Immigration Canada

Canada's new Start-Up Visa aims at entrepreneurs seeking status

Canada's Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, announced this week that entrepreneurs from around the world can apply for the new Start-Up Visa Program as of April 1, a "first of its kind".

The program's objective is to attract the "world's best and brightest entrepreneurs from around the world" to bring innovative business ventures to Canada. The catch is that they must find financial backing from Canadian investors.

"Canada is open for business to the world’s start-up entrepreneurs. Innovation and entrepreneurship are essential drivers of the Canadian economy. That is why we are actively recruiting foreign entrepreneurs - those who can build companies here in Canada that will create new jobs, spur economic growth and compete on a global scale - with our new start-up visa.”--Minister Jason Kenney, Citizenship and Immigration Canada

The Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) state in their official press release that they are working with Canada’s Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) and the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO), two umbrella organizations, to find and designate the venture capital funds and angel investor groups who are interested in participating in the program.

To receive designation to participate in the Start-Up Visa Program, a venture capital (VC) fund had to be a full member in good standing of the CVCA. VC funds that met this criterion and manage over $40 million in capital were automatically eligible to participate. VC funds that manage less than $40 million had to apply to the CVCA to participate in the Start-Up Visa Program. A number of factors were considered, including referrals from current CVCA members and interviews that the CVCA conducted with the limited partners of the fund. --CIC

Interested immigrant entrepreneurs who want permanent resident status via the new start-up visa program need to find the financial support from these Canadian investors to launch their new start-up business in Canada. Other requirements for applicants are that they have a minimum one year of post-secondary education and that they meet language proficiency skills at a Canadian Language Benchmark 5 in listening, speaking, reading and writing.

CIC has posted the list of venture capital funds and angel investor groups on their website.

The Start-Up Visa program is a five year pilot program focusing on the "quality of the applicants and on establishing a track record of success."

TRU researching immigration to communities across Canada

Thompson Rivers University (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By bcummins on March 25, 2013

Researchers at Thompson Rivers University are playing an important role in a federally-funded research network aimed at fostering welcoming communities and supporting the integration of immigrants into communities across Canada, including small and medium-sized centres.

Julie Drolet, associate professor at TRU’s Faculty of Human, Social and Educational Development, is leading the BC node of the project with co-investigator Paul Bramadat of UVic. The Pathways to Prosperity Partnership involves 50 universities and over 100 partner organizations across five regional nodes. The Partnership will research and support policy development on immigration to communities across Canada.

Drolet helping research immigration Canadian communities

Julie Drolet

“Historically most of the research on immigration has considered the role of newcomers in metropolitan cities of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver,” says Drolet. “With secondary migration we need to know more about the experiences of immigrants and newcomers in smaller communities. This project addresses the urgent need to understand the social and economic issues faced in these communities and we are pleased that we are able to play an important role in this kind of research initiative.”

Drolet says that work during the first year of the Partnership includes developing the infrastructure of the nodes and consultation with immigrant-serving organizations, community groups, and all levels of government. The BC node is planning to take the lead in developing one or two proposals for pan-Canadian projects, and will also have opportunities to engage in local research of specific interest to communities in BC. Drolet notes that this kind of research will be of benefit to both immigrants and the communities they enter. “Newcomer integration is a two-way process,” she explains. “Newcomers are adapting and Canadian residents are also adapting.”

While issues such as the economic impact of immigration are often considered, Drolet says that it is also important to consider the social dimensions of immigration. “Many small communities in BC have declining populations, so it’s important to ask how immigrants can be attracted to small communities, and how well they are able to integrate into these communities.”

Drolet notes that TRU researchers will be working collaboratively with researchers from other universities and also with local stakeholders such as Kamloops Immigrant Services. “This is a great opportunity for TRU,” she explains. “Research we conduct here will develop new knowledge about immigration, and we can share practices with other parts of the province and nationally.”

MORE INFORMATION
Julie Drolet
School of Social Work and Human Service, TRU
Office: 250-828-5258 | Cell 250-574-5258 | Email: jdrolet@tru.ca

Source: http://inside.tru.ca/2013/03/25/tru-researching-immigration-to-communities-across-canada/

Intake of applications in Quebec-update

Following a decision by the governmentdecision published in the Gazette officielle du Québec on March 27, 2013, the Ministère de l’Immigration et des Communautés culturelles is renewing its rules relating to the intake of applications according to immigration class.

Rules according to immigration class


Immigration subclass
Bussinesspeople
Investors	No new applications will be accepted until July 31, 2013
Entrepreneurs and self-employed workers	No new applications will be accepted until July 31, 2013
Skilled workers	See below to determine if you can submit an application in the Skilled worker class until July 31, 2013

Skilled workers

You can submit an immigration application as a skilled worker only if one of the following situations applies to you:

You temporarily reside in Québec as a temporary worker. You meet the eligibility conditions of the Programme de l’expérience québécoise (Temporary worker) (PEQ - Québec experience program for temporary workers) or are eligible to apply for a selection certificate under the regular program for skilled workers.

You have obtained a diploma awarded by a Québec teaching institution for studies done in Québec or you are about to obtain that diploma and you meet the eligibility conditions of the Programme de l’expérience québécoise (Québec Graduate) (PEQ - Québec experience program for Québec graduates).

You reside temporarily in Québec as a foreign student, you are eligible to apply for a selection certificate under the regular program for skilled workers and you are submitting your application in Québec.

