Canadian Immigration News

Last year, Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced that the Young Newcomers Internship Program would become a permanent program, after a 1-year pilot project proved to be successful. Last week, Canadian immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced that the program would be expanded.

According to MoneySense Magazine, the capital city of Ottawa is once again voted the most liveable city in Canada, for factors such as quality of schools, housing costs, availability of jobs, and other factors that influence the daily standard of living.

Like all the provinces and two of the territories, Ontario and Nova Scotia have their own Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs). Both provinces have recently made modifications to the International Student streams of their PNPs to make it easier for applicants to qualify for the programs.

The Southern Ontario town of Peterborough aims to attract more immigrants, and has set up an online portal about living and working in the town to help achieve this goal.

The Canadian government is introducing special accommodations for individuals on temporary status in Canada who have been affected by the April 14 volcanic eruption in Iceland.

Saskatchewan can look forward to substantial economic growth in 2010, according to three economic reports released this month.

In 2009, the province of Manitoba welcomed the highest number of new immigrants in almost a century, and hopes to welcome 20,000 newcomers annually by 2017.

The province of Saskatchewan, which has been enjoying an increase in immigrants over the last few years, has created a portal for newcomers to help them find the settlement services they need. The web portal was launched this week.

On Friday, Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced a special visa application program for business visitors from Mexico. Called the Business Express Program, this initiative will allow Mexican nationals employed by a pre-approved list of businesses to receive priority processing of their Canadian visa applications. Visas for qualified individuals are expected to be processed within 24 hours.

The Canadian government announced today that it is renewing its immigration agreement with the province of British Columbia. The new agreement is intended to formalize and build on the existing cooperation between the federal and provincial governments regarding immigration and settlement issues.