Yeah, Kubeir explained in one of his videos that some VO's who were working on TR to PR were moved to other applications like visitor, work permit, etc., and some of them were assigned to express entry PR applications also, looks like they are working on FSW applications as of now. Maybe all VO's will start working on PR applications regardless of category once they meet their target for this year through CEC by end of December.
FSW WORLDWIDE
- Thread starter js555
- Start date
Entire December is left and we will know only in February or March because ATIP requests slow AF.
I am counting out that last two weeks because of holidays. Have you had your security completed?
Don't know, didn't order any notes after April and didn't receive a single GU till now.
from reddit via message
FSW Outland CRS- 480 NOC- 0213
PA + Dependent- 3
Nationality- Singapore
COR- Singapore
VO- Ottawa
AOR- November 2019
Medical Passed- March 2020
Re-medical passed- October 2021
ADR- October 2021
PPR - 2 December 2021
PA's wife is gonna deliver a baby in two weeks
FSW Outland CRS- 480 NOC- 0213
PA + Dependent- 3
Nationality- Singapore
COR- Singapore
VO- Ottawa
AOR- November 2019
Medical Passed- March 2020
Re-medical passed- October 2021
ADR- October 2021
PPR - 2 December 2021
PA's wife is gonna deliver a baby in two weeks
check the pages 1221 + or - 15
https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/fsw-worldwide.739338/page-1221
I mean, that is exactly why I included the bit after "That said" in my post. People always ask these silly questions about if they should include something or the other, and I just wanted to point out to them that it makes no sense trying to hide anything since IRCC can be as thorough as they want when looking into an applicant's history.
Yes, we are both in agreement that you should always disclose everything.
Scientists are trying to find out why some people don't get COVID-19
A small number of people could be completely resistant to the coronavirus
An international team of researchers is hoping to identify individuals in the population who, for reasons that are not yet understood, don't get infected by the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. They want determine whether these people have unique genes that could be studied to develop new treatments against the disease.
These are people who are distinct from those whose immune systems can successfully fight off the virus if they are infected, people who experience low grade or asymptomatic infections or those who've been immunized with vaccines.
If the virus cannot attach to our cells and inject its genetic payload to make more copies of itself, the immune system doesn't even see the virus. This is what scientists suspect could be happening in COVID-19 resistant people.
"We want to find out who are those super people, the supermen and the superwomen, who are resistant and why are they resistant?" said Dr. Don Vinh, an infectious disease specialist and medical microbiologist at the McGill University Health Centre.
Vinh is the only Canadian investigator in an international team that has started recruiting people who were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, but who didn't get sick, and whose immune systems show no signs of encountering the virus. They described their project in a study published in the journal Nature Immunology.
The first candidates for this study are relatives of people who became very ill, but who themselves never tested positive, said Vinh.
"There are these people who come to the hospital sick, sometimes deathly sick, with life-threatening COVID-19 and they have a family member or several family members who are totally, totally well — who themselves got tested and found out they weren't infected."
Scientists can tell by studying a person's antibodies and T-cells if their immune systems have ever encountered the virus through a natural infection.
In an interview with Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald, Vinh said one goal of this project is to develop treatments that can interrupt an infection even earlier and more completely than a vaccine. Vaccines are excellent at protecting us against disease, but people who are vaccinated can still get infected and transmit the virus, albeit for a shorter period of time.
"If we could abort that initial process, the infection part, through this kind of work, I think that will hopefully be a groundbreaker in our fight against this pandemic," said Vinh.
Finding the right people
Vinh said that his team has already recruited 1,000 exposed individuals who they suspect are resistant to infection.
The plan is to scan their genomes and compare the group to people who were exposed and infected, to identify any gene variants that can prevent the virus from establishing itself.
Once the team identifies genes that are heavily represented in those who are resistant, they will shift their focus to the proteins the genes make, and whether they offer any protection against infection.
Usefulness of this type of investigation
Throughout human history, there are other examples of people who are exposed to viruses like malaria, HIV and norovirus but don't get infected, said Vinh.
