Like any other Canadian Provincial Nominee Program, Nova Scotia Nominee Program facilitates skilled foreign nationals to immigrate to the Canadian province in order to lead a better and satisfied life. Nova Scotia employers or companies make use of this provincial program to hire skilled immigrants into their operations, when they find the local Canadian lack in the required skills. As for the international skilled workers, the Nova Scotia Nominee Program is a quicker way to be qualified for the permanent residents of Canada.

The Nova Scotia Nominee Program is administered by the province’s Office of Immigration, aided by the Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The program allows the province to recruit and choose immigrants who can contribute to the Nova Scotia economy and meet the labor shortages of the province.

Once an applicant is nominated by the Nova Scotia Nominee Program, he/she, along with spouse, dependent, children can apply with the Citizenship and Immigration Canada for permanent resident visa.

Different streams of the Nova Scotia Nominee Program include:

• Skilled Worker Stream
• Family Business Worker stream
• Non-Dependent Child of Nominees Stream
• International Graduate Stream
• Community-Identified Stream

For detailed information on each of the streams, contact an Immigration and Visa Consultant!

The Students category of the Saskatchewan Immigration Nominee Program is designed for international students who wish to live in the province and obtain Canadian permanent residence status. Foreign students who have been studying or have studied in Saskatchewan find it easier to speed-up the process of obtaining Canada immigration visa as compared to other federal programs. Let us have a look at the eligibility criteria that all prospective Students category applicants have to meet:

• Applicants must have graduated and obtained certificate/diploma/degree from an accredited program (institution) in Canada. The program must have continued for at least one academic year of full-time study.
• Applicants must have worked for a Saskatchewan employer for at least 6 months. They must have worked on a post-graduate work permit.
• Applicants must have a current permanent/regular employment offer from their respective employers.
• However, it is not necessary that the employment offer is related to what they have studied.
• Applicants must have applied and obtained a post-graduate work permit from the Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

For more information on the Students category of the Saskatchewan Immigration Nominee Program, contact an Immigration and Visa consultant today itself.

The Hospitality Sector Pilot Project of the Saskatchewan Immigration Nominee Program lets the province nominate those foreign workers to be engaged in occupations in hospitality sector who are currently working in Saskatchewan for a minimum of six months on a temporary work permit. The applicants must be holding a valid Canadian Temporary Work Permit for one of the below mentioned occupations:

• Food or Beverage Server
• Food Counter Attendant or Kitchen Helper
• Housekeeping or Cleaning Staff

In other words, to be eligible to apply for this category, prospective applicants must start working in the Canadian province for an employer that has been recognized by the Saskatchewan Immigration Nominee Program. For this they need to obtain a temporary foreign work permit from the Citizenship and Immigration Canada. If the employer with whom an applicant is working offers a permanent regular employment offer, after six months of minimum working period, then the latter can apply for the PR status with the Saskatchewan Immigration Nominee Program.

Apart from working in any of the above mentioned occupations, applicants are also required to fulfill the following criteria:

• Saskatchewan employers must have employed them in one of the above mentioned positions for a minimum period of 6 months.
• Applicants must be educated up to Grade 12, in least.
• Applicants must possess the required knowledge of English language in order to be eligible for the Saskatchewan employment.

For more information, contact an Immigration and Visa Consultant!

Under the Long Haul Truck Drivers, the Saskatchewan Immigration Nominee Program enables Saskatchewan to hire truck drivers that the province’s trucking firms require for in order to meet the requirement of truck drivers. In order words, the trucking firms of the Canadian province make use of this category to bring truckers they need. The category is administered by the Service Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker policy. Basically, these occupations require foreign applicants to have a high school diploma, else on-the-job training.

The category of Long Haul Truck Drivers Project is a joint venture of the Saskatchewan Trucking Association; Service Canada; and Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The project aims at attracting foreign long-haul truck drivers to the province to meet the shortages of skilled truck drivers in Saskatchewan.

