Immigration Canada

Immigration to Canada Through Family Sponsorship

Image by United Way of the Lower Mainland via Flickr By Katherine at Legal Language
Posted 01/19/2011
In Immigration

Canadian citizens as well as permanent residents are eligible to sponsor most family members who wish to start the immigration process to Canada.
While the regulations governing family immigration to Canada are more lenient than the regulations surrounding family-based green cards in the United States, there are still plenty of rules to keep in mind before you start filling out legal forms.

Who Is Eligible for Family-Based Immigration to Canada?

Family members who are eligible to be sponsored include:

Spouses
Common-law or same-sex partners 16 years of age or older
Parents
Grandparents
Dependent children under the age of 22, including children to be adopted, if they are not married or in a common-law relationship
Children over the age of 22 if they are full-time students at accredited institutions of higher learning or if they are mentally or physically challenged
Orphaned relatives, including brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces

Who Is Eligible to Become a Sponsor?

Family members who wish to be immigration sponsors must reside in Canada and have valid legal status as a citizen or permanent resident. Canadian permanent residents who are eligible to become immigration sponsors typically include students and workers.
Sponsors typically reside in Canada, while the family member being sponsored for the immigration process lives in his or her home country. Only spouses or common-law partners of Canadian citizens or permanent residents can apply from within Canada.
If you are living in Canada with your spouse or partner and wish to begin the family immigration process, your partner faces some stricter rules governing whether or not he or she can be a sponsor. He or she must:

Have valid legal status in Canada as a visitor, student or temporary worker
Have lived with you for at least one year
Be living with you in Canada
Have a valid passport or travel document
Be 16 years of age or older
Be your bona fide spouse or common law partner for genuine reasons (not just for the purpose of receiving permanent residence in Canada)

Additional Family Sponsorship Requirements

Sponsors must make a pledge to the Canadian government that they will support their family members for at least three years so that they can establish themselves in Canada. Dependent children must be supported for 10 years or until they turn 25. This is similar to the United States’ I-864 Affidavit of Support that is required for family green card cases.
To be a sponsor, you must meet an income requirement. Like the US, the Canadian government does not want to be responsible for public charges — people who require government assistance. Medical documents must be obtained and included in the application, especially where adopted children are concerned.
If in the past you have sponsored a family member, and that relative is currently receiving money or other assistance from the government of Canada, you may not be eligible to sponsor another person.

What Is the Family Immigration Process?

One of the first things to do is download and read a guide to assist you in applying. Legal Language has the following three guides available:

Canada increases new visa allocation

This is what a working holiday visa for Japan ...

Image via Wikipedia

By Jason O'Brien

Thursday January 20 2011

IRISH emigrants just can't get enough of Canada. And it seems the feeling is mutual.
Under new rules, Canada has increased its working holiday visa allocation to Ireland by 1,000 and will now also allow Irish people to apply for a second visa.
The unexpected changes will benefit those applying for the one-year visa programme for 18-35 year olds.
Last year, when the Irish quota of 4,000 was filled, Ireland was allocated extra visas that were not taken up by other countries.
This year, there will be 5,000 visas on offer, but it's arguably the opportunity to apply for a second one-year visa that will have the biggest impact.
Eligible
It is anticipated that thousands of Irish people who are already in Canada on a one-year holiday visa are expected to apply to stay for a second year.
"I'm here for the foreseeable future," Seamus Blake (25), one of those in line to benefit, told the Irish Independent from Toronto last night.
"My family is at home but there is no work to go back to. Once I've been here for two years and working, I'm eligible for permanent residency. When that time comes, it is something I will be looking into."
Mr Blake, from Liscannor in Clare, has been in Toronto since last April and has secured work as an insurance consultant.
Tonight, 300 Irish newcomers to Toronto will gather for an 'information meeting' organised by the local Irish chamber of commerce.
"The majority of Irish people who emigrate to Canada hit Toronto first," Marguerite Bourke, of Enterprise Ireland in Toronto, said. "It's the biggest city, there's more jobs, more opportunities."
The Irish Ambassador to Canada, Ray Bassett, said Canada was "more high profile" in Ireland than ever before. "Canada is very much flavour of the month," he said.
The Canadian government has indicated that -- because of its booming economy and relatively small population -- its labour force will be boosted solely through immigration in the coming years.

- Jason O'Brien

Irish Independent

You’re leaving already?

McGill University's Roddick Gates, on Sherbrooke.

Image via WikipediaSix out of 10 business-class immigrants who land in Quebec quickly take their money elsewhere

When your province’s birth rate is hovering at replacement level, and when nearly a quarter of the population is nearing retirement, language politics tend to take a back seat to more pressing matters—like how to sustain the economy. No surprise, then, that Quebec has assumed a prominent spot on the immigration bandwagon, treating newcomers as a key to its economic future rather than a threat to its identity. By any measure, its efforts have paid off: in the last decade, the province has jacked up its intake of immigrants by more than 50 per cent, welcoming almost 49,500 last year.
The question now is how to keep the most wealthy and productive newcomers from flying the coop. A recent internal report by the federal immigration department suggests more than six out of 10 of the coveted business-class immigrants who declared Quebec as their destination during the early 2000s quickly fled to other provinces, taking their investment dollars and entrepreneurship potential with them. The big winners? Ontario and the two westernmost provinces. B.C. saw a 22 per cent net gain in the number of business-class immigrants who called it home, due to migration from other provinces. Ontario enjoyed a 14.5 per cent bump while Alberta saw a 9.5 per cent increase.
The report, which was obtained under Access to Information by Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, calls into question the widespread belief in Quebec that newcomers will provide much of the province’s future economic momentum. The theory, promoted in policy circles and at all levels of government, assumes a heavy influx of business immigrants—an umbrella term for investors, entrepreneurs and the self-employed who are admitted to Canada on the basis of the wealth they will generate (investor-class immigrants to Canada must be willing to spend more than $800,000 in this country, and their net worth must exceed $1.6 million; entrepreneurs must have a $300,000 net worth and two years of business experience).

