This application was recently approved and a Nomination Certificate issued. This Nomination Certificate increased our clients score by an additional 600 points under the Express Entry profile. With his increased score, we expect that he will receive an Invitation to Apply for permanent residence in the next Express Entry round of invitations.

The post This Week’s Featured Success Story: Successful Express Entry Ontario Nomination first appeared on Bellissimo Law Group.

Ontario PNP Nomination Re-Issued!

Our office assisted a client with respect to the re-issuance of an Ontario Provincial Nominee Program (“PNP”) nomination certificate. In October 2012, our client received a positive nomination certificate and submitted his permanent residence application before expiry. Unfortunately, his application was deemed incomplete and was unprocessed. Due to some mailing delays, our client did not receive the return of his permanent residence application package until over two years later, well past the PNP nomination certificate expiry date. The category he had been nominated under was also no longer available.

Our office assisted this client to make submissions to Ontario PNP to have his nomination certificate re-issued. Even though over two years had passed since the issuance of his original nomination certificate, the Ontario PNP office agreed to re-issue our client’s PNP certificate and he was able to re-submit his permanent residence application. His application has already passed completeness check and we expect our client to receive the approval of his permanent resident in the near future.

The post This Week’s Featured Success Story! first appeared on Bellissimo Law Group.

The IRPA (subsection 40(1)(a)) makes clear that not any misrepresentation will render a permanent resident or foreign national inadmissible. Rather, a person is inadmissible “for directly or indirectly misrepresenting or withholding material facts relating to a relevant matter that induces or could induce an error in the administration of this Act.” What this means is that to be captured by subsection 40(1)(a), the misrepresentation must affect, or have the potential to affect, either the processes undertaken or the final result.

In our recent case, the Applicant had applied for permanent residence in the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). His wife and children were accompanying dependents, and his wife’s form mistakenly said that she had not been refused a visa to Canada or any other country. In reality, she had previously been refused a visitor visa to Canada. Because of this, he was found to be inadmissible based on misrepresentation for a period of 2 years. Importantly, the law has recently changed, making foreign nationals or permanent residents inadmissible for 5 years based on misrepresentation. This is a very significant penalty for what may be accidental oversights. For more on this, please see Ms. Roth’s earlier blog post on misrepresentation, found here.

At Court, we argued that although the incorrectly checked box was certainly an error, it was not a material error, as it could not have affected the processing or outcome of the Applicant’s permanent residence application. Regardless of his wife’s past visa refusal, this would not have affected investigations into her admissibility to Canada, nor would it have affected the Applicant’s eligibility in the PNP program. Finally, this past visa refusal was already known to CIC either way, as they were the authority which refused this application in the first place.

Our arguments succeeded at Court, which is a wonderful resolution for this family. However, it is important to be aware that in other circumstances, something as simple as an incorrectly checked box on a form could most certainly lead to a finding of misrepresentation under subsection 40(1)(a). For example, had his wife been refused a visa to the U.S. and not checked the box on the application form to declare this, then this misrepresentation could be material. After all, if she did not tell CIC that she was refused a visa to the U.S., CIC might not have verified her immigration records with the U.S. as thoroughly and looked into the reasons for refusal. This could lead CIC to issue her a visa improperly.

Misrepresentation is a particularly complex area of the law. Unfortunately, many people do not realize that honest, minor mistakes can have devastating consequences. However, it is important to understand the nuances of materiality and the established legal exceptions to be sure that your case is being advanced as favourably as possible. When dealing with allegations of misrepresentation we would always recommend that individuals seek legal advice!

For more information on misrepresentation, please click here.

The post Misrepresentation and Materiality – What Many People Don’t Know! first appeared on Bellissimo Law Group.

The program formerly known as “Expression of Interest” will now be referred to as “Express Entry”. Citizenship and Immigration minister Chris Alexander announced on April 8^th, 2014 that Express Entry is set to launch in January 2015.

Express Entry will be open to skilled workers and will target labor shortages where they are no available Canadian workers. The primary distinction between this program and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is, candidates under the Express Entry program who receive a valid job offer, or nomination under the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) will be invited to apply for permanent residency.  

Qualified applicants can also look forward to faster processing times of less than 6 months when invited to come to Canada under: The Federal Skilled Worker Program, Federal Skilled Trades Program, Canadian Experience Class, and a portion of the PNP.

The post Express Entry Canada’s new Immigration Program first appeared on Bellissimo Law Group.

This past month the Ontario government introduced legislation proposing an expansion of the Provincial Nominee Program. The program would grow from 1,300 economic immigrants to 5,000 accepted per year. Similar to Québec, under this new legislation Ontario would have the discretion to develop its own specific selection strategy.

Québec currently has its own set criteria for choosing new immigrants who will adapt well to life in Quebec. A skilled worker first applies to the Québec Government for a Certificat de Sélection du Québec (CSQ) and then later can apply to Citizenship and Immigration Canada programs to gain Permanent Residency.

Notwithstanding the very different historical relationship Québec and Ontario have vis-à-vis the Canadian Government, Ontario also has cause to seek a province-specific approach to immigration. Ontario is looking to grow its immigration program beyond the existing 100,000 new residents per year. Ontario also seeks to court a far grater number of skilled professionals in fields like Information Technology, which are in high demand in the province.  Annual caps to the Federal Skilled Worker Program introduced earlier this year by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, may obstruct the Province’s designs on attracting more skilled workers and their families to Ontario.

The Provincial Nominee Program allows employers to fill skilled positions when there is a shortage of qualified candidates to be found within Ontario.  Under the proposed new legislation, new immigrants would apply first to an expanded Ontario Provincial Nominee Program. The role of Citizenship and Immigration Canada would then be to clear these applicants on the basis of security and medical admissibility.

Sources

The post Ontario proposes a Québec style Provincial Nominee Program first appeared on Bellissimo Law Group.

He indicated that a new pilot project is now in place to allow provinces to go through the backlog of newcomers and pick those who meet the local labour force needs.  “People with flexible human capital, high level of language proficiency and a prearranged job are set for success so that will be an important guidepost as we move towards transformational change”

 The federal government has already struck deals with British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Northwest Territories to sort through the backlogs. It is estimated that Canada will welcome an additional 3,000 – 4,000 newcomers through the provincial nominee program.

Kenney encourages those applicants “stuck” in the backlog to pull their applications and consider re-applying through the much faster provincial nominee program.

Furthermore, government officials and employers across the country are discussing ways of creating a more “active” immigration system in which employers can have direct access to the backlog database and recruit skilled workers.

If you have a pending application and would like to discuss your options for re-applying, contact us today!

The post Legislating Away Immigration Backlog first appeared on Bellissimo Law Group.