policy. During the process, the Family Class immigrants 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). 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. The selection criteria for Business Immigrants will also be radically changed 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 critics 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. In our opinion, based upon information that we have been able to receive, major immigration program changes will be announced at the end of 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. WHAT CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT CARLETON IMMIGRATION AID INTERNATIONAL? Established in 1982, Carleton Immigration Aid International is composed of lawyers and consultants who have a great depth of experience in all aspects of immigration from refugees to independent, business and entrepreneurial applications. Our organization also is composed of a number of former senior Canadian immigration officers, immigration ajudicators and Canadian visa officers. Not only do our clients benefit from sound legal advice, they also benefit from a keen understanding and knowledge of the inner-workings of Canada's immigration bureaucracy. Our work is to provide prospects with accurate up to date information and guidance in their efforts to obtain landed immigrant status. We are in an excellent position to assess student's situations, to advocate on their behalf and direct their applications to the visa officers that are the most likely to understand the value of our lients and process them as quickly as possible. Whereas it is often difficult for an applicant to know what are the most important factors to bring out in their applicatons or to aggressively promote themselves, we can, and do so successfully. In our assessments ,we look at all aspects of our client's situaton so that if they have a good application we can advise them of this and if they wish, prepare a complete submission for a visa officer. If their case is weak, or if there are certain weak points, we counsel them on the areas which need to be strengthened and advise them of how to go about this. By taking this client oriented approach, we can best serve the need of our clients. HOW DO WE SERVE YOU? All applicants are requested to send their resumes for initial evaluations to be determined if qualified. The resume should include work experiences and education as detailed as possible. No payment has to be made until an application has been approved. Our location and mailing address: 60 Rue Cormier, Suite 608 Aylmer, Quebec J9H 6B4 Canada fax:(819)684-8835 tel:(819)684-6306 e-mail:wshen@ccs.carleton.ca If you'd like to be served in Mandarin, ask for Mr.Shen or leave your telephone number.