Immigration Newsweek
By Atty. Henry Moyal
Years ago Canada Immigration implemented a portal system that permitted applicants to submit certain applications online and to monitor applications including updates. Applicants were however given the option to submit their applications by mail in paper based format. Effective June 4, 2019 Canada Immigration changed the rules and have demanded that foreign nationals who are in Canada as visitor, worker or student and are seeking to extend their status must apply by electronic means only. Specifically, all of the following applications must be filed online by uploading documents with a scanner:
The beauty and complexity of Immigration law is the way regulations and policies can change almost on a monthly basis. This week several changes were announced and are quite monumental despite the low key coverage it has garnered. The following two changes have been in the works for a long time and only now have they surfaced to the forefront.
The infamous Section 117(9)(d) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) has been a thorn in the side of many applicants and lawyers who viewed it as too harsh. It stated that non-declared family members who were not part of a sponsor’s original application could never be sponsored in the future and rendered family members ( for example spouses and children) ineligible and “not part of the family class”. Furthermore, by not being part of the “family class” prevented any right of appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division.
However, starting soon, sponsorship applications for family members who were previously banned from obtaining permanent residence under Canada’s Immigration laws will now be allowed to be sponsored under a new two-year pilot program starting September 9, 2019.
In a brave move, Ahmed Hussen, the Federal Immigration Minister, announced that applicants will now be able to sponsor non-accompanying family members who were not declared and therefore were not examined by immigration authorities when the sponsor applied for Canadian permanent residence.
The pilot program will start in September 2019 and run for two years. It is not yet known whether quotas will be set for the number of applications accepted.
Attorney Henry Moyal is a certified and licensed immigration lawyer in Toronto, Ontario.
The above article is general advice only and is not intended to act as a legal document.
Send questions to Attorney Moyal by email canada@moyal.com or call 416 733 3193
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