The Partners of McCuaig Desrochers LLP are pleased to announce that Nathan Po was again selected by his peers from across the country to be listed in The Best Lawyers™ in Canada in the field of Immigration Law. He has held this honour since 2018.
Dramatic changes to Canada’s International Student Program were announced on January 22, 2024. The changes represent significant reforms designed to stabilize Canada’s International Student Program and remove some of the incentives that have driven explosive international student growth in certain provinces. Effective immediately, Canada has introduced a two-year cap on the number of study permits that it would issue. For the next two years, Canada will cap the intake of study permit applications with the goal of only approving approximately
On January 30, 2024, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced that they would begin accepting the Pearson Test of English (PTE Core) language test for all lines of business (except the Student Direct Stream). Offered by Pearson Canada Inc., the PTE Core test now joins the CELPIP and the IELTS test as one of the English tests that applicants can use in support of their immigration applications. For French tests, the Test d’évaluation de français pour le Canada (TEF Canada)
The Government of Canada announced the introduction of the Recognized Employer Pilot (REP) on August 8, 2023. It was the first major policy announcement made by Edmonton Centre MP, Randy Boissonnault, in his new role as Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages. The Recognized Employer Pilot is designed to reduce the red-tape and administrative burden associated with hiring temporary foreign workers and will apply to a subset of those employers who have demonstrated a good track-record of compliance
Today, Canada’s immigration minister announced a significant expansion of the Francophone Mobility Program which will make it easier for more French-speaking individuals to come and obtain work permits to work in Canada. The Francophone Mobility Program was originally launched in 2016 to promote Francophone immigration to Francophone minority communities outside of Quebec, it exempts Canadian employers (outside of Quebec) from having to go through the Labour Market Impact Assessment system, making it much easier for them to hire French-speaking workers
Since 2020, foreign workers in the Agri-Food industry were able to apply for permanent residence under a (then) new pilot program which was set to end May 2023. Today, the Government of Canada has extended this pilot program to run until May 14, 2025. The Government of Canada has also indicated that they will revise the program to: The majority of the current eligibility criteria and industries and occupations are able to benefit from this program does not appear to
McCuaig Desrochers LLP is excited to announce that Nathan Po, one of our partners, has been recognized twice, in both the 2023 Lexpert Legal Directory as a leading practitioner in immigration law, and in the 2023 edition of the Best Lawyers in Canada in the field of immigration law. Best Lawyers™ compiles its lists of outstanding lawyers by conducting thousands of peer reviewed surveys. Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the one of the foremost
There are changes coming to Canada’s Express Entry program. Express Entry has been a mainstay of Canada’s economic immigration system since its introduction in 2015, governing the intake of permanent residence applications under several of our economic immigration programs. Under the Express Entry system, individuals interested in applying for permanent residence under the Canadian Experience Class, or the Federal Skilled Worker and Federal Skilled Trades programs must first create an online profile that is automatically assessed a certain number of
As of February 24, 2022, Russia has launched a military attack against Ukraine and its people. The Canadian government has implemented new measures to help the people of Ukraine affected by this attack. The Canadian government has expressed a commitment to prioritizing applications from people living in Ukraine for Canadian permanent residence, proof of citizenship, temporary residence and citizenship grant for adoption. Additionally, they are attempting to urgently process passports and travel documents for Canadians living in Ukraine, to allow
On September 23, 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizen Canada began the work of sending out invitations for Canadian citizens and permanent residents to sponsor their parents or grandparents for Canadian permanent resident status. By October 4, the round of invitation ended with enough invitations sent out to meet the department’s goal of receiving 30,000 additional complete parent/grandparent sponsorship applications, the highest number of applications accepted in a year since 2014 – when limits were first applied to the intake of
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