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China News Digest - Canadian Regional Services (Bo Xiong) --------------- >From: "yao (y.) li" Subject: FCSSC News Release 5-67 Monday, April 4, 1994 Message-ID: Sender: FCSSCN-L stands for FCSSC News Release Reply-To: FCSSCN-L stands for FCSSC News Release Date: Mon, 4 Apr 1994 23:03:55 GMT Lines: 356 Status: R ******************************************************************** # FCSSC News Release 5-67 Monday, April 4, 1994 # # # # m"m D mm" "m" ""D mmmmmmm m"m m"m # # m" "m mmmDmmmm mmmmm D""" D D """D D D "D" "D" # # m" "m D D D D D""" m"m """D D"""D mDmD DmDm # # n" mmmmmmmmm "m D D D D D"""""""""""""D DmmmD mmmD Dmmm # # D D D D D " """""D" " D D D D D D # # mmmmDmmmm D D D D "D DmmmD"DmmD D D # # D m" m" DmmmD """""""D""""" "" D " D D"" # # mmmmmmDmmmmmm m" mm" " " "Md D m" D # # # ******************************************************************** Table of Contents ============================================================================ 1. Editors Notes 2. Visa Scene Advisory ============================================================================ +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 1. Editors Notes +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ FCSSC has signed contract with Hoppe Jackman Immigration Law Group/Visa Seminar International, details of which can be found in the FCSSC News Release 5-58 (available via FTP: opas1.ccs.carleton.ca, pub/fcssc/nr). In this issue we release a package of information in title of "Visa Scene Advisory" for the reference of interested readers only. FCSSC does not regard the following information as its official stands. However, those who have any further question can contact the FCSSC Student Affairs Committee (SAC) through e-mail: fcssc-sa@sfu.ca. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 2. Visa Scene Advisory +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ >From: John Ryan <71623.441@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Visa Scene Advisory Visa Scene Advisory FCSSC 94/3 Jointly published by Visa Seminars International and The Hoppe Jackman Immigration Law Group, 196 Adelaide Street West, Suite 100, Toronto Canada. Index of Articles ************************************************************************ 1). A Note of Thanks 2). Mr. John Ryan Travels to Europe 3). Considering a Sponsorship - Issues of Family Sponsorship - by Terri Jackman 4). Successful Immigration Strategies for Students - by John P. Ryan 5). Discretion: A Double Edged Sword - by David Bruner, LLB 6). The Canadian Refugee System - by Millie Hrnjez, LLB. 7). How to Contact Visa Seminars International/Hoppe Jackman ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ 1). A NOTE OF THANKS ************************************************************************ Visa Seminars would like to extend its thanks to the University of Manitoba CSSA, The University of Alberta CSSA and The University of British Columbia CSSA for the hospitality offered to us during our recent western speaking tour. Visa Seminars is currently setting its summer and fall speaking dates. We look forward to speaking with you. If any local association is interested in having a speaker from VISA Seminars International address your membership in matters of Canadian/Us Immigration please contact Ms. Anh Truong to arrange the details at 1-800-263-8472, (fax) 416-599-7318. ************************************************************************ 2). JOHN RYAN IN EUROPE ************************************************************************ Our President Mr. Ryan will be traveling to Europe between April 21 and May 2, 1994. Mr. Ryan will be visiting the following cities and will be giving seminars in: Rome, Italy Frankfurt, Germany Munich, Germany Berlin, Germany Amman Jordan If you are one of our European readers and would like more information on Mr. Ryan's itinerary or would like to meet him during his stay please contact us. ************************************************************************ 3). CONSIDERING A SPONSORSHIP? by Terri Jackman ************************************************************************ Direct sponsorship of a close relative is possible under Canada's current Immigration laws. You cannot, however, directly sponsor your brother or sister to Canada. There is a sponsorship application which can be initiated by permanent residents or Canadian Citizens to bring certain relatives to Canada. This sponsorship class is referred to as a "Family Class" sponsorship application and is the only direct form of sponsorship to Canada. There are only certain family relations which fall into this class. The most common ones are a husband or wife sponsoring their spouse overseas; fiance applications; a child sponsoring a parent overseas; grandparents; or a parent sponsoring their child overseas; and some orphans. Each of them is slightly different in nature and has certain requirements with each type of sponsorship. In this issue, I will only deal with two of the Family Class sponsorships. These are the spousal sponsorships and the fiance sponsorships. In our next news letter I will deal with the remaining Family Class sponsorships. A husband/wife sponsoring their spouse: This sponsorship is relatively straight forward in nature. The sponsor must be 19 years of age or over, must reside in Canada and be a Canadian Citizen or Landed Immigrant. It is best if the Spouse in Canada is employed and earning an income, as the application will be processed more smoothly in this case. However, there is not any financial requirement, such as a Low Income Cut-off Guideline which needs to be met in order to sponsor a spouse. But, the foreign spouse should be employable if the Canadian spouse is unemployed. To initiate the sponsorship, the sponsor in Canada must fill