"In all of these infections, what we've seen are clusters of people who are exposed, but uninfected and then the molecules responsible for that resistance have been identified and some have even been transformed into drug therapies," said Vinh.
A good example of how this information can be useful for fighting off infections came from a group of sex workers in Kenya who, though exposed to the virus, were found to have a natural resistance to HIV-1 infection.
By investigating the genetic basis for that immunity, scientists discovered one unexpected gene that, in its mutated form, protected the sex workers from getting infected, said Vinh.
That led to the development of a highly-effective antiviral that suppresses the HIV-1 virus by inhibiting its ability to enter and infect cells, which Vinh said is what they're hoping to do for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
A small number of people could be completely resistant to the coronavirus
An international team of researchers is hoping to identify individuals in the population who, for reasons that are not yet understood, don't get infected by the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. They want determine whether these people have unique genes that could be studied to develop new treatments against the disease.
These are people who are distinct from those whose immune systems can successfully fight off the virus if they are infected, people who experience low grade or asymptomatic infections or those who've been immunized with vaccines.
If the virus cannot attach to our cells and inject its genetic payload to make more copies of itself, the immune system doesn't even see the virus. This is what scientists suspect could be happening in COVID-19 resistant people.
"We want to find out who are those super people, the supermen and the superwomen, who are resistant and why are they resistant?" said Dr. Don Vinh, an infectious disease specialist and medical microbiologist at the McGill University Health Centre.
Vinh is the only Canadian investigator in an international team that has started recruiting people who were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, but who didn't get sick, and whose immune systems show no signs of encountering the virus. They described their project in a study published in the journal Nature Immunology.
The first candidates for this study are relatives of people who became very ill, but who themselves never tested positive, said Vinh.
"There are these people who come to the hospital sick, sometimes deathly sick, with life-threatening COVID-19 and they have a family member or several family members who are totally, totally well — who themselves got tested and found out they weren't infected."
Scientists can tell by studying a person's antibodies and T-cells if their immune systems have ever encountered the virus through a natural infection.
In an interview with Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald, Vinh said one goal of this project is to develop treatments that can interrupt an infection even earlier and more completely than a vaccine. Vaccines are excellent at protecting us against disease, but people who are vaccinated can still get infected and transmit the virus, albeit for a shorter period of time.
"If we could abort that initial process, the infection part, through this kind of work, I think that will hopefully be a groundbreaker in our fight against this pandemic," said Vinh.
Finding the right people
Vinh said that his team has already recruited 1,000 exposed individuals who they suspect are resistant to infection.
The plan is to scan their genomes and compare the group to people who were exposed and infected, to identify any gene variants that can prevent the virus from establishing itself.
Once the team identifies genes that are heavily represented in those who are resistant, they will shift their focus to the proteins the genes make, and whether they offer any protection against infection.
Usefulness of this type of investigation
Throughout human history, there are other examples of people who are exposed to viruses like malaria, HIV and norovirus but don't get infected, said Vinh.
"In all of these infections, what we've seen are clusters of people who are exposed, but uninfected and then the molecules responsible for that resistance have been identified and some have even been transformed into drug therapies," said Vinh.
A good example of how this information can be useful for fighting off infections came from a group of sex workers in Kenya who, though exposed to the virus, were found to have a natural resistance to HIV-1 infection.
By investigating the genetic basis for that immunity, scientists discovered one unexpected gene that, in its mutated form, protected the sex workers from getting infected, said Vinh.
That led to the development of a highly-effective antiviral that suppresses the HIV-1 virus by inhibiting its ability to enter and infect cells, which Vinh said is what they're hoping to do for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
New COVID-testing rules just 'one more hit' for pandemic-weary travel industry
Travel between U.S. and Canada exempt from new rules for now, but that may change
After more than a year of cancelled plans and delayed trips, COVID-weary travellers and those in the tourism industry have been thrown for yet another loop after the federal government implemented new travel rules this week designed to keep a lid on the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant.
On Monday, Ottawa announced new rules requiring incoming air travellers from all countries except the United States to be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival, regardless of whether they're vaccinated or not. And they'll also have to quarantine until their test results come back negative.
