Last summer a new, fast-track immigration program for the province of Quebec was announced that would allow some individuals who had lived or studied in Quebec to immigrate to the province. As of Sunday, February 14 2010, the new Quebec Experience Class program is finally in effect and those who qualify can now submit their applications.

There are two categories under the Quebec Experience Class (Programme de l’expérience Québécoise, or PEQ):

Students: Individuals who have graduated from a recognized, participating Quebec educational institution and have at least a moderate knowledge of French may qualify under this program.

Temporary Workers: Individuals who have worked in the province for at least 12 months out of the last 24, are still working in Quebec and have at least a moderate knowledge of French may qualify under this program.

It is important to note that all qualifying work or study for this program must have been done legally on the appropriate Temporary Resident Visas.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) welcomed Saturday the approval of a new law in the Ontario Legislature providing protection to foreign workers, including Filipinos.

The labor department said the “Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act (Live-in caregivers and Others), 2009’’ will greatly benefit Filipino workers, who are mostly caregivers in Canada’s east-central province.

“This is really a good development, especially so that one of the salient features here is the prohibition against charging fees,’’ said Director Salome Mendoza, head of the DoLE Canada desk.

Apart from the prohibition on fees, the new law also prohibits reprisal (by employer or recruiter) against live-in caregivers for exercising their rights, and retaining their possessions or properties, including passports.

“No person who employs a foreign national as a live-in caregiver or in prescribed employment, and no person acting on the employer’s behalf, shall intimidate or penalize or attempt or threaten to intimidate or penalize the foreign national,’’ the law states.

“No person acting as a recruiter in connection with the employment of a foreign national as a live-in caregiver or in other prescribed employment, and no person acting on the recruiter’s behalf, shall intimidate or penalize or attempt or threaten to intimidate or penalize the foreign national,” the law says.

The Employment Act stipulates that stiff penalties will be imposed upon workers abuses, including a fine of 50,000 Canadian dollars and prison terms.

Unlike the provinces of Saskatschewan, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia, all in the Western part of Canada, which are set to renew existing employment agreements with the Philippines, Ontario is yet to come up with an agreement for job opportunities for Filipinos.

But Mendoza said the new law already signifies Ontario’s political will to safeguard the welfare of foreign workers who comprise majority of its labor supply.

According to the DoLE official, 70 percent of workers in Ontario are caregivers.

Moreover, Mendoza also lauded amendments to Canada’s Immigration and Refugees Protection Act for temporary foreign workers.

“We are ranking number one in terms of temporary workers in Canada (as of 2008). Thus, the amended Protection Act is a welcome development,’’ she said.

Mendoza said that temporary workers such as the semi-skilled workers like the food counter attendants and hotel and restaurant workers are currently not included in the program for permanency.

The amended version of the Immigration Act will provide and ensure, among others, fair treatment of temporary workers, she said.

Vim Kochhar, a businessman originally hailing from India, has been appointed as a member of the Canadian government by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The move will make Kochhar the first Indian-born minister in the history of the Canadian government. Kochhar has been living and working in Canada since 1967 and runs a furniture company, Vimal Group, in Toronto. Kochhar studied in the US at the University of Texas and became a Canadian citizen in 1974.

As a senator, Kochhar will be paid a salary of CA$70,000, which is significantly lower than the CA$200,000 he was used to earning as the CEO of his furniture chain.

Kochhar was seen as a good bet for the senator role mainly as a result of his community work, including the establishment of the Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons. Harper added, “these new senators are committed to community safety and justice for the victims of crime.”

His story is likely to be an inspiring one to anyone looking to move to Canada on a work visa or a student visa, showing anything is possible regardless of where you were born.

Lawyers in the Canadian Bar Association’s (CBA) Citizenship & Immigration Law Section are spearheading an initiative that offers initial legal consultations and the preparation of immigration applications – without charge – for Canadians and permanent residents in Canada who wish to sponsor family members affected by the recent earthquake disaster in Haiti.

“As lawyers, we make our living assisting people, and now we want to help those people in their hour of greatest need,” explains Stephen Green of Toronto, Chair of the CBA’s National Citizenship and Immigration Law Section.

Citizenship  and Immigration Canada has committed to fast-tracking new and existing  applications under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act from Canadian citizens and permanent residents who have close family members directly affected by this disaster in Haiti. The CBA initiative will facilitate this process.

Businessmen, investors, high net worth individuals, entrepreneurs and senior executives who have crossed certain age limits, often and in fact have no option but to apply for an Canada immigration visa under the business and investment categories offered by citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Majority of business and investor visa applications have conditions attached to the visa, the only exception being Canada Immigrant Investor program.

Conditions means that the while the visa holder is permitted to enter and start living in Canada, he must meet some conditions – within stipulated time frames- before conditions attached to his resident visa are waived off and his status is converted and confirmed into a permanent resident visa.