out and sign the sponsorship forms. These forms can be obtained from any of the local Immigration Offices. All of the forms must be filled in completely or they will be returned to you with a request for further information. Please be sure to list all dependents and to state which ones are to accompany the spouse clearly on these forms, otherwise this will delay the application. Once the sponsorship forms are completed and signed they are sent to the Central Processing Centre for Sponsorships. You must include the processing fee of $450.00 for each person 19 or over and $50.00 for each dependent child under 19 years. You must also provide proof of residence in Canada; proof of status in Canada; proof of relationship; and proof of financial circumstances. Once all of this is sent in, for example, to the CPC located in Mississauga, Ontario, they will process the file if everything is done correctly, they will advise the Canadian Consulate, Canadian Embassy or Canadian High Commission abroad that the application has been started. Once this form has been sent to the overseas office, the sponsors task is complete. This process will take approximately six to eight weeks to clear the CPC, and the sponsor will be sent a copy of the forms once it is complete. The Canadian Consulate, Embassy or High Commission will then send the spouse overseas a package with application forms so that they can then apply for landing in Canada under the sponsorship of the spouse. If the overseas office believes that the relationship is a bone fide one, they will process the person towards landing. The person being sponsored will have to meet medical requirements and security requirements before they could be approved for landing in Canada. In many of the offices abroad, they will have to go through an interview at the Consulate, Embassy or High Commission. This interview is to ensure that all of the information is correct and true and to determine the bone fides of the marital relationship. If all of these processes are fine then the spouse will be issued a landing document to come to Canada. The fiance sponsorship: The application process is identical to the spousal sponsorship process which I have outlined above. There is a slight difference in the requirements, however. When sponsoring a fiance to Canada, there is a financial requirement which must be met. Therefore, the sponsor must be employed or earning an income at or higher than the Low Income Cut-off Guidelines, before the sponsorship application can be approved. These guidelines are as follows: In assessing the number of people who must be included, please count any persons dependent on the sponsor, any persons for whom the sponsor has already signed a sponsorship undertaking; and any dependents of the person being sponsored. 1 person: $14,951 5 persons: $32,406 2 persons: $20,266 6 persons: $35,177 3 persons: $25,761 7 persons: $37,833 4 persons: $29,661 FOR EACH ADDITIONAL PERSON, ADD $2,710 You should also note that if you do become married during the processing of the application, that you should advise the Canadian Consulate, Embassy or High Commission that the marriage has taken place and provide them with copies of the marriage certificate. Once the fiance has received the landing document and has landed in Canada the couple must marry within 90 days. Once married the couple has to report to a local Immigration office, with proof of the marriage. The immigration office will then remove the requirement from the landing document. Until next issue....... ************************************************************************ 4). SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS By John P. Ryan ************************************************************************ One of the areas of repeated concern among our seminar participants across Canada is: "How can I as a student applicant strengthen my chances for Permanent Residence Status?" First and foremost, it always pays to do a detailed self assessment of your potential for successful Immigration. Contrary to what you might think, the criteria for a successful application are not only whether or not you have 70 points, but whether you have the overall set of skills, job experience and positive attributes the government is looking for. There is a general misconception that exists among many of our seminar patrons; specifically that most believe that if they score 70 points, they must be successful. Not so!! If you intend on being counted in the ranks of successful applicants you must prepare long in advance of your application process to deal with issues of Job Readiness, Employability. You might ask yourself how can I address these factors. Well, while it is true that these factors largely fall to the discretion of the Canada Visa Officer. You can strengthen your situation by investigating the job market in your area of speciality; talking to supervisors, associates and industry contacts about prospects for employment; beginning an active job search; and by obtaining professional advice from those knowledgeable in the field of immigration law, i.e. immigration lawyers and credible consultants prior to submission of your application . Remember because of the high Application Fees involved that you want to be successful in your first application. In addition to the above, the preparation of supporting documentation for your application is important. Remember the better prepared you are will directly impact your potential for success. In the next advisory I will deal with issues surrounding the accreditation of Engineers by The Canadian Council of Professional Engineers and their provincial counterparts for Immigration purposes. Stay Tuned..... ************************************************************************ 5). DISCRETION A DOUBLE EDGED SWORD THE CHEN CASE by