Canada continues to move forward with a bold and long-term immigration plan to spearhead economic growth and support middle-class jobs from coast to coast to coast.

Since 2015, Canada has focussed on attracting the best and the brightest from around the world through specific pilot programs to deliver on the recommendations made by Canada’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth by:

• Setting up the first, ambitious long-term immigration levels plan which will strategically increase the amount of immigrant workers needed to support Canadians and seniors as they retire.
• Modifying Express Entry to attract highly skilled global talent and former international students who have the skills Canada needs to fill labour shortages.
• …..

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Two investors may now jointly purchase a property for 7 years, and invest minimum USD $200,000 each (for a total investment of min. USD $400,000 in the property).

Grenada has expanded the definition of a dependent to include the following:

-age 18+ unmarried and childless siblings of the principal applicant and spouse;

-parents of the principal applicant or spouse, under age 55, who are fully dependent on the principal applicant and spouse; and

-babies born to the principal applicant and spouse within 1 year of citizenship issuance to the principal applicant.

As of April 1, 2019, two investors may share ownership of a unit in a Tourism Accommodation approved project, and invest USD $220,000 each (for a total investment of USD $440,000 in the unit).

The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, delivered today on a commitment to expand pathways for temporary foreign workers by allocating an additional 2,000 spaces under the Provincial Nominee Program.

The Government of Canada is committed to an immigration system that strengthens Canada’s economy and contributes to the growth of good middle-class jobs. We are committed to providing foreign workers, in particular those filling long-term labour market needs and who have integrated into Canadian society, with more pathways to permanent residency.

These additional spaces will provide more opportunities for existing temporary foreign workers at the intermediate skill level (National Occupation Code C) to transition to permanent residence, and help to address worker vulnerability.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Supplementary information is available here.