Canada’s Start-Up Visa Program is an innovative opportunity for entrepreneurs from the around the world to get permanent residency status in Canada. Immigrant entrepreneurs who want to launch a cutting edge business in Canada will need the support of participating Canadian investors. To apply for permanent resident status, the foreign entrepreneur must first secure a significant investment commitment from a designated Canadian angel investor group or venture capital fund. Applicants must also demonstrate language proficiency skills at a Canadian Language Benchmark 5 in listening, speaking, reading and writing, and have at least one year of education at a post-secondary institution. The Start-Up Visa Program is a pilot program that will run for five years.

Fore more information, please click here and here.

Bhutanese refugees have been living in seven camps in eastern Nepal since the early 1990s. Canada, along with Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the United States, and the United Kingdom are resettling these refugees. To date, 5,000 Bhutanese refugees have already resettled in Canada. The additional 1,000 refugees will be selected over two years.

For more information, please click here.

The backlog of permanent resident applications has been reduced by forty percent as a result of the actions taken by the Government of Canada since 2008. In part, this has been accomplished by continuing to process a high number of applications from parents and grandparents from the Family Class while a temporary pause on new applications remains in effect until the end of 2013. A pause was also put in place on new Immigrant Investor applications and the oldest Federal Skilled Worker applications were eliminated.

For more information, please click here.

The second Canada-Australia Roundtable on Foreign Qualification Recognition was held in Vancouver on March 20-22, 2013. The roundtable brought together approximately 70 Canadians and Australians representing various professional and regulatory bodies to discuss current issues, best practices, etc. During the event, two Mutual Recognition Agreements were re-signed between Engineers Canada and Certified General Accountants Canada, and their Australian counterparts. A Mutual Recognition Agreement is a cross-border and cross-sectoral agreement between regulators to mutually recognize each other’s qualifications.

For more information, please click here.

In recent years, the Government of Canada has implemented a number of reforms to protect the integrity of Canada’s immigration system. These reforms include cracking down on unscrupulous immigration consultants, deterring marriages of convenience, combating residency fraud, and strengthening aspects of the International Student Program.

For more information, please click here.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada presented the first international Qualifications Network (IQN) Awards to 14 innovators of foreign credential recognition programs. The IQN is an online forum where employers, regulatory bodies, governments, and immigrant-serving organizations can share best practices in foreign credential assessment and recognition.

In 2007, the Government also established the Foreign Credentials Referral Office (FCRO) to provide internationally trained persons the information and services for credential assessment.

In 2009, the Government also began to develop the Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications, which offers foreign trained professionals in priority occupations a credentials assessment within one year.

In 2011, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) introduced the Foreign Credential (FCR) Loans Pilot, which helps international trained persons offset the costs of the foreign credential recognition process.

Recently, the Government has also expanded the Federal Internship for Newcomers Program (FINP) to include private sectors companies.

For more information, please click here.

Angelo Persichilli has been appointed citizenship judge for the Greater Toronto area. Citizenship judges are responsible for making decisions on citizenship applications, presiding over citizenship ceremonies and administering the oath of citizenship to new citizens. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Persichilli was a journalist in both ethnic and mainstream media. He was also the Director of Communications to the Prime Minister from September 2011 to April 2012.

For more information, please click here.

Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney is the first Canadian Minister to visit Iraq since 1976. Minister Kenney met with numerous officials to discuss bilateral trade issues, migration management, political developments in Iraq, the situation in Syria, and minority rights. Following the initiation of military conflict in 2003, Canada was among the first countries to provide humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Iraq. Through Canada’s refugee resettlement efforts over 12,000 Iraqis have been resettled in Canada over the past five years.

For more information, please click here.

There have been more than 15,000 Parent and Grandparent Super Visas issued since the program’s launch in 2011. The Super Visa is a multiple entry visa that is valid for up to ten years. It allows parents and grandparents to visit Canada for up to two years at a time. There are over 1,000 Super Visas issued monthly with approval rates as high as 86 percent.

For more information, please click here.

Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney concluded a visit to Ukraine, which focused on bilateral relations, immigration, holocaust remembrance and religious freedom. Minister Kenney announced that Canada is investing in two new projects in Ukraine, namely the “Strengthening Media Freedom” project that is meant to strengthen freedom of expression, freedom of information and free media in Ukraine, and the second project will strengthen Ukraine’s judicial system to better facilitate economic growth.

For more information, please click here.