Canadian Experience Class now open for business

Ottawa, September 5, 2008 — The Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, today announced that certain temporary foreign workers and students can start applying for permanent residence under the Canadian Experience Class starting September 17, 2008.

“With the Canadian Experience Class fully in place, Canada will be more competitive in attracting and retaining individuals with the skills we need,” said Minister Finley. “It, along with other recent improvements to modernize the immigration system, will go a long way in bringing Canada in line with its global competitors while further spreading the benefits of immigration into smaller centres across Canada.”

The Canadian Experience Class is a new avenue of immigration for certain temporary foreign workers and foreign student graduates with professional, managerial and skilled work experience. Unlike other programs, the Canadian Experience Class allows an applicant’s experience in Canada to be considered a key selection factor when immigrating to Canada.

The final implementation of the Canadian Experience Class reflects what was originally proposed on August 9, 2008. The main difference is that those who have left Canada, but otherwise meet the requirements as workers or graduates, will be eligible to apply provided they do so within one year of leaving their job in Canada. Under the proposal, CIC had suggested that applicants would be required to have temporary resident status and be present in Canada to be eligible to apply. The Government of Canada has since chosen to cast a wider net to avoid missing those with the Canadian experience we want, through residency restrictions.

The final regulations for the Canadian Experience Class will be published in the Canada Gazette.

Legal clinic sets up hotline for reporting bad immigration consultants

Posted September 2, 2008

Article source Downtown Legal Services

Excerpt from a Downtown Legal Services news release (see full release below):

Victims of Immigration Fraud Reveal Hollowness of Federal Government's "Tough on Crime" Platform

A detailed Parliamentary committee report released in June following weeks of hearings confirmed what many newcomers to this country already knew: that the most vulnerable people in Canada are easy prey for unscrupulous immigration consultants. Now, anyone harmed by incompetent or dishonest consultants can help clean up the system. A new organization for Survivors of Consultant-Related Errors and Wilful Exploitative Dishonesty (SCREWED) has been formed, and a local legal aid clinic is inviting victims to share their stories on an exploitation hotline.

Macdonald Scott, a member of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants, has seen the damage firsthand: "One of my clients hired a consultant firm in Montreal. They took his credit card information, charged him two thousand dollars to do an application and did nothing. The next thing he knew he had $6,000.00 in charges run up on his credit card." The regulator took no action.

"We have the report -- we know what has to be done -- we need this Government to ensure that people can’t get away with crimes just because their victims are in the process of immigrating to Canada," said refugee/immigration lawyer Hilary Evans Cameron. "Bringing these cases forward will ensure that these urgently needed protections don’t fall off the legislative agenda."

The "Bad Consultants Hotline", at 416-978-6447, launches September 22, 2008 and will be answered four days a week by law students at the University of Toronto's legal aid clinic, Downtown Legal Services (DLS).