The Ontario Provincial Nominee Program allows Ontario employers recruit overseas skilled workers, as well as lets foreign nationals to live permanently in the province under two categories- General and International Student Categories. Let us discuss a few things about the student category.

The International Student Category is divided into three sub-categories. They are:

• PhD Graduate Stream: Under this stream, Ontario’s PNP allows foreign students who have graduated with PhD degree from an Ontario university to file for permanent residency, however, university must be a public institution! The students who fall under this stream are not required to have a job offer from an Ontario employer. All they need to do is to file the Nominee Application for International Graduates with the Opportunities Ontario. They can apply for the permanent residence status within 2 years of receiving the PhD degree.
• Pilot Masters Graduate Stream: Under this, international students who have earned masters degrees from any of the public universities in Ontario can apply for permanent residency. Like PhD graduates, students with an Ontario masters degree do not need to have a job offer to apply for the permanent residency in Ontario. They are eligible to apply for the same right from their last semester of the course. Else, they can apply within 2 years of receiving their degrees. They are required to fill the same application form as the PhD students.
• With Job Offer Stream: This stream lets Ontario employers to hire international students who have graduated from publicly funded Ontario universities in order to fill a skilled job position. When it comes to Ontario employers, they make use of this stream. Under this, Ontario allows them to hire international skills in order to fill the job positions.

When employers want to recruit international skills in job positions, all they need to do is to file a pre-screen application with Opportunities Ontario requesting positions for which they want international skills. Once, the employers get the approval, the students who have been recruited are required to submit a nominee application to the Opportunities Ontario. At both stages, those applications are processed first that arrive first.

For more information on Canadian Provincial Nominee Programs, seek the help of an ace Immigration and Visa Consultant!

Opportunities Ontario is the name given to Ontario’s Provincial Nominee Program, which facilitates the Canadian province to nominate overseas skilled people for permanent residence status. In other words, the program is designed to help Ontario employers to find and hire the required skills from the overseas market to work for them in Ontario. The program is like a boon to Ontario employers as it gives them the liberty to hire the skilled workers they require.

Ontario Provincial Nominee Program enables employers to file applications in order get the approval to employ overseas skilled workers in full-time Ontario job positions; and hire overseas skilled workers to fill those positions. The employers who get the approval can recruit foreign nationals through two different categories, viz.:

• Foreign workers through the General Category and
• Foreign students through the International Student Category

On the individuals or workers part, Opportunities Ontario is the way to immigrate and work, thereby obtaining permanent residency in the province. However, it is not that easy as it sounds. In order to be able to immigrate under the Ontario Provincial Nominee Program, overseas workers and students need to have a full-time job offer from an Ontario employer. Further, the offer must be from a participating employer in the program, as well as the job title of an individual must be approved by the Opportunities Ontario. However, foreign students are exempted from the requirement of a full-time job offer, given they have a PhD/Masters degree from any of the Ontario publicly funded universities.

The world is truly becoming global and every country looks forward to welcoming overseas students in their country as it adds a flavor of different culture and language in their country. This blend of different culture and language creates a learning environment for students which help them to be tolerant and respectful towards people of different culture and religion.

With high level of illegal immigration, countries are tightening their legal procedures and laws of immigration for foreigners. But there is still some scope of relaxation for students wishing to study in foreign countries as many countries maintain some space for students in their laws so that they can fit in and can easily migrate to their country.

One such country is Hong Kong which has relaxed its immigration laws for the overseas students especially for the Japanese so that their prospects of studying in Hong Kong can increase.

Michael Suen, the Hong Kong’s secretary for Education in a statement said that the nation welcomes the Japanese students with open arms to study in their country. He further said that various educational reforms, liberal policies for foreign students and modern lifestyle along with luxuries of the city will surely attract more talented students to this country.

To lure more students, Hong Kong has recently introduced scholarships for students to provide inexpensive education to them. The scholarships will be able to cover their tuition fees and their daily expense as well. In fact, the Hong Kong government has also relaxed its immigration policies and various restrictions on employment as well as for overseas students.

This is truly a sensible step by the Hong Kong government as this would just hit the target directly because many students hesitate to apply for foreign countries owing to strict immigration laws.

According to a new report brought out by the Conference Board of Canada, the policies for immigration have to be modernized in order to avert the suppression of the growth in the economy of the nation which could come about due to the shortage in labor. The Board based in Ottawa hints that it is important to match the skills of the foreign skilled migrants walking into the nation with those that are required by the nation. The report has been written by Glen Hodgson, who is the Chief Economist at the Conference Board.

