Why choose Canada?

Many students choose to study in Canada for the opportunity to encounter different cultural and natural experiences. Canada is an extremely large country which means the landscape differs drastically from British Columbia (Western Canada) to Nova Scotia (Eastern Canada). Canada is also home to many large cities such as Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. Canada is well-established among the world’s leading study destinations. Most students choose larger populated cities to study in as they are home to many of the top universities in Canada. Did you know that Canadian college and university degrees are recognized around the world? The Canadian educational system offers the development of transferable skills, such as critical thinking, teamwork, communication and uses up and coming technology and digital media practices. The government of Canada also offers a work program to students who are looking to gain work experience who have obtained a diploma from a post-secondary institution in Canada. This allows you to develop your professional skills while living in Canada. As you can see, there are plenty of reasons to study in Canada! Still hesitant? Click here for more reasons!

Canada’s Top Schools:

The University of Toronto was ranked one of the best universities in the world, and the top in Canada. It ranked fifth in the world for Clinical Medicine, and eighth for Psychiatry/Psychology. The annual U.S News and World Report university rankings positioned U of T as the number 20 spot, the highest of any Canadian school. The University of British Columbia ranked 29th and McGill ranked 43rd which places them in the top 100. Canada has a total of 34 schools on the list.

The Top Universities in Canada are as Follows:

1. University of Toronto
2. University of British Columbia
3. McGill University
4. McMaster University
5. University of Montreal
6. University of Alberta
7. University of Calgary
8. University of Ottawa
9. University of Waterloo
10. University of Victoria
11. Western University
12. Simon Fraser University
13. Laval University
14. Dalhousie University
15. Queen’s University
16. University of Manitoba
17. York University
18. University of Guelph
19. Carleton University
20. Université du Québec à Montréal

To learn more about study permits, click here.

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The top 20 cities were ranked as follows:
1. London
2. Tokyo
3. Melbourne
4. Montreal
5. Paris
6. Munich
7. Berlin
8. Zurich
9. Sydney
10. Seoul
11. Vienna
12. Hong Kong
13. Toronto
13. Boston
15. Singapore
16. Edinburgh
17. Vancouver
18. New York
19. Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe
20. Taipei

To view the full list, click here.

The post See How Many Canadian Cities Have Made the 2018 Best Student Cities List! first appeared on Bellissimo Law Group.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has recently taken measures to tighten the rules for sponsoring a spouse to live in Canada.  Identifying genuine marital partnerships and marriages of convenience is a task that falls to Canada’s many visa officers stationed around the world. Their role is to screen the relationships of applicants for signs of fraud before the non-Canadian spouse arrives in Canada.

McMaster University Professor Vic Satzewich was granted the exceptionally rare opportunity to follow Canadian visa officers through their many cases to look closely at this assessment process. His new study “Canadian Visa Officers and the Social Construction of ‘Real’ Spousal Relationships” was published last week in the Canadian Review of Sociology. The study is based on 220 hours of field work conducted at 11 Canadian visa offices located in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia between 2010 and 2012.  It is only the second time a researcher has been granted access to what Satzewich refers to as the “black box” of Canadian visa offices.

He observed that visa officers evaluate the credibility of a spousal sponsorship application by using their knowledge what ‘normal’ relationships look like in the local culture.  A few areas of concern can flag an application for an in-person interview. Examples include:

• Applicants from a poor region where fraud is common, and who require a visa to enter Canada
• Couples who have not met before their marriage or do not share a common language
• Couples who do not know details of their partner’s past and present personal lives
• Couples who appear incompatible in terms of age, values, or physical appearance
• Non-Canadian spouses who have previously lived in Canada
• Applicants who are facing deportation who suddenly marry a Canadian citizen

Written letters and emails, as well as photos are reviewed to assess the validity of a relationship.  Excessive expression of love can actually discredit the applicant because it is expected that couples would discuss many topics. The concern is that letters may be ingenuine, created specifically for the visa officer to read. Photos often show who and how many friends and family attended a wedding, and if this is a normal size wedding in the local culture. What is normal will vary by culture and geographic regions, and the visa officer’s assessment is meant to reflect this.

A public perception that personal bias may influence the way a visa officer uses his or her discretionary powers is discussed in the study.  Satzewich observed that in Canada’s system it is possible for cultural prejudice to enter into a decision, however the study found no examples of this occurring. He noted that some regions have higher rejection rates than others, but cautioned against interpreting this as cultural or racial bias on the part of the visa officers. Many other factors may be involved.  The author concluded his study remarking that visa officers were motived to uphold the integrity of the immigration system.The author was surprised at how few face to face interviews are actually conducted, and identified the trend toward a more paper based approval process as a possible area for further research.

Sources

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