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 […]
Read moreA 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. […]
Read moreImmigration 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 […]
Read moreMoneySense, 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, […]
Read moreA 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 […]
Read moreAfter months of speculation that the new Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) would not have a priority occupations list, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has officially announced that the program will in fact have a priority occupations list when it starts taking applications on May 4th of this year. CIC issued the notice on March 1st, and warned applicants who […]
Read moreThe federal government announced on Monday that it will provide $160,000 in funding to the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association (CIWA) to help it carry out a 24 month project to help low-literacy immigrant women in Calgary. The CIWA project will engage Calgary’s social service agencies and business community to create solutions for reducing barriers for employment for immigrant women in […]
Read moreA new poll conducted by Forum Research for the National Post finds that 70 percent of Canadians favour having limits on the number of immigrants admitted into the country each year. Among Canadians born in another country, 58 percent reported being in favour of having immigration limits, compared to 73 percent of Canadians in born in Canada. Perhaps surprisingly, the poll […]
Read moreDavid Black, a British Columbia-based newspaper publisher and billionaire whose idea to raise financing for a refinery in Kitimat was largely dismissed by the oil industry when first proposed last August, saw those plans take a big step toward reality this week with the announcement that a major investment firm was ready to back the project. Switzerland-based Oppenheimer Investments Group […]
Read moreThe federal government has issued over 15,000 Parent and Grandparent Super Visas since the launch of the program in December 2011. The visa replaces the prior Parent and Grandparent Family Class sponsorship stream, whereby Canadian permanent residents and citizens could sponsor their parents and grandparents for permanent residence. Instead, the Super Visa gives holders multiple re-entries into Canada for up […]
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