December 2016

An early Christmas present arrived today from Immigration Canada.

In a major policy announcement, the government streamlined the methods by which it processes spousal sponsorship applications. Highlights of today’s announcements include:

• Processing times for the majority of applications will be 12 months. This will apply to future applications, and also those already submitted.
• New forms will be available as of December 15^th. The same forms will be used for both inside and outside-Canada applicants. Only one questionnaire/sponsorship evaluation form will be needed. Old forms will be accepted until the end of January.
• The Instruction Guide will be simplified, and shortened, to make it easier to read.
• The Background/Declaration form (Schedule A) will not be required until requested.
• Medical examinations and police certificates will not be provided up front, but later when requested.
• The temporary policy allowing inland spousal applicants to receive an open work permit has been extended for another year.

November 2016

On November 19^th, changes were made to how points are calculated under the Express Entry application management system.  You can read more about this here:  http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/notices/2016-11-19.asp

November 2016

Way back in April, I attended the Canadian Bar Association’s annual national immigration law conference. Our Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, John McCallum, knew that the Express Entry application management system wasn’t quite working out how the department was expecting.  At a luncheon address, he advised those of us in the crowd that changes to the way ‘points’ were allocated to applicants would be changing.  International students, he said, would be one group who would benefit from the changes. 

So, for over six months, I’ve been meeting with potential Express Entry applicants and telling them that the points system would change. In mid-October, I heard that the changes would be in November.  Two weeks ago, I stopped doing consultations for most potential clients – what was the point when everything was about to change!

Yesterday, the changes were finally announced and you can read them in all their complexity here:

Ministerial Instructions Amending the Ministerial Instructions Respecting the Express Entry System, 2016-1

November 2016

The 2017 Immigration Levels Plan has been announced.  These ‘levels’ are the numbers of permanent resident applications Canada plans to approve during 2017.  The numbers are broken down based on the type of application (family reunification programs, economic immigration programs, and refugees/humanitarian cases.)  The number of applications in each category will impact processing times; the more space in the category, the more staff that will be assigned to process those applications.