Changes are being proposed to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR) that will support greater use of technology across temporary and permanent resident immigration programs, and streamline and clarify processes for international adoptions and permanent resident sponsorship applications.

The proposed changes involve:

• ensuring that applicants who are paying fees or applying electronically only use the electronic systems provided by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), where available
• requiring that most temporary resident applications submitted from within Canada, as well as International Experience Canada applications, be submitted electronically on Canada.ca
• requiring that all IRCC clients pay their immigration fees online, unless
  • a disability prevents them from doing so, or
  • IRCC provides other payment methods, such as paying in person at a visa application centre
• listing situations where the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, or the Minister of Public Safety, can provide applicants with alternative ways to apply for immigration services in the event of an unforeseen circumstance, such as a natural disaster or system outage
• outlining a clear process for IRCC officers to timestamp electronic applications, or other application-related communication, to give both clients and IRCC officers a clear and consistent point of reference when calculating processing times
• allowing sponsorship and permanent residence applications for inter-country adoptions to be submitted before a child has been identified, so that the approval process can start earlier
• requiring that clients include their permanent resident application with their family sponsorship application submission to help reduce processing delays
• removing existing requirements that specify where all non-electronic (paper) applications can be submitted, to give IRCC more flexibility in order to maximize processing efficiency and accommodate clients

To read the full article, please click here.

Bulgaria’s Justice Ministry said on January 16 that it has simplified the process of acquiring Bulgarian citizenship, reducing the amount of paperwork required from candidates and speeding up the proceedings, but the new rules will not apply to applicants who are currently mid-process.

As of January 2 2019, candidates can reserve online the time to submit their application package and have their interview at the ministry’s citizenship department. The form is available only in Bulgarian language and the reservation can only be made online, the ministry said in a statement.

This will eliminate any waiting times and, should the candidates file a complete application package at the time they reserved in advance, the citizenship interview can be held immediately, as opposed to the old practice of scheduling the interview at a later date, the ministry said.

To read the full article, please click here.

Canada is expanding its biometrics collection program. Starting December 31, 2018, nationals from countries in Asia, Asia Pacific and the Americas will need to give their fingerprints and photo (biometrics) when applying for a visitor visa, study or work permit, or for permanent residence. This same rule has applied to applicants from countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa since July 31, 2018.

Having biometrics makes it easier for immigration and border services officers to stop individuals who pose a risk to the safety and security of Canadians. It also helps officials verify travellers’ identities, makes processing applications easier and simplifies entry for legitimate travellers.

The biometrics requirement adds a new step in the application process. Applicants need to go in person to give their biometrics. Most will do this at a visa application centre (VAC) before they come to Canada.

To read the full article, please click here.

Canada believes that effective international cooperation is essential in order to address common challenges as well as harness the benefits of global migration.

Today, Canada announced it adopted the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), the first global framework on all aspects of international migration. The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, made the announcement at the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in Marrakech, Morocco.

The GCM acknowledges the serious challenges that irregular migration poses, while emphasizing the positive contributions of migrants, and the benefits of regular pathways and well-managed migration systems. Migrant and refugee flows are a growing phenomenon around the world. According to the United Nations, there are currently about 258 million people on the move. Of these, 68.5 million are forcibly displaced people – including refugees and asylum seekers – who are forced to flee their homes in search of new ones due to violence, discrimination and war.

To read the full article, please click here.

Canada is expanding its biometrics collection program and is now taking steps to prepare for December 31, 2018, when nationals from countries in Asia, Asia Pacific and the Americas will need to give their biometrics (fingerprints and a photo) when applying for a visitor visa, study or work permit, or for permanent residence.

Collecting biometrics provides many benefits: It stops those who pose a risk to the safety and security of Canadians, while also helping officials better manage applicants’ identities, facilitating application processing, and simplifying entry for travellers with legitimate identities.

To read the full article, please click here.

The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced the new multi-year immigration levels plan for 2019-2021. This new immigration plan will benefit all Canadians because immigrants contribute to Canada’s economic growth and help keep Canada competitive in a global economy.

The new plan builds on the strong economic foundation laid out in last year’s levels plan and continues to responsibly grow the number of permanent residents Canada welcomes annually to 330,800 in 2019, 341,000 in 2020 and 350,000—nearing 1 percent of Canada’s population—in 2021.

Minister Hussen highlighted the importance of economic immigration in spurring innovation domestically. That’s why the government’s immigration plan remains focused on attracting the best and brightest from around the world with the majority of the increase in 2021 allotted to high-skilled economic immigration. Newcomers are helping Canadian companies succeed and grow in the expanding information and communications technology sector, where one third of employees are immigrants.

To read the full article, please click here.

Supplementary information is available here.

Antigua has extended its current fee structure until October 31, 2019.

On Sep.21/18, the 100% Ownership, Partial Ownership, and Work Permit streams of the PEIPNP were consolidated into one Work Permit stream.  Clients invited to apply before this date are grand-fathered under the previous program.

IRCC has been able to reduce backlogs significantly and make family reunification a priority, thanks to a historic multi-year immigration levels plan. For example, the Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP) inventory was reduced from a high of 62,000 in May 2014, to less than 12,000 by April 2018. We are on track to meet our 2017 commitment to process at least 80% of the remaining LCP backlog by the end of 2018, and are processing new LCP permanent residence applications within 12 months.

IRCC also recently began using an improved method to estimate processing times for some new permanent residence applications.

In addition, we reduced the spousal sponsorship inventory from a high of 75,000 to 15,000 as of December 31, 2017, and are processing new spousal sponsorship applications within 12 months. To help spouses further, we extended the Open Work Permit Pilot for spousal sponsorship applicants and simplified the guides and checklists.

To read the full article, please click here.

St. Lucia will no longer  accept applications from Iranian citizens (regardless of their current country of residence), due to problems conducting due diligence checks in Iran.  Also, banks in St. Lucia will not accept funds from Iran.

This change is effective immediately.