Following are some areas where conditions are attached to business visa options like Entrepreneur and provincial nominee visa programs for businessmen investor and high net worth individuals:
1. The Visa holder may be required to live in some designated provincial areas for a specified duration. Mostly this may be two years or more. This means that the Immigrant cannot just stay and start business anywhere in Canada. He is required to do it in the province that nominated or selected him for the visa under the provincial nominee category. Most of such provinces and states are often lowly populated and have extreme weather conditions. Visa applicants often have there blood relations and friends in Canada. They form their life support system during the interim settlement phase for the new Immigrant. Going under the provincial nominee program may imply that they might be landing in the province where they do not have such support system. Also these states may offer limited small local consumer market and thus may have small market to consume the products and services offered by the Immigrants business.

2. The business and investment visa holders are only permitted to do business under designated and preferred business areas that will contribute to the economic activity of the province. He is not permitted to do or invest in businesses in any business of his liking.

3. Majority of business and investment visa programs require the applicant to employ some minimum number of local citizens and residents. Such conditions increase the cost of starting and doing business for the new Immigrant Visa holder. Hired family members are not included while counting the minimum numbers of local employment.

4. Such visa options for high net worth individuals and businessmen do not permit them to live and stay against passive investments. They must be engaged on running and managing an active business. They could be investing in real estate or in financial markets and could be getting rent or income such as dividend or interest against financial instruments. But such investment will not meet the conditions against which such visas are issued in the first place. This implies that they should start and invest in a business in which they are actively involved.

5. Majority of provincial nominee program require the visa holders to give non- interest bearing refundable security deposit towards an undertaking that they will stay and start business in the province. This deposit is forfeited if the applicant does not meet this condition and makes another province his residence and place of business and investment activity.

6. The visa holder is not permitted to take up a job when he takes up a visa under provincial nominee program or Entrepreneur category.

7. The business started by the entrepreneur category visa holders must also meet some additional minimum requirements such as turnover, net profit and net assets.

Canada Immigrant Investor program is unconditional in all these aspects and therefore preferred visa category for Businessmen, investors, high net worth individuals, entrepreneurs and senior executives who have crossed certain age limits. They can live anywhere in Canada; can live off passive investment; can take up a job in Canada; need not start and manage an active business; need not hire any local citizens or residents; they can do business in any legitimate area of business activity whether or not it is in the preferred business areas of the province of their stay; are not required to offer a conditional security deposit that compels him to stay in a particular province and finally the Canadian business they start need not meet any minimum conditions such as turnover, net profit and net assets. Being unconditional, the visa holder and his family can claim all benefits that a permanent resident visa holder is entitled to and can claim.

Having an unconditional visa means that he is a permanent resident from Day one of his landing.  He can plan his and his family life and business and investments- within and outside Canada - in a manner of his liking. The features of this immigrant visa program have made it extremely popular. But being unconditional also means that the program has some stringent requirements that the applicant and his family must meet. This includes documentation, application and interview areas. The stakes are high and it is best to take help of an experienced Immigration advisor for this highly demanding immigrant investor program to Canada.

Immigration from China to Canada has risen rapidly in recent years but new migrants are assimilating quickly and easily into Canada, according to studies.

In Vancouver, some 381,500 people – or one in five residents - are originally from China and in the nearby town of Richmond nearly half of the 188,000 residents are of Chinese origin.

The number of Chinese migrants passing through Canadian Immigration has also grown rapidly: the Chinese population in Vancouver has grown by 22.8 percent between 1996 and 2001 and 11.3 percent from 2001 to 2006.

Economic opportunity and the benefits of work in Canada is not always the primary motive for those who choose to emigrate from China to Canada.

One migrant, Eileen Lao, 43, spoke to AFP about her immigration to Canada and settlement in Vancouver from Guangzhou in February 2007.
“I wanted to change my life,” she said, and although a few lifestyle changes she is “quite happy” with her new life in Canada with her engineer husband and their daughter Huang.

While the family speaks Cantonese at home, Huang, 17, attends a school where only English is spoken, and indeed the family speaks the language with ease.

Eileen Lao has not found any major difficulties with adapting to life in Canada, although as a public relations person for a non-government organisation she has found it hard to accept the angle of Canada’s media.

“Media is different here. In China it is propaganda, promotion of things well done. Here they speak of disasters or human rights, look for negative sides,” she said.

Lao hopes to one day acquire Canadian citizenship, expressing a comfort with her new country that is echoed by many Chinese immigrants according to a study by Statistics Canada.

The 2002 study found that 76 per cent of Chinese immigrants felt strongly attached to Canada and 58 percent said they also strongly identified with their own ethnic and cultural group.

