Author Archives: CICS News Team

‘Welcome to Canada’ Tool To Help Immigrants Adjust to New Life

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) released a new ‘Welcome to Canada’ booklet and tool last week to provide immigrants with guidance on how to prepare for life in Canada and with information to assist them in their first few months in the country. Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced the new tool at a press conference at the MOSAIC settlement […]

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Immigration Department to Make it Difficult for Vancouver / Toronto Bound Immigrants to Use Quebec Investor Program

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said last week that his department wanted to put an end to foreign nationals immigrating to Canada through the Quebec Immigrant Investor Program, but settling in Vancouver or Toronto. At a press conference on March 26st, Kenney said that immigrant investors who apply for permanent residence through the Quebec program but intend to settle […]

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Former Immigration Officer Sentenced to Four Years in Prison

Former Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) officer Diane Serré was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday for accepting bribes in exchange for preferential official treatment of applications for permanent residence. Serré was found guilty of 15 counts of fraud and 12 counts of breach of trust by an Ontario Superior Court Justice in June for using her position as […]

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Immigration Canada Announces April 1 Launch of Start-Up Visa Program

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced on Thursday that foreign entrepreneurs would be able to start applying for the newly created Start-Up Visa Program on April 1st of this year. “Canada is open for business to the world’s start-up entrepreneurs,” said Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney in announcing the launch date. “Innovation and entrepreneurship are essential drivers of the […]

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Canada’s Immigration Backlog Reduced by 40 Percent

Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s (CIC) backlog of permanent resident applications has declined by forty percent since 2008, according to a CIC announcement on Tuesday. A freeze in the acceptance of new Federal Skilled Worker and Federal Immigrant Investor applications, in place since July 2012, and an indefinite suspension of the parent and grandparent sponsorship stream of the Family Class immigration […]

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Canada Among Most Welcoming Countries to Foreign Visitors

A new travel and tourism study from the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranks Canada as one of the most welcoming countries to foreign visitors, ahead of the United States and most European countries. The rankings, revealed by Max Fisher in a Washington Post story, can be found in a 400-plus page WEF analysis on national tourism sectors around the world. […]

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Canadian Immigration Application Fees to Increase

Immigration processing fees are going to increase, according to a proposed federal budget released on Thursday. The cause of the coming fee hikes, according to Alexis Pavlich, a spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, is Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) processing costs for citizenship applications that have increased over the last two decades, without any increases in fees over that […]

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Burlington, Ontario Ranks as Best City in Canada for Immigrants

MoneySense, a Canadian personal finance magazine, has released its annual Best Places to Live for 2013 index, and Calgary takes the number one spot as the best place to live in Canada overall, while Burlington, Ontario is ranked as the best city for new immigrants. The index scores cities according to 11 groups of indicators, which include commuting, crime, housing, weather, […]

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Canadian Immigration Department Releases TV Ad Warning of Marriage Fraud

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) began airing a television ad today warning Canadians of the dangers of marriage sponsorship fraud. The ad tells Canadians that some foreign individuals seek out Canadians and feign genuine affection for them, in order to convince the Canadian to marry them and sponsor them for permanent residence. The ruse is part of a ploy to […]

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Irish Immigration Shift from Australia to Canada, Fuelled by Calgary’s Economy

A story in Saturday’s Irish Times examines the increase in Irish immigration to Canada as the country’s workers seek employment abroad. The article notes two trends in recent years: Canada being increasingly favoured by Irish emigrants over Australia and the age of the average Irish emigrant increasing: “The most noticeable trend over the past 12 months has been the swing away […]

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