Immigration Lawyers Will Keep You Updated on Policy Changes Set To Take Place In The Fall
Honourable Mr. John McCallum, Minister of immigration for the Trudeau government, has announced that Canada is prepared to make changes to the current immigration system. The biggest priority, according to the Minister, is speeding up family class immigration.
In recent visits to various regions in the greater Toronto area and surrounding cities, McCallum discussed the system inherited by the Liberal government and how it is causing concern among citizens, lawyers, and newcomers. Along with his team, McCallum is working on changes to streamline the immigration system.
Part of the plan includes making it easier for international students to come study in Canada while simultaneously expediting the process to grant residency to those students. The government is hoping to compete with other countries that take international students, such as Australia and the United States. He discussed the importance of international students staying in Canada because they are often already fluent in one of the two official languages, they are young, and they are also educated.
Other areas the government is hoping to streamline includes economic immigrants and refugees. Economic immigrants are people selected to come to Canada for their skills and abilities, while economic immigrants fall into many different categories including skilled workers, business immigrants, and live-in caregivers. Refugees, on the other hand, are accepted as part of Canada’s international obligations and tradition of humanitarian action—including the 25,000 Syrian refugees accepted into the Country on humanitarian grounds.
While immigration and residency is a primary concern for McCallum, the Minister is also hoping to improve visa procedures for those hoping to visit Canada. However, the primary concern the Trudeau government is the processing time for family class in immigration. McCallum expressed his discontent with the length of time it takes for family reunification, with the approximate time for a husband and wife to be reunited at two years. This separation is especially hard on newcomers, who are often transitioning into a new culture and learning a new language while trying to balance jobs, family life, and mental health.
When moving to a new country, there are many barriers and challenges to overcome. They are overwhelming at best, and keeping families together is one way to ease the transition into a new home. Immigration lawyers and legal consultants do their best to help reunite families when they come to Canada, staying on top of policy changes and updates to better serve their clients. Immigration lawyers hope that the new changes McCallum says are coming this fall, it will be easier for families to stay together and not experience long periods of separation when immigrating to a new country.
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Arghavan Gerami
Arghavan Gerami is the Founder and Senior Counsel at Gerami Law Professional Corporation ('PC'), a full-service immigration law firm in Ottawa, Ontario. Since 2011, Ms. Gerami has focused her practice on immigration and refugee litigation. Prior to that, Ms. Gerami worked at the Ministry of Attorney General and the Department of Justice and had the privilege of serving the Honourable Mr. Justice M. Evans at the Federal Court of Appeal on immigration and administrative law appeals. Ms. Gerami contributes to the Immigration Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association, the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Ms. Gerami has also published numerous journal articles and presented at various immigration and refugee law conferences and events across Canada.