Image by bfraz via Flickr

by Philip Hochstein, President, Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of B.C

In Alberta, the price of oil is the economic sign of the times. In Saskatchewan, it’s a mix of key agricultural and mining commodity prices. In Ontario, manufacturing and financial services dominate.

These indicators provide a snapshot of their economies and signposts of the health of what is driving provincial economies.

A recent report by the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) of B.C. shows something different drives B.C. – immigration.

Though forestry, mining, and tourism remain important, it’s the in-flow of individuals and families from the rest of Canada and from other countries that’s at the heart of our economy.

With construction adding more than $9 billion a year to GDP, and driving nearly 10 per cent of the jobs in the province, the health of the industry matters to everyone.

View from the Board

Philip Hochstein

Residential construction is more important in British Columbia than any other province.

More than nine per cent of our GDP comes from the sector. Quebec’s residential construction sector has the second largest impact in Canada – and its share of GDP is 25 per cent less than in B.C.

What drives residential construction? Population growth.

What drives population growth? Here in B.C., it’s international immigration.

B.C., like the rest of the Western world, has declining birth rates. British Columbians are doing little to bump up our population.

In-migration from other provinces has been strong for the past few years – a recovery from the 1997 to 2004 period, when more people moved away than moved here. International immigration now drives B.C.’s population increases.

There is a direct link between population growth and residential construction. There was solid growth and high housing starts up until the mid-1990s.

Population growth slowed from 1997 to 2000 – mirrored by a decline in housing starts.

When the population started increasing again in 2001, housing starts began rising to levels surpassing the mid-1990s.

It’s not just numbers that are important.

It’s the attitude the immigrants bring – a strong attachment to home ownership. In an assessment released last year, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation looked at immigrants six, 24 and 48 months after arrival.

While less than one-in-five owned their home at the end of six months, (an already impressive proportion, CMHC noted) more than half did by the 48-month mark.

B.C. booms when more people decide to call this province home. Far from taking away jobs, immigrants, and Canadians heeding the call to head west, generate them. In particular, new British Columbians drive the construction sector – in homebuilding, in multi-family construction and in expanding the commercial and institutional infrastructure that a growing population requires.

Think of it this way – in Alberta, they’re building homes for oil workers, in Ontario for folks working in manufacturing plants.

In B.C. we’re building new homes for the people who are building homes for the people moving to B.C.

In addition to all immigration does to make this a more vibrant and interesting place to live, it’s also key to the economic well-being of all British Columbians.

Philip Hochstein is the president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA) of B.C. Philip is also a member of the Journal of Commerce Editorial Advisory Board. Send comments or questions to editor@journalofcommerce.com.

China looking beyond Canada’s resource sector .

Image via Wikipedia

ANDY HOFFMAN — ASIA-PACIFIC REPORTER,

VANCOUVER— From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Jan. 17, 2011 6:36PM EST

Last updated Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2011 6:06PM EST

When Chinese telecom manufacturer Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. unveiled plans to spend $50-million on a new research and development facility in Ottawa last spring, it may have ushered in a new era of foreign investment in Canada.
With the region still reeling from thousands of job losses related to the collapse of the once-mighty Nortel Networks Corp., Shenzhen-based Huawei’s strategy to tap Ottawa’s pool of highly skilled technology workers for its new facility was heralded as welcome relief for a battered part of the economy.

Now, there are further signs China is looking beyond Canada’s resource sector for new investment opportunities that could help revive a besieged domestic manufacturing industry.
A survey of more than 1,300 mostly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from China shows strong interest in investing in Canadian manufacturing. About 8 per cent of the Chinese companies surveyed said they planned to invest in Canada within the next three years. Among those companies, the average size of intended overseas investment is $16.1-million (U.S.), according to the report prepared by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.
Under the central government’s so-called Go Global strategy, which encourages companies to invest abroad, China has become a powerful player in the international competition for foreign direct investment. While much of Europe and North America continued last year to struggle to recover from the global financial crisis, Chinese companies plowed about $50-billion into assets and companies abroad.
Canada’s mining and energy sectors, and particularly the Alberta oil sands, have attracted the bulk of Chinese capital flowing into Canada in recent years. Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have made multibillion-dollar investments buying control of resource development projects in need of financing or taking minority stakes in assets that are already producing.
However, the report finds that among Chinese SMEs – which are defined as companies with less than 300 million renminbi ($45-million U.S.) in annual revenue – Canada’s struggling manufacturers were deemed the most likely destination for investment. Among respondents planning to invest in Canada, 49 per cent described the manufacturing sector as a prospective destination for capital.
Chinese companies are interested in Canada’s manufacturing sector not only for its access to the greater North American market, but also to acquire high-end technology and skilled managers and workers.
“Much of the investment is likely to help Chinese manufacturers move up the value chain. They’re not looking for cheap labour that they can get in Thailand, the Philippines or African countries. They’re looking for the kind of technological, management and marketing expertise that will allow them to become global companies,” said Yuen Pau Woo, president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
In addition to encouraging companies to invest abroad, China has recently loosened restrictions on offshore trading in its currency, which is expected to promote more overseas investments by Chinese firms.
As well, China Investment Corp., the country’s $300-billion sovereign wealth fund, is setting up an office in Toronto to help identify investment opportunities in North America.

Immigration Canada

Immigration to Canada Through Family Sponsorship

Who Is Eligible for Family-Based Immigration to Canada?

Who Is Eligible to Become a Sponsor?

Additional Family Sponsorship Requirements