Articles

On January 6, 2012, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) announced that it was proposing a regulatory change that would allow spouses and children of U.S. citizens, who are in the United States but need an immigrant waiver of the unlawful presence bar, to apply for the waiver within the United States. On January 9, 2012, DHS published a Notice of Intent relating to these proposed changes, in the Federal Register.

Effective June 26, 2010, Citizenship and Immigration Canada made an important change to permanent residence applications by making it mandatory for the submission of an English or French language proficiency test. As of that date, if the principal applicant has not submitted International English Language Testing System or a Test d’Evaluation de Français test results, his application will be returned to him, marked as incomplete.

On August 4, 2010, the governor-general-in-council published amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, which will adversely affect many temporary foreign workers. As these amendments will become effective as of April 1, 2011, a brief overview of these amendments is provided.

by Catherine Longo (Articling Student)

On November 10, 2010, Citizenship and Immigration Canada published regulations in the Canada Gazette, which restored the Canadian Federal Immigrant Investor Program (“IIP”); these regulations came into force on December 1, 2010. Under the revised IIP, investors are now required to have a personal net worth of $1.6 million CAD and to invest $800,000 CAD. The regulatory amendments modify the definitions of "Investor" and "Investment” under R88(1) to reflect these new values.

HR professionals are frequently asked whether a foreign national, who seeks to enter Canada for the purpose of performing a specific task on behalf of their Canadian company, will require a work permit. Although this question appears simple enough, it requires a detailed analysis of the relevant law.