Citizenship Act – Polaris Strategy https://polariss.ca We are a Canadian based with a global footprint. We pride ourselves on being industry leaders for over 10 years with a high success rate. Wed, 05 Aug 2020 23:04:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.7 IRCC changing their definition of ‘parent’ under the ‘Citizenship Act’ https://polariss.ca/ircc-changing-their-definition-of-parent-under-the-citizenship-act/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ircc-changing-their-definition-of-parent-under-the-citizenship-act https://polariss.ca/ircc-changing-their-definition-of-parent-under-the-citizenship-act/#respond Tue, 21 Jul 2020 18:46:07 +0000 http://polariss.ca/?p=7945

Today IRCC announced a change to its interpretation of the work ‘Parent’ as it is used in the Citizenship Act. The Citizenship Act provides that a person is entitled to Canadian citizenship, no matter where in the world they were born if they have a Canadian parent.

What does it mean to have a Canadian parent?

  1. In the past IRCC understood a Canadian parent to be a biological parent of the child.
  2. In other words, if one of the child’s biological parents was a Canadian citizen the child would be entitled to Canadian citizenship.
  3. This entitlement would exist no matter where in the world the child was born and would exist for the child whether they ever actually claimed that citizenship or not.

What was the change?

  1. IRCC will now interpret having a Canadian parent as having a legal parent at birth who is a Canadian citizen – even if the legal parent at birth is not biologically related to the child.
  2. This means that Canadian legal parents will no longer need to sponsor children in this situation for Canadian Permanent Residence.

What is the difference between sponsoring your child, and the new rule?

Under the old system, non-biological parents would have needed to sponsor their child, rather than have them considered a citizen from birth.

  1. Sponsorship is a lengthier process – the child may have to wait longer for status.
  2. The sponsor must be present in Canada – if they are living outside of the country sponsorship would not be possible
  3. A sponsor might be disqualified for some other reason (not having anything to do with the child)
  4. Sponsorship results in the child obtaining permanent residency – they would need to apply for citizenship later

With the new change, a Canadian with a Canadian legal parent at birth would be entitled to citizenship.

  1. No sponsorship is necessary
  2. The child is a citizen no matter where they or their parents are living
  3. The child does not require a sponsoring parent, so the parent’s situation cannot affect the child’s status
  4. The entitlement to citizenship is life long, a child must be sponsored as a dependant, but a citizen can claim their citizenship as an adult – even if they never have before
  5. The child is a citizen, there is no period of permanent residency involved and no second application.

Who will be most affected by this change?

This change will be most significant for people who are considered to be the parents of their children at the time the child is born, but who are not biologically related to them.

This change will not affect adoptive parents since children are adopted after they are born, and it will not affect biological parents since they were already considered parents under the Citizenship Act.

The most common circumstances in which a non-biological parent would be legally a parent when the child is born is in situations of surrogacy, or other assisted reproductive techniques.

  1. Same-sex parents and their children will benefit from this change since only one (at most) of the two parents can be biologically related to the child. Under the new policy, both of the parents will be considered parents for the purpose of determining the child’s citizenship.
  2. Couples who have used a surrogate or other form of assisted reproduction in which one or both of the parents are not biologically related to the child will also benefit, as they will now be considered a parent for the purpose of determining the child’s citizenship.
]]> https://polariss.ca/ircc-changing-their-definition-of-parent-under-the-citizenship-act/feed/ 0 Do you think the Canadian Agri-Food Immigration Program is the right one for you? https://polariss.ca/standard-post/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=standard-post https://polariss.ca/standard-post/#respond Tue, 19 May 2020 10:34:17 +0000 https://www.ekko-wp.com/?p=4261

Here’s all you need to know about it…

What is it:

The Agri-Food Immigration Pilot is a test pathway to permanent residence for permanent (non-seasonal) temporary foreign workers in certain occupations in agriculture and food processing. The goal of the program is to help Canadian food producers with what has been a chronic shortage of workers. The program was announced in 2019 but has just recently opened to applicants.

What are the requirements?

The program is open to applicants with job offers in certain eligible industries and occupations. The eligible industries are:

  1. Meat production
  2. Livestock production
  3. Greenhouse production, including mushrooms

The eligible occupations are:

  1. Retail and Industrial butchers
  2. Farm supervisors and specialized livestock workers
  3. Food processing laborers
  4. General farmworkers
  5. Harvesting laborers.

For a job offer to qualify it must be in an eligible industry, and an eligible occupation.

In addition, the applicant must have:

  1. Language proficiency of at least CLB 4 in all categories
  2. A Canadian high school diploma, or assessed equivalent
  3. Sufficient funds to settle in Canada (the amount depends on family size, but is relatively minimal)
  4. At least one year of full-time work experience in an eligible industry and occupation, in Canada, while on an LMIA supported work permit (work experience obtained on an open work permit does not qualify)

Advantages:

  1. Low financial requirement and no net-worth verification
  2. Non-competitive, no points system or EOI process
  3. Fast, no accumulated processing backlog
  4. Low language requirement
  5. No residential restrictions except Quebec

Process analysis:

One real benefit of this program is a simple application procedure. It is a one step application, an applicant who meets the requirements can apply directly for PR, they do not have to be selected from a pool of applicants, nor do they undergo a multi-stage application procedure. During the processing of the application, the applicant will receive instructions to provide biometrics and to undergo a medical exam. The authorities have not yet published estimated processing time for this application pathway, as it is brand new.

The program does not, however, offer an independent pathway through which prospective applicants can find a job with an available LMIA, in order to gain the required work experience. Employers will need to obtain LMIAs in the usual way, and prospective applicants will need to find those employers, obtain a work permit, and accumulate experience as a temporary foreign worker before they can apply to this program

A brief comparison with the caregiver program:

This program could be compared with the caregiver pilots – really the only other industry-specific federal permanent residence program. Besides the fact that they are in different industries, there is one key difference between the programs, under the caregiver programs applicants can apply after they have a job offer, but before they get their work experience. Their potential employer is able to employ them without obtaining an LMIA and they are issued a work permit under the caregiver program. After working for two years on this occupation-specific work permit, they can apply for permanent residence using a similar process to the Agri-Food pilot. The difference is the Agri-Food pilot does not include a mechanism to bring workers to Canada to get the experience they need – they must do that independently using the existing temporary foreign worker system.

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