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Job bank to fast-track skilled immigrants - 0 views

www.edmontonjournal.com/...story.html work immigrants alberta tfw government canada
shared by Omar Yaqub on 09 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • federal government plans to create a global job bank to bring in more skilled foreign workers, while using a new technique to end the "bizarre" situation where low-skilled temporary foreign workers are hired in Canadian communities with double-digit unemployment, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Friday.
  • at least two years to implement, according to Kenney.
  • Every application from a prospective skilled foreign worker will go into an online pool, and provincial governments and employers will have the ability to cherry-pick potential employees who will have their applications fast-tracked.
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  • Thursday's budget includes the promise of stricter provisions requiring employers to show they've made clear to local people making Employment Insurance benefit claims that there are jobs available.
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http://employment.alberta.ca/documents/tfw-annexb-occ-sp-steam-pipe.pdf - 0 views

employment.alberta.ca/...w-annexb-occ-sp-steam-pipe.pdf work immigrants alberta tfw
shared by Omar Yaqub on 09 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Omar Yaqub on 09 Apr 12
     
    Canada-Alberta Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Annex Pilot on Occupation Specific Work Permits   Steamfitter-Pipefitter Background The TFW Annex is an addition to the Agreement for Canada-Alberta Cooperation on  Immigration. The Annex includes an agreement to implement a number of pilots.  One of the pilots allows Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to issue an  occupation-specific work permit for TFWs working in Alberta in the steamfitterpipefitter trade (NOC 7252). Initially, this permit allows TFWs to be employed for up  to one year by one employer or a Group of Employers recognized by CIC and  Human Resources and Skill Development Canada while working toward trade  certification.  Once certified, foreign workers can apply for a two-year open work permit, allowing  them to move between employers without the employer applying for a labour market  opinion. Eligibility Steamfitter-pipefitter is a compulsory trade in Alberta.  To work in this occupation,  TFWs need a job offer from an employer and an approval letter from Alberta  Apprenticeship and Industry Training (AIT) for the Qualification Certificate Program  before they come to Alberta. More information on the AIT certification requirements  to work in a trade in Alberta can be found at www.tradesecrets.alberta.ca.  For applicants who are not currently trade certified, work permits will be issued for  one year allowing the foreign worker time to become certified under the Qualification  Certificate Program. Once certified, CIC will issue an open work permit for an  additional two-year period.  TFWs currently certified and working in the steamfitter-pipefitter trade in Alberta are  eligible to apply for the two-year open work permit before the expiry of their current  work permit. The job letter from the employer must indicate a wage that is consistent with the  prevailing wage paid to Canadians in the same occupation in Alberta and that the  working conditions for the occupation meet
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Operational Bulletin 279-B - May 31, 2011 - 0 views

www.cic.gc.ca/...ob279B.asp work immigrants alberta tfw
shared by Omar Yaqub on 05 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Foreign nationals who are entering Canada and destined to Alberta as TFWs, and who have an initial job offer from an Alberta employer (or an Alberta employer making a job offer on behalf of a recognized Group of Employers (GoE) under the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)-Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) GoE Pilot in the Steamfitter-Pipefitter occupation—National Occupational Classification 7252; or, TFWs certified and currently working in the steamfitter/pipefitter trade in Alberta.
  • Steamfitter-Pipefitter is a compulsory trade in Alberta. Therefore, the uncertified TFW must have an approved application and an approval letter from Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training (AAIT) for the Qualification Certification Program prior to arrival in Canada (see sample in Appendix A). Information related to the Qualification Certificate Program can be found at www.tradesecrets.alberta.ca.
  • A one-year employer-specific WP, specific to the Steamfitter-Pipefitter occupation and based on a job offer from a named employer, or an employer making a job offer on behalf of a recognized GoE under the CIC-HRSDC GoE Pilot, may be granted to a foreign national as described above upon application (including payment of the appropriate fee) and without requiring an LMO.
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  • advise officers of a Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) pilot project effective in the Province of Alberta, allowing foreign nationals coming to Canada to work temporarily in a specific occupation and to be issued a Work Permit (WP) without requiring a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) from Service Canada
  • LMO Exemption Code is T13 in conjunction with R204(c) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations—“an agreement entered into by the Minister with a province or group of provinces under subsection 8(1) of the Act”. This code must be used on the initial one-year WP and the subsequent two-year open WP.
  • oth the initial WP and the subsequent open WP should indicate in the “Province” field and in the printed “Conditions” that it is only valid for work performed in the province of Alberta and in the Steamfitter-Pipefitter occupation.
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Backgrounder - Transitioning to the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Counci... - 0 views

www.cic.gc.ca/...2011-06-28.asp
shared by Omar Yaqub on 26 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Omar Yaqub on 26 Mar 12
     