David Bruner ************************************************************************ The Immigration Regulations authorize a visa officer to pass or fail an independent application for an immigrant visa if there are good reasons why the number of units of assessment do not reflect the chances of the particular immigrant and his dependents of becoming successfully established in Canada. Until recently, "positive" or "negative" discretion exercised by a visa officer was thought to be limited to situation where the visa officer had good reasons for concluding that the point assessment did not accurately reflect the immigrant's chances for economic establishment in Canada. In a recent decision, the Federal Court of Appeal (CHEN v. MINISTER of EMPLOYMENT and IMMIGRATION) extended the officer's discretion to refuse an application on the basis of a negative moral factor. The applicant tried to bribe the visa officer $500.00 after the applicant had been approved in principle, to expedite the security clearance. His case had been dragging on too long, and he thought $500.00 in a Christmas card to the officer would speed things up. The visa officer refused the application on the grounds that the applicant' s resort to what would be construed to be a "crime" in Canada reflected negatively on the applicant's understanding of Canadian social norms and hence his prospects for successful establishment in Canada. The Trial Division Judge overturned the visa officer's decision on the basis that "successful establishment "means" financially and economically successful and does not refer to moral character. The Court of Appeal Judge disagreed and upheld the original decision of the visa officer. According to the Court of Appeal, successful establishment now includes social success as well as financial success. The CHEN decision may not be all bad. A visa officer has the discretion to consider an applicant's social as well as economic circumstances and exercise positive discretion. For example, the point that the applicant has lived or status in Canada for several years may reflect positively on the ability to adapt to Canadian values. Therefore, depending on the discretion of individual officers, a weak case on economic establishment could be bolstered by a strong social contribution potential. ************************************************************************ 6). Convention Refugee Determination System in Canada Part (I of II) By Millie Hrnjez ************************************************************************ There has been a fair amount of speculation in the media and the general public during the past few years about people trying "to jump the queue" by claiming refugee status in Canada. There is a popular misconception that people who don't want to go through normal Immigration channels or who are too impatient to wait for processing times can just get to Canada, say the magic word "refugee" and become landed immigrants in Canada. This is a misconception since there is a thorough and painstaking procedure for being determined a Convention refugee in Canada. First, a senior immigration officer will decide whether a person is eligible to have his or her claim determined. A person may not be eligible for a number of reasons, including that he or she has been recognized to be a Convention refugee in another country to which that person has a right to return. If the person is eligible to have his or her claim determined, the claim is referred to the Convention Refugee Determination Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board. A hearing before a two member panel of the Refugee Division is scheduled. At that hearing, the panel members will determine whether the claimant has a well founded fear of persecution in his or her country of nationality or former habitual residence for the reason of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. A refugee claimant should be represented by experienced counsel at this hearing before the Refugee Division. The onus is on the claimant to establish that he or she has a well founded fear of persecution for one of the enumerated grounds. He or she must establish a subjective fear, meaning that he or she feels a genuine fear. The claimant must also show that there are objective grounds for this fear. This is generally demonstrated by newspaper articles, reports from human rights groups, and other documentary evidence on the conditions in the country in which the claimant fears persecution. If the claimant cannot satisfy this onus, he or she will be determined not to be a Convention refugee. Currently, Canada only finds approximately 60% of all claimants to be Convention refugees. Even if determined to be a Convention refugee, it generally takes at least another year before the person actually becomes a permanent resident. Claiming Convention refugee status is not a shortcut to becoming a permanent resident of Canada. Many claims are rejected. If you are thinking of making a refugee claim, get competent legal advice. If you are able to become landed in another way, such as making an application as an independent worker, then it is usually a better and safer option to apply through the normal channels. Part II of this article will deal with the more substantive issues involved in the Convention Refugee process. ************************************************************************ +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Executive Editor: Huiquan Zhao (huiquan@rainbow.physics.utoronto.ca) | | Proofreader: Huiquan Zhao (huiquan@rainbow.physics.utoronto) | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 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: opas1.ccs.carleton.ca:pub/fcssc/nr | | 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 | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+