Its glory days they are not: the rankings of the Buffalo-NY visa post responsible for processing Canadian immigration applications have plummeted from being near the top -in terms of processing times globally - to near last. The Canadian Consulate General in Buffalo-NY, the main office responsible for the processing of Canadian Permanent Residence and temporary visa applications for persons in the USA intending to immigrate to Canada, was known as one of the fastest, most reliable processing centers for Canadian immigration applications globally – until recently. Only the visa posts in Trinidad & Tobago and Pakistan process applications slower than the Buffalo visa post at the moment. This cannot be good news for the many American nationals and persons living in the US who are considering immigrating permanently to Canada. With the highest rate of American immigration into Canada in the past 30 years, it may be the backlog, it may be the management, but something is certainly slowing down the processing of applications at this visa post. Applicants who submitted their documents when the Buffalo visa post had published processing standards of 6-12 months in past years, are dismayed to find out that processing times have grown to 21 months. For Federal Skilled Worker applicants, this delay is compounded by the fact that these applications must first pass a preliminary assessment stage at the Case Processing Centre, which itself takes an additional 5 months at this time. In all, waiting for 26 months may not be such an attractive deal to many highly qualified nationals. The solution? May applicants are instructing their Canadian immigration lawyers to submit their applications at the visa post responsible for their country of nationality. With processing times like 18 months in Damascus-Syria, 15 months for New Delhi – India, and 15 months for Mexico City – Mexico, many applicants, even those who may be working or living in the US, are asking their Canadian immigration lawyers to file their applications at the visa offices responsible for their home countries.
The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement came into force on August 15, 2011—a key boost for Canadian companies in five important sectors: agriculture, information and communications technologies, mining, oil and gas, and services.
The agreement gives Canadians access to new markets, customers and partnerships, creating stronger supply and production chains. The FTA will:
Improve market access
Remove or reduce trade barriers
Make Canadian goods more competitive
Reduce or eliminate tariffs on Canadian exports
Allow free transfer of investment capital
Provide investor protection and assurances
Protect against unlawful expropriation
Assure access to binding international arbitration
A separate double taxation agreement will also ensure people or businesses from one country are not double-taxed for doing business in the other.
The Canadian pork industry, for instance, will likely see its exports double to around $12 million within the next three years, starting immediately, says Jacques Pomerleau, President of Canada Pork International, the industry association that represents Canada’s pork producers.
“We really needed to level the playing field,” says Pomerleau. According to Pomerleau, Canadian pork exporters had to contend with difficult market conditions before this FTA was negotiated. “It used to be very difficult to calculate import tariffs,” he says. “Tariffs would vary constantly. One day we would pay a 25% tariff, the next it would be 5% and you never really knew why. Now, we have transparent and stable access to a very important market and that is great news for Canadian companies.”
Canada’s interest in Colombia is growing strongly, and the market is attracting Canadian businesses—oil and gas, mining and manufacturing in particular. The country has undergone important economic and legal reforms, spurring democracy and global direct investment. The business climate is now stable and predictable, making Colombia a secure business partner and a solid investment destination. Colombia also offers attractive investment incentives. There are more than 40 free trade zones where the corporate tax rate is 15 percent. Also, imported materials are exempt from customs duties and VAT. For more information, visit The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service.
Opportunities in Colombia Agriculture
Exports: Reduced tariffs will offer greater opportunities for Canadian agricultural and food producers. Consumer demand for processed foods and high-value food products is rising steadily.
Investment: Colombia has 34.5 million hectares available for agricultural land development and a climate that supports efficient production.
Information and communications technologies
Exports: Colombia needs computer hardware and software, along with networking solutions and telecommunications equipment from foreign sources. The government procurement market is well worth exploring. Specialized software and e-services solutions are also in demand.
Investment: Opportunities exist for mobile telecommunications, broadband and Internet service providers.
Mining
Exports: Demand for transportation, early prospecting and drilling equipment is strong. Exploration companies also need geophysical, land surveying, mapping, engineering and environmental planning services.
Investment: Investors are needed to expand coal and nickel mining production. International firms are also securing rights to explore Colombia’s gold and copper deposits.
Oil and gas
Exports: Colombia needs equipment and services for all stages of oil and gas production.
Investment: Opportunities to build and expand petrochemical production and ethanol-producing plants are promising.
Services
Exports: Transportation infrastructure is needed, including urban transit, roads, ports and airports. Engineering and construction firms stand to benefit from opportunities in the power generation and transmission sector. Environmental services are also in high demand. The government is investing in waste management and water treatment services.
Opportunities: There are excellent prospects in engineering, forestry, mining, oil and gas financial services, and education.
Canada’s stronger economy is becoming a magnet for Americans hunting for work.
In a reversal of historical flows, immigration lawyers report a surge of calls from Americans who want to move north. Statistics bear out their observations: A record number of Americans applied for temporary work visas last year, Immigration Canada statistics show, spurred largely by the contrasting health of the two countries’ labour markets.