A recent HSBC survey that polled 3,100 immigrants in 50 countries shows that Canada provides the best quality of life for immigrants, and is the best country of choice for immigrants in the world.

Canada also provides the highest quality of accommodation for immigrants.
Second to Canada as the top country in the world for immigrants to live in and immigrate to is Australia, while the worst is the United Kingdom.

The poll showed that countries with higher salary rates per population, such as the United Kingdom, ranked lowest on the scale when it came to immigrants’ overall happiness and quality of life. In countries with lower salaries, such as Canada and Australia, immigrants reported a good quality of life and found it easier to transition to life in their new communities.

Canada’s immigration system has a Priority Occupation List, which speeds up the immigration process for people who want to move to the country and have a desired set of skills or occupation that is in demand in Canada. This makes Canada an especially appealing destination for immigrants whose career training fall under the occupation list, giving them a better chance at securing a good job in their field and improving their quality of life in their new country.

Hong Kong and Canada have reached a number of key agreements during a three-day visit to China by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Hong Kong and Canada have signed youth mobility, trade and import agreements in what has been called the first warming of diplomatic tensions since Harper took office in 2006.

As part of the youth mobility Working Holiday Visa agreement, Hong Kong residents from 18 to 30 years old will be able to live and work in Canada for up to one year.

The new youth Hong Kong and Canadian Visa agreement will come into effect in March 2010.

Hong Kong has also lifted its six-year ban on Canadian beef, which could be worth about CA$60-million a year to Canadian farmers. China also lifted a ban on Canadian pork products, worth about CA$50 -million a year to Canadian pork producers.

Canada and Hong Kong have many ties, however, business experts believe that Canada has the potential to participate more fully in the region.
Hong Kong is currently home to 13 regional headquarters, 32 regional offices and 41 local offices for a variety of Canadian companies and more than 225,000 Canadians live in Hong Kong.

Newcomers to Canada have a large number of settlement services available to them once they arrive, most of which are provided to them at no cost. In recent years, the Canadian government has consistently increased funding to provinces and municipalities, to enable them to provide as well as improve settlement services for their immigrants. This month, we look at a few of the wealth of new initiatives that benefit new Canadians and ease their settlement process.

For the past few months Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced multiple local immigration partnerships with municipalities in Ontario such as Hamilton and York. The municipalities received funding from the federal government to develop settlement strategies that will help their newcomers integrate.

In Manitoba, immigrants can get ahead on their settlement process with the ENTRY program, a four-week program designed to help newcomers learn about life and work in Manitoba. A new aspect of the settlement process, such as finding employment, is covered each week, and a one-week express program covering all the topics is also offered.

Last month CIC revealed that it would be sending language training vouchers, which would enable individuals to take classes in one of the official languages free of charge, to newcomers chosen at random as part of a pilot project.

WelcomeBC, a settlement resource for new Canadians in British Columbia, recently enhanced their online services portal with the help of funding from the provincial and federal governments. The enhanced website includes task wizards in six languages: English, Punjabi, French, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, and Korean.

These are just some of the recent developments in settlement services in Canada that immigrants can take advantage of upon their arrival. The federal and provincial governments are constantly working to maximise the benefits these services provide to new Canadians.

Immigrants and immigrant service workers in Langley took the opportunity Saturday to tell Canada’s Immigration Minister Jason Kenney what does and doesn’t work with the system, and to give him ideas for improvement.

Langley MP Mark Warawa led a round table discussion on Canada’s immigration system with the minister and with Langley residents who have a vested interest in the subject.

Some of the recommendations from Langley included enhancing integration programs, ensuring that Immigration Canada staff are more understanding of the language barrier, and are more welcoming.

Kenney acknowledged the needs of immigrants to integrate with a better knowledge of one of Canada’s two official languages, which is key to their success. Developing further protection for migrant farm labourers was also discussed and is something the minister is working on.

“Consulting with people in Langley and other communities gives me a practical sense of how policies actually work on the ground,” said Kenney.

Kenney also congratulated the Langleys for welcoming 350 government-assisted Karen refugees who have arrived in the past few years.

“Canada receives the largest number per capita of resettled refugees than any other country, and I intend to increase the funding for refugee assistance programs and ensure those programs are successful,” he told the Langley audience.

He is also working toward an ambitious entrepreneurial immigration program that will benefit both the immigrant and Canada.

“We are working with the provinces on a pan-Canadian framework for foreign credentials. We want highly skilled immigrants certified and working in Canada quickly,” Kenney said.

“It’s imperative that Canada’s immigrants are given every possible opportunity to make the most of their integration into our community, and I appreciate the tremendous work done by Langley Community Services Society who handles the bulk of those services.”

The minister was in Langley as part of the Conservative government’s ongoing consultations with Canadians.