Hodgson has also predicted that the supply of workers would soon be an issue. This is especially pertaining to the economic development of the nation as steady job growth being the norm with the population consisting of baby boomer generation and people close to the retirement age. As per him, without catering to better policies for immigration, the nation would be a shortage of the necessary workforce.

It has been recommended by the Conference Board to give more importance to the skills of the applicant while assessing their applications for immigration. This has to be done keeping in mind the skills required by the nation. These policies should be implemented at all levels including the government, more usage of the temporary foreign workers to cater to the short-term needs. With this, the employers should also be included in the process of selecting the applicants for immigration. Also, making it easier for all the foreign students as well as the temporary foreign workers applying for permanent residence was one of the suggestions. Improvised recognition of professional credentials which have been earned abroad was another suggestion.

At the same time, it would be easier to achieve the economic objective by the maintaining the number of immigrants coming to Canada on an annual basis catering to the social objective. This could be increased steadily.

The current rate of immigration is 265,000 per year. It is being assumed by the report that this rate would grow to 350,000 on an annual basis by 2030. However, the Conference Board does not recommend the Federal Government to have a monopoly especially when it comes to this area of public policy.

As per the figures released by the Australian Immigration Department, over the last year the number of Oz offshore visa issued to Indian students plummeted quite drastically. A year ago in 2008-2009, a total number of 54,574 offshore Oz visa grants were issued to students from India. But, the number has fallen down if we see the figures from the month of July in 2009 to March 2010. During this period, Australia had only issued 11,862 visas to the Indian students. As compared to the 2008-2009 figures, this was a decline of 78 percent.

A few reasons like tougher immigration rules for overseas students and elimination of incentives offered for foreign students for applying for study course in order to obtain permanent residency in Australia are responsible for the declination in the numbers of Australian visas granted to Indian students.

But, the nation’s immigration minister Chris Evans has to say that the changes to immigration regulations do not affect foreign students in immigrating to Australia and going back to their home countries. But, as per the transitional arrangements made to the immigration policies, Australia allows those foreign students who were in the nation prior to February 8, 2010, as well as possess a vocational/higher education/postgraduate Oz Student Visa to apply for Australian permanent residency, given their occupations are included on the Skilled Occupation List. Those who do not meet the criteria can apply for temporary skilled graduate visa once they have completed their studies. This type of visa enables former Australian students spend eighteen months in the land of Kangaroos, during which they can acquire work experience and look for employers who could sponsor them.

Stats show that the number of enrollments in private education institutes in Australia is increasing in number day by day. A hike of 4 per cent has been witnessed since April last year.

Reports say that earlier the number of enrollments suffered by a huge margin, keeping in mind the number of racial attacks and other incidents like the closure of educational institutes, led to the decrease in the flow of overseas students.

Colin Walters from the federal education department has stated that it is true that growth is moderate as far as the historic standards are concerned, but the hike was 4 per cent. Education experts are of the view that the number is expected to show a rise in the upcoming times.

Taking about the aspect/criticism of long visa processing span, Senator Evans said that he would not offer any regret on delayed processing times as the country has witnessed so many undocumented, incomplete and fake applications and hence, they would continue taking long times, rather than getting it wrong quickly.

Talking about the rise in student visa application revenue, assistant secretary Kruno Kukoc said that a hike from $13m to $170m has resulted from foreign students who end up extending their visas or change their educational courses.

Senator Evans has confirmed that applications from India and Nepal have seen a huge drop!

Through a recent study, it has been found that around forty five percent of victims of racial discrimination in Britain are Indians. This has also revealed that racial attacks are increasing in Britain and are caused by the government’s attitude towards racism.

By the recent report of “Racial Violence: The Buried Issue” has revealed that around six hundred cases of violent attacks of racial discrimination occurred in the year 2009. It has been observed that some particular groups of people are at greater risk of becoming the victims of racism are mainly asylum seekers, Muslims and people who look like Muslims working as taxi drivers or as delivery boys in small eateries and new migrants.

There are about eight-nine victims of racial attacks who have lost their lives since the killing of a black young boy, Stephen Lawrence in the year 1993. Amongst them around forty five per cent were Asians and ten percent migrant workers. This is a great problem for the foreign students who come to Britain to study or work and have to face harassment and insult which greatly affects their mental and physical health. Racial discrimination provokes them to take serious steps like suicide or they may even go into depression.

The IRR search has observed that racial attacks occur more in the areas like Southall, Tower Hamlet, Hackney and Newham as comparison to other areas. The cases of racial violence are increasing day by day in cities, towns and villages as more migrant employees, foreign students, and asylum seekers are coming to the country. The new IRR report asks the government that how new immigration is the cause for rising racial violence in the country? The country is facing different kinds of racial attacks caused by different regional conditions. Government officials are responsible for this racial violence because of their negligence to local areas which are poor and disadvantaged.

