tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-278912352010-02-03T10:57:41.045-05:00The purpose of this site is to express my views on the cross-border movement of people in general and the Canadian experience in particular. I hope to touch on foreign politics, world events, notable immigration cases and landmark decisions, policy, domestic issues and personal anecdotes as they all relate to Canadian immigration.David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-75159854801052018982010-01-27T21:30:00.001-05:002010-01-27T21:32:43.046-05:00

A little over two weeks ago Haiti was rocked by an earthquake, which has since claimed over 150,000 lives, and has left hundreds of thousands homeless and wounded. This past Monday, top world officials gathered in Montreal for emergency talks on how to rebuild Haiti in its time of need. Perhaps the most pressing issue in the Canadian immigration community right now is the possibility of loosening

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-52126120962535308882009-12-28T16:19:00.003-05:002009-12-28T17:45:38.140-05:00

I thought I would close out the year 2009 with a little "feel good" story involving Canadian immigration.This is about the Viviers family, who hail from sun-soaked South Africa. Unfortunately for them, three of the four family members suffer from a rare genetic skin disorder that makes exposure to direct sunlight extremely painful. As a result, they set out to find a reliably cloudy environment

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-7118431857834596202009-11-30T10:31:00.003-05:002009-11-30T12:03:00.075-05:00

Depending on their nationality, Canadian landed immigrants receive different treatment when it comes to residency requirements.You would expect the Government of Canada to treat all of its landed immigrants (permanent residents) equally and certainly not to discriminate against some of them based on their country of origin. The facts, however, tell another story, at least when it comes to

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-51754710441588501832009-10-29T18:14:00.001-04:002009-10-29T18:17:17.125-04:00

Over the past few years, there has been a gradual but steady shift in the ways that people qualify for a Canadian permanent resident visa. More and more, the Canadian government is relying upon the 13 provinces and territories to come up with their own immigration strategies (Quebec and Provincial Nomination Programs), using selection criteria that best suit local interest. To counterbalance this

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-24433946441267504742009-09-24T16:03:00.003-04:002009-09-25T11:46:25.172-04:00

Some immigration consultants in Montreal are helping landed immigrants bypass the residency requirements for Canadian citizenship, by offering "life in Canada simulation" services, according to an investigation by the CBC, Canada's national news network.In order to qualify for Canadian citizenship, a landed immigrant (permanent resident) must spend the better part of three years in Canada within

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-15894972970050961222009-08-26T18:55:00.003-04:002009-08-27T15:00:18.679-04:00

"The pot calling the kettle black" is an expression, which refers to criticism that could equally apply to the critic. Interestingly, similar idioms can be found in more than 30 languages, across as many cultures and so we can assume that this particular human disposition is universal in nature. It most certainly applies to the people pulling the levers at Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-33531182961606492582009-07-29T16:52:00.003-04:002009-07-29T16:59:29.408-04:00

About a year ago, I was privileged to appear before parliamentary committees that were charged with examining proposed changes to Canada's immigration selection system. The government of the day claimed that urgent modifications to the law were necessary in order to streamline the immigration process and reduce the backlog of pending skilled worker (economic) applications. At the time, I felt

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-30106426752977682862009-06-30T21:48:00.001-04:002009-06-30T21:52:36.418-04:00

We Canadians take our hockey seriously. And why not? It is, after all, our game and no other country can match us over the long haul in international competitions. Hockey for us is a source of pride and many of us follow our favourite teams with the fervour you would expect from a religious devotee.The two most storied Canadian franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL) are, without a doubt,

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-17575567430403615752009-05-26T18:30:00.002-04:002009-06-08T16:27:33.666-04:00

Around this time last year most Canadians were relieved to learn that Ms Brenda Martin, a Canadian Citizen, had been brought back to Canada after having languished for more than two years in a Mexican Prison.Ms Martin had been incarcerated in Guadalajara in 2006 and charged with receiving illicit funds from a massive investment scam involving her former boss. The ordeal was difficult for Ms

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-68953198578108594942009-04-29T17:35:00.002-04:002009-05-04T09:18:30.352-04:00

If you were to ask me what I consider to be the greatest benefit of being a Canadian, I'd say it's that I get to pass citizenship on to my children. While it's still true for me, its no longer the case for one of my kids who happened to be born in the U.S..My son was born in Boston because we knew that he would require a life-saving operation right after birth and my wife's Canadian obstetrician

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-56412762573966564232009-03-31T18:12:00.003-04:002009-03-31T18:18:40.980-04:00

First, a bit of good news: Canada will likely weather the current economic storm better than any other Western nation. As the Prime Minister recently pointed out, Canada has a low debt burden, an efficient inflation regime, a diversified economy, flexible labor markets and proper fiscal management going back for more than a decade. Canadian banks have not needed the government bailouts that have

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-51228688073489718262009-02-25T17:45:00.007-05:002009-03-04T10:33:48.267-05:00

On most days, I truly love what I do. Many lawyers spend their working lives locked in adversarial battles, where one side wins and the other loses. Not much fun, if you ask me. In my job I get to work in an environment, where most of the time, there are no losers. Our clients almost always get what they want...Canada gets what it needs...and I get to make a decent living from it all.But some

