Canada's
immigration New rules will make it easier for immigrants
to reunite with their parents and grandparents.
Joe Volpe, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
OTTAWA, April 18, 2005
The Honourable Joe Volpe, Minister of Citizenship
and Immigration, today announced a series of measures
aimed at improving service delivery and the efficiency
of Canadas immigration and citizenship programs.
Canadas immigration system is a model
for the world and todays measures allow us to
maintain and enhance our position. We will do this
by reducing application processing times for permanent
residents who want to become Canadian citizens and
sponsored parents and grandparents who want to be
reunited with their family in Canada. International
competition for talented international students is
fierce and todays announcement moves Canada
even further ahead, said Minister Volpe.Colleges
and universities have been lobbying for the changes,
in hopes to attract more international students.
Todays measures include an investment of $69
million over two years to restore, by 20072008,
processing times to an average of 12 months for a
grant of citizenship and four months for a proof of
citizenship.
- Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) is also
exempting citizenship applicants from undergoing language
ability and knowledge-of-Canada tests at 55 rather
than 60 years of age, while in no way reducing the
rigorous security screening requirements that all
applicants for Canadian citizenship must go through
before becoming citizens of Canada
- CIC is expanding two pilot initiatives for international
students to enhance the competitiveness of Canadas
education industry. The first will allow international
students across Canada to work off-campus while completing
their studies and the second will allow them to work
for a second year after graduation. This second initiative
will apply outside of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver
to help spread the benefits of immigration to more
regions in Canada. The Government of Canada is investing
$10 million a year for five years to support this
strategy.
Many clients currently download their applications
from the Internet and check on the progress of their
file on-line. CIC will be making further use of technology
to add more on-line services and to modernize other
internal processes within the Department.
The measures to speed up the processing of sponsorship
applications for parents and grandparents coming to
Canada as family class immigrants include tripling
the number of parents and grandparents who can immigrate
to Canada from 6,000 to 18,000 a year in 2005 and
in 2006. Also, the issuance of multiple-entry visitor
visas will be facilitated so that parents and grandparents
can visit their families in Canada while their applications
are in process. The Government of Canada will invest
$36 million a year for two years to cover the costs
of processing and integrating parents and grandparents.
The measures announced today demonstrate action on
commitments laid out by by Minister Volpe in his January
2005 six-point plan for addressing critical issues
in the citizenship and immigration programs.
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