Are you planning to pursue you higher studies overseas and searching for the right destination for yourself? Then Canada can be that one country which holds the potential to meet your expectation to a maximum extent. Canada is amongst those countries which invest minimum 6 percent of its GDP in education sector. The universities and schools of Canada offer wide range of vocational and other courses to its students imparting a holistic education in them. Unlike other countries, Canada’s federal government does not regulate the educational activities in Canada.

Canada and India share good prospects of educational ties between each other as both the countries share similar values. India in last few years has attracted many students from foreign countries which have resulted in higher growth of economy. Canada is also aware of importance of global talent and making important measures to attract foreign students. Universities of Canada such as The University of Toronto, McGill, UBC, University of Alberta and University of Montreal ranks amongst the top 100 universities of the world.

Despite having many good facilities and educational opportunities, Canada is still a mere choice of many Indian students rather than a priority. There is a good scope for Canada to gain a lot from education market of India. And there is enough possibility of strengthening India and Canada relations. India can nurture the talented young students and then can send them to Canada for further studies for as long as they want to study. There are indo-Canadian communities which can truly help in bridging the gaps between Canadian education and Indian students.

Canadian universities provide Indian students a wide range of qualitative program and rigorous training. Canada’s universities are world leaders in agriculture, health research, nanotechnology and teaching making it an ultimate destination for the students. Indian students can make the use of their expanding facilities and opportunities which are very limited in home land.

New York’s mayor along with other chief executives from various business companies has joined hands to form a coalition group in support of reformation in immigration in the United States. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and many other important people from top corporate companies like Disney, Hewlett-Packard and News Corporation have joined their hands in advocating reformation issues.

Bloomberg has always spoken against the US immigration bill publicly. In the year 2006, he put forwarded his plan of DNA testing which would help in checking and verifying the United States legal workers. He also proposed his suggestion that removing 12 million illegal immigrants from America is impossible and this would affect the economy of America to a large extent.

In one of his statement he said that US immigration policy would affect the country to a large extent. He further commented that every year America spends loads of money on foreign students to educate them and then we deny giving them permanent residency status. America wants to produce more jobs but does not allow capable entrepreneurs to reside in America. This way America can not expect to scale new heights for its economic development.

This new partnership is expected to bring security in the borders of America by developing a new and innovative method for employers to check work eligibility and use of better technology to check illegal immigration.

Chairman and CEO of News Corp. Rupert Murdoch himself is an immigrant and said that country must introduce new immigration laws that can meet with the growing demands of employment needs. And also can chalk out some mid way path through which an illegal resident can obtain legal status which would help in ending unlawful immigration. Immigration is the key behind America’s strengthening economic condition but its illegal form is also harmful for the country, so America must come up with such policies which can make the most optimum use of immigration.

With rising competition and high standards of lifestyle, every student demands nothing but the best education only. Australia is a hub for overseas education and ranks amongst the top priority of every student who wants to study abroad.

Due to the recent changes made by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), students have started facing lots of problems and their strength has dropped since the last few months. DIAC have made certain changes according to which they have cut down hundreds of low level positions from its Skilled Occupation List (SOL). Because of such changes, students who have worked so hard have to face a shortage of jobs.

Another sad part of the story is the rising fees of Australian education which is quite a surprise to the students. Unlike other countries, Australia has always provided low cost education which was one of the chief reasons that students used to opt for this nation.

Let’s see how much a student is required to pay on an average to pursue his studies.

• The average cost of tuition for a beginner in an undergraduate course can be around US$10, 000-16,000 a year.
• For vocational courses, it may cost around AUS$ 5000 to AUS$ 18,000 depending on the course. Although, these charges are lower in comparison to the charges required to pay in the US, but the difference in their pattern of study curriculum makes it more expensive.

For example, the timelines for a similar post graduate study program would be around 2 years in Australia where as in Britain; it would be about a year. But this is not the end of the struggles of overseas students.

New rules and regulations by the Immigration Department for foreign students have further imposed new restrictions on them. They have to deposit a larger amount of money in banks as a proof that they can finance their studies. This booming economy would simply mean higher currency value. Thus, those students coming from developing or underdeveloped nations would have to pay much more. So, the students (especially those who are already studying in Australia) are facing a form of “No Escape Situation” as they would have to pay more. As for those who are intending to study in Australia, it is advisable to seek out other options as well before deciding.