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-68938826434502908602009-01-11T18:02:00.002-05:002009-01-12T12:16:46.714-05:00

I have previously written about what I perceive to be the missing link in Canadian immigration. My grandfather's story illustrates it best. When he arrived in Canada many years ago, my grandfather had nothing but the name of a man in Montreal who once lived in his town. My grandfather was eternally grateful when, after tracking the man down, he was given a small space to fix shoes in the corner

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-47095455767327379892008-12-22T19:26:00.002-05:002008-12-22T20:20:22.222-05:00

Without a doubt, the Canadian immigration story of the past year has to do with the changes made to the Federal Skilled Worker category of immigration. Not only is qualifying now different than it was a year ago, but the application process itself has also changed significantly.Getting approved as a Federal Skilled Worker still requires achieving a score of at least 67 points according to the

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-12539485064098707652008-11-24T16:51:00.004-05:002008-11-26T11:07:37.872-05:00

In a few days from now, the waiting will be over.Not only will we know the fate of the Federal Skilled Worker applications submitted to the Canadian Visa Offices after February 27, 2008, (now in a suspended state) but we will also find out what lies in store for Skilled Worker applications that will be submitted in the coming twelve months. More to the point, we expect to soon learn which of

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-61716307567353757392008-10-29T17:39:00.002-04:002008-10-29T17:43:06.935-04:00

Here's what the Province of Ontario has to say about immigration on its official website."Immigration is a cornerstone of Ontario's economic prosperity and social fabric""More than half of all newcomers to Canada have chosen to settle in Ontario each year since 1987."Maybe so, but that was then and this is now.One reason for Ontario's continued popularity among landing immigrants is that the

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-4192279653503295102008-09-29T11:58:00.005-04:002008-09-29T14:05:21.820-04:00

In two weeks from now, Canadians will go to the polls to select their federal members of Parliament, and unless we experience our own "Dewey Wins" moment, the Conservative Party of Canada will be called upon to form the next national government.I had initially intended this blog to be a review of the immigration policies of the three major political parties (Conservative, Liberal and New Democrat

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-48059263253283930682008-08-26T15:46:00.001-04:002008-08-27T15:28:54.300-04:00

It seems more probable by the day that Canadians will be going to the polls in the next couple of months to elect a new federal government. A snap election will likely be called by the minority Conservative government as early as September 5th for later in the Fall on the pretext that Parliament is now dysfunctional.The election results could have a significant affect on Canadian immigration

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-54523247660947135532008-07-30T16:54:00.001-04:002008-08-01T09:50:11.611-04:00

The United States is fortunate. It attracts a seemingly endless supply of the best and brightest people from all parts of the globe as foreign guest workers. Most of these individuals enter on H-1B visas and all of them have a high-skilled job set aside for their arrival. These temporary workers include IT professionals, physical and social scientists, and engineers, to name but a few. They are

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-479211973279474062008-06-30T15:40:00.000-04:002008-06-30T15:43:02.249-04:00

It's easy, in this day and age, to be cynical. Examples of greed and selfishness abound in most parts of the world, including Canada. I certainly have no trouble pointing out inequities in the Canadian immigration selection system, as readers of my previous blogs can attest. That said, it's important to keep in mind that if you look hard enough you will find people who set an example for the rest

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-1694522151208672122008-05-28T16:59:00.001-04:002008-05-28T17:01:21.199-04:00

The Canadian government announced last week that it will create a 29 million dollar grant program as redress for various shameful incidents in Canada's history, relating to the way Canada treated prospective and landed immigrants. For example, from 1885-1923 there was a Chinese head tax which was a fee charged for each person wishing to immigrate to Canada from China. There was also the Komagata

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-74960786734431745132008-04-01T11:34:00.001-04:002008-04-01T16:43:00.154-04:00

The Conservative led minority government has recently introduced a bill in Parliament that contains significant changes to Canada's immigration law. If passed, the proposed amendments will empower the immigration minister to instruct visa officers to take certain candidates quickly, hold some applications for consideration at a later date, and return others without any consideration at all. No

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-71265055011580682872008-03-18T18:49:00.003-04:002008-03-18T19:49:23.865-04:00

Since it's inception in 2002, Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) has stood for the principle that anyone is entitled to apply for permission to live in Canada and to have his or her admissibility considered fairly, according to purely objective criteria. This core value is now threatened. In an effort to modernize and streamline the visa application process, the Conservative

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-6323175104079176862008-02-26T17:59:00.009-05:002008-02-27T15:00:29.916-05:00

If you are a Canadian citizen or Permanent Resident, and want to sponsor your dependent child who resides, say, in China or Turkey, you will likely wait about four months to be reunited. On the other hand, if your child happens to reside in Egypt, the same process will take 34 months. Why should that be?Similarly, a Brazilian applicant for Canadian Permanent Residency under the Skilled Worker

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27891235.post-78638228642595856032008-01-23T17:45:00.000-05:002008-01-24T11:35:32.009-05:00

In immigration law, we come across many situations where the decision taken greatly impacts the welfare of children. In 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on a case (Baker v. Canada) which brought the interests of children to the forefront in immigration matters. In that case, a woman with 4 Canadian-born children was ordered deported from Canada despite the concerns for her own medical

David Cohenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642071149355900091noreply@blogger.com4