On one side of the border, 14 million Americans are out of work – the equivalent of more than 40 per cent of Canada’s population. On the other side, some employers – particularly in Alberta’s oil sector – say they can’t find enough skilled workers, prompting the country’s federal immigration minister to publicly muse last month on how to admit more skilled Americans.
The U.S. jobless rate is 9.1 per cent while Canada’s comparable rate – adjusted to U.S. concepts – is just 6.3 per cent, statistics released last week show.
“It’s reverse brain drain,” says Toronto-based immigration lawyer Sergio Karas. “There are a lot of disgruntled people who say ‘America is letting me down.’”
He sees several shifts – Canadians who married Americans and live in the U.S. are now returning to Canada because of better job prospects in professional areas like law and finance. And more Americans, from the Northeast and California in particular, are setting their sights on Canada for its work opportunities and other factors such as affordable health care, a stronger banking system and stable housing market.
Paul DeJoe is one of them. The 29-year-old tried for years to drum up interest in his business idea in Philadelphia to no avail. He moved to Vancouver this summer to participate in an incubator program that focuses on Internet startups. He says there’s a bigger flow of ideas, and more seed money, available to them now that they’re based in Canada.
“It looks like we will become a Canadian company – we have access to a bunch more opportunities. And it’s really nice here and we’ve had a great experience thus far,” says Mr. DeJoe, founder of Ecquire, which provides software that helps users eliminate data entry.
Canada’s stability is increasingly on the global radar. Last week, Forbes magazine named it as the best place in the world to do business. In the lead-up to every presidential election, “countless Americans threaten to move to Canada if their preferred candidate does not emerge victorious. Of course, few follow through with a move north,” it noted. “Maybe it is time to reconsider.”
Windsor, Ont.-based immigration lawyer Drew Porter is also seeing history reverse itself. He is fielding more calls from high-net-worth Americans who are worried their taxes are set to rise. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years now, and always the calls were from people that did well in Canada and wanted to move to the U.S. to increase their standard of living and minimize their income taxes,” he says. “It’s quite noteworthy to me that now I’m getting calls from the U.S. interested in Canada for the same reasons.”
A typical caller is from a rural setting, who is a higher earner and interested in preserving their net worth and concerned about potential tax hikes, he says. Still, he notes, many callers are misinformed about the ease of coming to Canada and are soon deterred by red tape.
Luring skilled American workers to Canada is on the federal government’s radar, as well. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently noted Canada could do more to tap into America’s skilled labour market.
“We are looking at ways … that we could do a better job of accessing unemployed American labour,” he told the Calgary Chamber of Commerce last month. “We think particularly in the energy industry, that might be a significant solution to some of the emerging labour market shortages.”
The U.S. has ranked first among homelands for temporary foreign workers in Canada since 2008. Last year, the number of American citizens applying for temporary work permits doubled to 4,024, from 1,974 applications in 2008.
Judith Jones is mulling the move. The New York resident is no stranger to Canada – she lived in Toronto before returning to work in the U.S. in 1995.
She held a variety of jobs in the financial sector until her job at Deutsche Bank’s compliance department evaporated in 2008. Since then, she has struggled to find work in the sector that matches her 23 years of experience, and has watched her salary dwindle.
“Most of us in the financial industry who did banking like I did, we never expected Wall Street to crash,” she says. “I’ve since found out Canada did not have the recession we did to nearly to the same extent, and has better regulations. Unlike the U.S., you didn’t play around with the mortgage industry. That’s why it’s so attractive.”
She’s still healthy at age 47, but said Canada’s health care is another attraction as she sets her sights north.
She’s not alone. Last month, a New York radio segment on Looking for Work in Canada on The Brian Lehrer Show was flooded with calls and featured comparisons of the two countries’ banking systems, employment situation and health-care systems.
New York’s office of the state comptroller forecast this week that the city could lose almost 10,000 additional jobs by the end of next year, which would bring total job losses in the securities sector to 32,000 since the start of 2008.
By contrast, total global employment by Canadian banks hit a record of more than 360,000 last year, while the lobby group the Toronto Financial Service Alliance is holding a career fair in New York this month to attract top American talent.
Philip Turner isn’t packing his bags yet – but he is gearing his business more towards Canada. The book publisher is based in New York, and has long brought Canadian books, by authors such as Margaret Atwood and Mordecai Richler, to the U.S. market. Now, he is making more business trips to Toronto to drum up business.
“I am trying to develop business in Canada with Canadians,” he says. “There is a little more buzz in Canada right now than is the case here.”
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LOOKING FOR WORK
It’s not just Americans who are looking with envy at Canada’s comparatively stable economy.
Greeks and Irish too are vying to move to Canada amid dim job prospects in their own countries, according to immigration lawyers.
“I don’t speak Greek, but I am getting phone calls right now, and I think it’s going to intensify as the situation is only going to get worse,” says Toronto-based lawyer Sergio Karas.
In Windsor, Ont., lawyer Drew Porter says he has had “an awful lot of calls from Ireland over the past year-and-a-half.”
The number of temporary work applicants from Ireland nearly doubled between 2007 and 2010 and more than doubled from Spain, according to Immigration Canada. It has dwindled from Greece – however the numbers don’t capture activity this year.