Those new rules are in addition to existing stipulations that anyone coming to Canada must take and pass a COVID test within 72 hours of departure.
It's bad news for an industry that can scarcely afford it.
"It's one more hit to an industry that has been … significantly hit by the pandemic," said Statia Elliot, director of the School of Hospitality Food and Tourism Management at Guelph University.
She says that after policy makers were accused of being too slow to implement stricter travel and testing protocols in the early days of the pandemic, they are overcompensating by doing the opposite now and moving swiftly.
A look at the numbers shows how stark the impact of COVID-19 has been on travel. In October of 2019, before the pandemic, more than a quarter of a million people landed in Vancouver's airport from countries that were not the U.S.
A year later, in the depths of COVID-19, that figure shrank by more than 90 per cent to less than 17,000. This year, that figure had rebounded somewhat, to just shy of 70,000 people. And as of now, every single one of them will be subject to the new testing and quarantine regime.
Travel agencies critical of new rules
The Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA), which represents the industry in Canada, says the new rules are wrongheaded and based on politics, not epidemiology.
"The federal government's recent announcement of molecular testing for all inbound travellers except those arriving from the United States is a concerning policy that impacts travel demand just before the holiday season," ACTA president Wendy Paradis said.
"As the federal government prepares its formal order, we are meeting with politicians and government decision-makers and imploring them to act on the best available science rather than political pressure."
It's too early to tell exactly what impact the new rules will have, but headed into the key holiday travel season, it won't be a positive one.
"Every time there's an additional step, like a test at the airport, [people] will think twice before they travel because of the hassle and because of the cost," Elliot said.
Canadian traveller Robyn Boar will certainly think twice before leaving home any time soon. The 18-year-old just returned home from a European trip.
"I was worried they were going to cut off all flights," Boar said. "I'm just happy to be back home in case things go south."
U.S. exempt for now
So far, the new rules don't apply to those travelling between Canada and the U.S., but there are signs that could change.
According to reports in Washington, the Biden administration could move as early as Thursday to bring in COVID-19 testing and quarantine requirements for air travellers, two moves the U.S. has been reluctant to implement so far at almost any stage of the pandemic
That would affect Canadians headed south, and Canada's transportation minister hinted on Wednesday that those arriving here from the U.S. may soon be subject to more stringent rules, too.
"We are having discussions," Omar Alghabra said. "We need to be prepared and ready if we need to adjust that decision to include travellers from the U.S. [but] we haven't made that decision yet."
If that happens, all bets are off for the industry, as travel between the U.S. and Canada had only just started to return to normalcy, Elliot said.
"Just last week sentiments of … feeling safe to travel were actually on a little bit of an upswing [and] we were at really a better point than we'd been in a long time," she said.
"Now with this latest variant, it's just a hit sliding us backwards."
Restrictions better than closure, expert says
While yet another round of restrictions and hassle are another bitter pill to swallow for anyone who's delayed travel for more than a year already, business professor Frederic Dimanche said things could always be worse.
"It's a measure that I think is better for sure than losing the border," the director of the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Ryerson University told CBC News in an interview.
"The whole point of all this is about making sure that people feel safer when they're travelling again."
Back in Vancouver, Boar says she takes as many precautions as she can, including being fully vaccinated, in the hopes of being able to travel again soon. But those plans, like everything else, are now up in the air.
"I want to do a couple of more trips in 2022, but with the new variant I don't know if I'll be able to," she said.
Elliot says that mentality is common — and very concerning for an industry that's already been hit particularly hard by the pandemic.
"What's hardest for the industry right now is just the fatigue," she said. "Every time something like this happens, I think it just shapes the psyche of every traveller."
Travel between U.S. and Canada exempt from new rules for now, but that may change
After more than a year of cancelled plans and delayed trips, COVID-weary travellers and those in the tourism industry have been thrown for yet another loop after the federal government implemented new travel rules this week designed to keep a lid on the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant.
On Monday, Ottawa announced new rules requiring incoming air travellers from all countries except the United States to be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival, regardless of whether they're vaccinated or not. And they'll also have to quarantine until their test results come back negative.