Below are a few eligibility criteria for the applicants of the Long Haul Truck Drivers:

• Applicants must have a temporary job offer from a trucking firm based in Saskatchewan.
• Applicants must posses a Canadian work permit.
• Applicants must also possess a valid trucking license equivalent to a Class 1A driver’s license in Saskatchewan.
• Applicants must have minimum 2 years of truck driving experience.
• Applicants must be able to travel to the United States, if they are required to travel by the employer.
• Applicants must have some level of proficiency in English language.

For more information on the Long Haul Truck Drivers category, contact an Immigration and Visa Consultant!

Canada welcomes thousands of immigrants every year. As far as the statistics from Citizenship and Immigration Canada is concerned, year 2008 saw the immigration of 250,000 applicants, which included 87,000 who chose Toronto as their immigration destination whereas 37,500 immigrated to the beautiful place Vancouver.

Canada has always welcomed people from all over the world with open hands. In addition, the country never leaves any stone unturned when it comes to providing assistance to these new comers and helping them settle down in life.

In another attempt to provide assistance to new Canadians, the federal government has come out with plenty of programs to offer assistance on vital aspects of life in the country. For instance, knowledge regarding aspects of banking and economic factors is provided by the Immigrant Settlement and Adaption program. It also provides valuable information on employment and education related queries which the new Canadians suffer on a regular basis.

In another instance, all the loan related queries are solved by the Immigration Loans Programs. Other documents linked with medical examination and travel related costs and papers required for the same are guided by the same body.

In addition, new comers would be granted financial help from the banks in Canada. For instance, necessary devices and products would be given to the new comers by the BMO Bank of Montreal under their newly implemented package.

For more information in immigrating to Canada, contact an Immigration and visa expert (www.abhinav.com).

A few months ago, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) sent notices to about 147 employees to be sacked at the case processing centre. About 84 temporary employees and 63 casual workers catering to the process the immigration applications and permanent residency cards were terminated.

This month, CIC is intending to fill about 160 vacant positions. The finances catering to this funding has been apportioned for the employees to be working at the citizenship operations, centralized intake office and the permanent resident card centre in Sydney. Most of the laid off employees would now be reinstated with permanent positions.

According to the Spokesperson for CIC, Karen Shadd, the main purpose is to speed up the processing timelines as well as to cut down on the inventories at the permanent resident card centre as well as in the citizenship operations. This is also expected to cater to execution of new ministerial instructions.

Mark Eyking, the MP from Sydney-Victoria has credited the return of jobs for these sacked employees to the testimony to the Citizenship and Immigration Committee in the House of Commons. This testimony was submitted in April from the people who were concerned with the influence these lost positions would have. The committee included MPs from various political stripes. The witnesses argued on the hiring process, layoffs as well as rehiring only to add to the claims of backlog.

As and when the backlog tends to build up, the CIC bring in workers on a temporary basis to clear this backlog. As per Eyking, such a process is not good for employees as they would not be having continuous employment which results in the delay of processing.

Above all, each year, there are about 300,000 applicants with hopes of coming to Canada. And so, more efficient measures have to be taken in order to ensure that timely processing is done for these applications.

The immigration officials in Canada have been instructed to pin the war resistors in American who are trying to seek asylum or are applying for permanent residency for further investigation. The Citizenship and Immigration Canada in its recent operational guide has stated that these illegal migrants could not be permitted to enter as abandonment is considered as an offence in Canada. This is as per the National Defense Act and the sentence for this could go to up to life imprisonment.

According to the critics, the timing of the directive is quite suspicious. Last month, a decision was made in favor of Jeremy Hinzman, an American soldier by the Federal Court of Appeal. Hinzman’s family was initially refused permanent residency but now has been ordered for reconsideration. He had appealed under humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Hinzman was the first to apply for a refugee status. He is an army paratrooper who took flight to Canada in 2004 as he was against the Iraq invasion. However, his refugee status was refused. Post this application; around fifty such applications from war resisters for permanent residence have been received. This has been either on the basis of humanitarian grounds or under the category of spousal sponsorships.