You reside temporarily in Québec within the framework of a youth exchange program subject to an international agreement, such as a work holiday program. You are working full time in Québec, you areeligible to apply for a selection certificate under the regular program for skilled workers and you are submitting your application in Québec.

You or your accompanying spouse hold a diploma awarded by a teaching institution in an area of training allowing you to get 6 (see list, inFrench, 38 kb), 12 or 16 points under the area of training criterion of the selection grid for skilled workers (see list, in French, 35 kb). The number of years of study required to obtain your diploma must be at least equal to the number of years required to obtain that diploma in Québec. This diploma was obtained less than five years before the date of your application. Failing that, you must have practised, on a full-time basis and for at least one year out of the five years preceding the date of your application, a profession or trade in an area related to that diploma.
You or your accompanying spouse hold a Québec diploma or a diploma treated as a Québec diploma that sanctions at least one year of full-time studies. This diploma was obtained less than five years before the date of your application. Failing that, you must have practised, on a full-time basis and for at least one year out of the five years preceding the date of your application, a profession or trade in an area related to that diploma.

You or your accompanying spouse hold an employment offer made by a Québec employer and validated by the Ministère de l’Immigration et des Communautés culturelles.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada informed you that your application for permanent residence in Canada was admissible for processing.

You reside temporarily in Québec, you were a Canadian citizen at one time and you are submitting you application in Québec.

If none of these situations applies to you, you cannot submit an application until July 31, 2013

37 Million Indians Desire To Move To Canada Permanently: Report

Canadian visa for single entry (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Tendar Tsering | March 27, 2013 2:21 AM PDT

A recent poll conducted by the Gallup opinion poll agency said that about 37 million Indians dream to move out of their country and settle down in Canada permanently

Canada remains among the top destination for potential migrants from India, China, Philippines, Africa and others.

The poll comes at a time when the Canadian immigration department in recent weeks said that more people than ever before from Asian countries are moving to study, work and settle in the country.

Canadian federal government last year issued a high number of visas to migrants from China, Philippine and India.

Canada in 2012 granted 32,990 permanent residents and 235,000 visiting visas to the Chinese applicants.

32,704 Philippines were given residential permits and 44,000 others given visitor visas making Philippine the second largest source country for immigration to Canada.

With 28,889 residents admitted and 130,000 visiting visas granted, India was the third largest source country for immigration to Canada.

In view of creating more jobs amid global economic crisis, the Immigration Minister Jason Kenney in a statement said that the federal government targets to accelerate the visa issuing process to attract more and genuine foreign visitors.

"The government is committed to attracting an increasing number of visitors to Canada as part of our plan to grow the Canadian economy and create jobs," said Jason Kenney. "We strive to issue visas as quickly as possible to facilitate travel for genuine visitors - to welcome tourists, to reunite families - and benefit from the economic spinoff they bring to Canada."

The immigration department noted that last year's immigration record shows an increase of almost 40% since 2004.

Citing economic opportunities, the opinion poll agency said that the U.S. remains the favorite destination for the potential immigrants.

According to the agency, around 630 million people roughly from 138 countries said that they would like to leave their country and settle down somewhere else.

To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com

Immigration backlog reduced by forty percent

Canada (Photo credit: palindrome6996)

Faster processing times for workers and families

Mississauga, ON, March 26, 2013 — As a result of actions taken by the government since 2008, the backlog of permanent resident applications has been reduced by about forty percent, paving the way for a faster and more effective immigration system in 2013 and beyond, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney announced today.

“Backlogs and delays prevent Canada from attracting the best and brightest from around the world and ensuring that our immigration system is contributing to economic growth and long-term prosperity,” said Minister Kenney. “For too long, we accepted far more applications than we could process each year. That led to backlogs increasing every year and processing times of eight to ten years in some cases, which discouraged talented, dynamic people from coming to Canada.”

This has been accomplished, in part, by continuing to process a high number of applications from parents and grandparents in the Family Class while a temporary pause on new applications remains in effect until the end of the year. In addition, a pause was put in place on new Immigrant Investor applications and the oldest Federal Skilled Worker applications were eliminated while we continued to process record high levels of existing applications.

The government will continue to transform Canada’s immigration system to make it fast, flexible and more responsive to the labour market. The massive reduction in the backlog allows us to move toward a just-in-time system that recruits people with the right skills to meet Canada’s labour market needs, fast tracks their applications and gets them working in Canada in a period of months, instead of years. It also means that families will no longer have to wait close to a decade to be reunited with their loved ones.

“We still have work to do, but by taking clear and decisive action to deal with backlogs, we will attain our goal of having a fast and flexible immigration system,” said Minister Kenney. “Newcomers will arrive with skills and talents that are in short supply in Canada and contribute to our economy. The immigration system must work for Canada, which is why we will continue to reduce backlogs and speed up the system, so that people spend less time waiting and more time participating fully in the Canadian economy.”

twitter.com/CitImmCanada

Photos of Minister Kenney are available.

For further information (media only), please contact:

Alexis Pavlich
Minister’s Office
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-954-1064

Media Relations
Communications Branch
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-952-1650
CIC-Media-Relations@cic.gc.ca

Building a stronger Canada: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) strengthens Canada’s economic, social and cultural prosperity, helping ensure Canadian safety and security while managing one of the largest and most generous immigration programs in the world.