Those new rules are in addition to existing stipulations that anyone coming to Canada must take and pass a COVID test within 72 hours of departure.
It's bad news for an industry that can scarcely afford it.
"It's one more hit to an industry that has been … significantly hit by the pandemic," said Statia Elliot, director of the School of Hospitality Food and Tourism Management at Guelph University.
She says that after policy makers were accused of being too slow to implement stricter travel and testing protocols in the early days of the pandemic, they are overcompensating by doing the opposite now and moving swiftly.
A look at the numbers shows how stark the impact of COVID-19 has been on travel. In October of 2019, before the pandemic, more than a quarter of a million people landed in Vancouver's airport from countries that were not the U.S.
A year later, in the depths of COVID-19, that figure shrank by more than 90 per cent to less than 17,000. This year, that figure had rebounded somewhat, to just shy of 70,000 people. And as of now, every single one of them will be subject to the new testing and quarantine regime.
Travel agencies critical of new rules
The Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA), which represents the industry in Canada, says the new rules are wrongheaded and based on politics, not epidemiology.
"The federal government's recent announcement of molecular testing for all inbound travellers except those arriving from the United States is a concerning policy that impacts travel demand just before the holiday season," ACTA president Wendy Paradis said.
"As the federal government prepares its formal order, we are meeting with politicians and government decision-makers and imploring them to act on the best available science rather than political pressure."
It's too early to tell exactly what impact the new rules will have, but headed into the key holiday travel season, it won't be a positive one.
"Every time there's an additional step, like a test at the airport, [people] will think twice before they travel because of the hassle and because of the cost," Elliot said.
Canadian traveller Robyn Boar will certainly think twice before leaving home any time soon. The 18-year-old just returned home from a European trip.
"I was worried they were going to cut off all flights," Boar said. "I'm just happy to be back home in case things go south."
U.S. exempt for now
So far, the new rules don't apply to those travelling between Canada and the U.S., but there are signs that could change.
According to reports in Washington, the Biden administration could move as early as Thursday to bring in COVID-19 testing and quarantine requirements for air travellers, two moves the U.S. has been reluctant to implement so far at almost any stage of the pandemic
That would affect Canadians headed south, and Canada's transportation minister hinted on Wednesday that those arriving here from the U.S. may soon be subject to more stringent rules, too.
"We are having discussions," Omar Alghabra said. "We need to be prepared and ready if we need to adjust that decision to include travellers from the U.S. [but] we haven't made that decision yet."
If that happens, all bets are off for the industry, as travel between the U.S. and Canada had only just started to return to normalcy, Elliot said.
"Just last week sentiments of … feeling safe to travel were actually on a little bit of an upswing [and] we were at really a better point than we'd been in a long time," she said.
"Now with this latest variant, it's just a hit sliding us backwards."
Restrictions better than closure, expert says
While yet another round of restrictions and hassle are another bitter pill to swallow for anyone who's delayed travel for more than a year already, business professor Frederic Dimanche said things could always be worse.
"It's a measure that I think is better for sure than losing the border," the director of the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Ryerson University told CBC News in an interview.
"The whole point of all this is about making sure that people feel safer when they're travelling again."
Back in Vancouver, Boar says she takes as many precautions as she can, including being fully vaccinated, in the hopes of being able to travel again soon. But those plans, like everything else, are now up in the air.
"I want to do a couple of more trips in 2022, but with the new variant I don't know if I'll be able to," she said.
Elliot says that mentality is common — and very concerning for an industry that's already been hit particularly hard by the pandemic.
"What's hardest for the industry right now is just the fatigue," she said. "Every time something like this happens, I think it just shapes the psyche of every traveller."
from immitracker
PNP Outland CRS- 463 NOC- 2173
OINP
PA + Dependents- 2
Nationality- India
COR- India
VO- Ottawa
AOR- 21 November 2020
Medical Passed- 5 January 2021
PPR - 2 December 2021
PNP Outland CRS- 463 NOC- 2173
OINP
PA + Dependents- 2
Nationality- India
COR- India
VO- Ottawa
AOR- 21 November 2020
Medical Passed- 5 January 2021
PPR - 2 December 2021