In 2008 and 2009, there were two motions intending the same thing. These two motions were adopted by the House of Commons. However, they were ignored by the government under Stephen Harper.

With the above directive in place, it would lead to a substantial delay in the application processing of these war resistors. This is for both those applying under the spousal sponsorship category, under the refugee status as well as those applying on humanitarian grounds. More so, the immigration officials would further state these war resistors as being criminals.

On the other hand, Houg Kellam, the Spokesperson for Immigration said that the department tends to upgrade its guidelines for operations timely. This is done to aid the staff when it came to implementing the law. At the same time, these guidelines do not tell them on how to decide on things. More so, a review would be done of the recent appeal on the decision taken by the court.

The Provincial Nominee Program in the Canadian province of British Columbia facilitates the province to nominate foreign immigrants in order to meet the employment requirements of the British Columbia economy and labor market. British Columbia employers are highly benefited by the program. There are two categories under which the province nominates foreign nationals to be in. They are:

• The Strategic Occupations Stream
• The Business Immigrants Stream

The British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program is also a way for foreign nationals to obtain permanent residency in Canada. In other words, when an applicant is nominated by the provincial program, he also has the greater chances of obtaining Canadian permanent residency. The nominated applicant is eligible to file for permanent residency status with the Citizenship and Immigration Canada. It is said that the provincial program is a fast-tracked way of obtaining PR in Canada, compared to any other federal immigration program.

The BC PNP allows foreign skilled workers as well as international student to immigrate under its two different streams, thereby helping them in getting the permanent residency status in Canada. Thos who wish to migrate to British Columbia as a provincial nominee must satisfy the requirements set by the PNP authorities. You might have doubts about under which stream you could immigrate to the province. To know about this and more about the British Columbia PNP, contact an Immigration and Visa Consultant!

If you have been nominated by Ontario’s Provincial Nominee Program, Opportunities Ontario, be it under the General Category or the International Student Category, you must be wondering what would be your next step after receiving the nomination to be in Ontario. Let’s discuss a few things you should know after being nominated by the provincial nominee program.

Once you are a successful nominee of the Opportunities Ontario, you can file your application with the Citizenship and Immigration Canada to be a permanent resident in the country. However, you are eligible to apply for the same within six months of being nominated by the provincial program. You should know that the fact that being nominated by Opportunities Ontario you do not have legal status in Canada. Until you obtain the permanent resident status in the country, you must obtain authorization to stay and work in Canada.

While your application for PR is being processed by the CIC officials, you can apply for a temporary work permit. In this case as well, you would be required to approach the Citizenship and Immigration Canada, since the government agency is responsible for the issuance of the permit to stay in Canada and work for a temporary period of time. When you are issued with a temporary work permit you would be able to travel to Ontario to start working for your sponsor in the province.

For your information, individuals nominated by the Ontario Provincial nominee Program are not accountable for the Labor Market Opinion process. To know more about the whole process, contact an Immigration and Visa Consultant!

A housewife-cum mother residing in Ottawa who intended to get into job prospects after nine long years of her life was denied to do the same because she is WHITE.

Sara Landriault, the concerned woman, said that her kids stay in school on a full time basis, hence she made up her mind to opt for employment options out of home. She surfed and net and landed upon a position at Citizenship and Immigration Canada, a job which she though would suit her qualification in an apt manner.

After submitting the resume and going for a telephonic interview, she was shocked to know that just because she is white, she can’t apply for the same.

She went on to say that it is good to offer equal opportunity but at the same time an equal opportunity employer should not bar any applicant from applying for a job, juts because of “race.”

It was not long back when Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl spoke on the issue of discriminatory hiring practice which was implemented by different employers in various jobs.

Canada is not a country which discriminates on the facets like race or class. Hence, an incident of this kind is something which can be seen as an exception and an aspect which is hard to digest. The country has welcomed so thousands of immigrants from all over the world, where “race” didn’t seem an issue at all.