The government has just announced that they have eliminated, effective immediately, the four year cumulative duration rule.  The rule, introduced by the previous Conservative government, set a four year maximum on the time that most temporary foreign workers could work in Canada. Under the cumulative duration rule, after working in Canada for four years, temporary foreign workers needed to stop working in Canada for another four years before once again being eligible for a Canadian work permit. The government’s move

The Liberal government recently released its annual Immigration Levels Plan for next year.  Released around the beginning of each year, the Immigration Levels Plan provides admissions targets for each of the various pathways that are available for people to become Canadian permanent residents. For 2017, the Liberal government has ultimately decided to implement relatively modest increases in Canada’s immigration levels. Targeting 300,000 new immigrants, the Liberal government chose not to dramatically boost next year’s immigration numbers, instead deciding to keep

An Introduction to Labour Market Impact Assessments The Labour Market Impact Assessment or LMIA is currently one of the most crucial aspects of Canadian Immigration Law. As we will discuss, it is particularly important for those seeking to employ foreign workers and for certain individuals who are looking to independently apply for permanent resident status. An LMIA is the Government of Canada’s way of determining whether or not there is a need for a foreign worker and what effect the

Canada’s Express Entry system recently celebrated its first birthday.  First introduced on January 1, 2015, individuals and their representatives have since been navigating this major departure in the way that the Government of Canada processes permanent resident applications under Canada’s economic immigration programs. Express Entry is an online application management system that now governs the intake of applications for Canada’s economic immigration programs; these programs include the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Federal Skilled Trades Program, the Canadian Experience Class

Paragraph 117(9)(d) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations — it’s one of the most heartbreaking rules in Canadian immigration legislation.  The rule states that a person is no longer considered to be a member of the family class, and therefore can no longer be sponsored for permanent residence, if he was not examined by a visa officer when his sponsor immigrated to Canada. Although they can result in the permanent separation of family members, 117(9)(d) exclusions are not uncommon

It was May 2013 and I was getting set to give a presentation at the Canadian Bar Association’s National Immigration Conference in Montreal.  Along with representatives from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, I was scheduled to speak to immigration lawyers from across the country on the topic of “family class immigration”. At the time, immigration lawyers were anticipating that the government would soon be announcing changes to family class immigration, particularly when it came to the sponsorship of parents and grandparents.

April 29, 2013: Business Immigration Update Important changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program were announced on April 29, 2013. Changes included the immediate suspension of both the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion Program and the policy that allowed for a small deviation from the regional prevailing wage if the wage was already being paid to the employer’s Canadian workforce.

Employers of Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) should be aware of increased responsibilities under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR). As of April 1, 2011, several important amendments to the IRPR became effective. Highlights include: New criteria have been added to determine the genuineness of a job offer made to a TFW. Employers can be deemed ineligible to hire a TFW if, during the two years preceding a Labour Market Opinion application,