    Minister will be enacting regulations designating the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC) as the regulator of immigration consultants
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I was turned down for a passport due to past child support. What can I do? - 0 views

www.us-passport-service-guide.com/ild-support-what-can-i-do.html immigrants
shared by Omar Yaqub on 26 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • U.S. citizens who are in arrears of child support in the amount of $2500 or more are not eligible for a passport.
  • the only way to travel to Canada and return to the U.S. is if you have a valid passport. The only way to get a passport is to make arrangement to pay the back child support.
  • Omar Yaqub on 26 Mar 12
     
    U.S. citizens who are in arrears of child support in the amount of $2500 or more are not eligible for a passport.
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Can you travel to Canada when you owe child support - 0 views

wiki.answers.com/...ada_when_you_owe_child_support immigrants
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  • Omar Yaqub on 26 Mar 12
     
    Can you travel to Canada when you owe child support? In: Child Support [Edit categories] Answer:   Improve Just a guess but how would the border agents ever know? They have never asked me about that, and I've been back and forth a lot. Travel to Canada now requires a passport, and passports can be revoked/suspended for failure to pay child support.
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Guide 5289 - Spouse or Common-Law Partner in Canada Class - 0 views

www.cic.gc.ca/...5289ETOC.asp immigrants
shared by Omar Yaqub on 26 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • during the five years before you submitted your sponsorship application, you failed to meet your obligations to pay support to your children or former spouse(s) and a judgment order was issued requiring you to fulfill your alimony obligations, but you have not yet reimbursed the amounts due;
  • Omar Yaqub on 26 Mar 12
     
    during the five years before you submitted your sponsorship application, you failed to meet your obligations to pay support to your children or former spouse(s) and a judgment order was issued requiring you to fulfill your alimony obligations, but you have not yet reimbursed the amounts due;
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Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program Attraction, Integration and Retention of Immigrant - 0 views

www.irpp.org/...IRPP_Study_no10.pdf work immigrants government policy
shared by Omar Yaqub on 20 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Omar Yaqub on 20 Mar 12
     
     Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program  Attraction, Integration and Retention of Immigrant
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Evaluation of the Provincial Nominee Program - 0 views

www.cic.gc.ca/...section3.asp work immigrants government policy
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  • Omar Yaqub on 20 Mar 12
     
    Evaluation of the Provincial Nominee Program
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Immigration program useful but flawed, Kenney says - Politics - CBC News - 0 views

www.cbc.ca/...-kenney-report-immigrants.html work immigrants
shared by Omar Yaqub on 16 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • report found that retention rates vary: the lowest is in Atlantic Canada at 56 per cent and the highest were in Alberta and British Columbia, both above 95 per cent.
  • there is inconsistent monitoring and evaluation of each province's program and no systematic way of collecting performance information. It also concludes that "there is a continued need for strong emphasis on program integrity as it pertains to fraud and misrepresentation."
  • federal government wants to see more "evidence-based" identification of labour shortage needs in the provinces, the report says in its recommendations section. It also wants clarification on the role of visa officers abroad and on the provinces themselves in detecting fraudulent applications and suggests more training is necessary to cut down on fraud.
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Manitoba leaking nominee workers - Member News - Community - The Canadian Tourism Human... - 0 views

cthrc.ca/...nitoba_leaking_nominee_workers work immigrants
shared by Omar Yaqub on 16 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Between 2005 and 2009, Manitoba received 13,089 immigrants through the provincial nominee program, nearly 40 per cent of the 33,722 nominee immigrants who landed in Canada in those years. Alberta, with 14 per cent, was a distant second.
  • Although immigration falls under federal jurisdiction, Ottawa has signed agreements to let provinces and territories establish criteria for, and seek out, immigrants to fill a province's specific economic needs. Manitoba was the first to sign such an agreement in 1996 and has been the most successful at using the program.
  • In Manitoba, where the provincial government has touted the nominee program as one of the saviours of the provincial economy, nominees are far more likely to be poor and working below their skill level than in other western provinces.
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  • Between 2000 and 2008, 82.6 per cent of Manitoba nominees remained in the province. That compared to 86 per cent in Saskatchewan, 95.6 per cent in Alberta and 96.4 per cent in British Columbia
  • Nominees who leave are most likely to move to Alberta, B.C. and Ontario
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IV. Evaluating the Nominee Programs: Institutional Design and Practice - 0 views

www.lco-cdo.org/rable-workers-baxter-sectionIV work immigrants
shared by Omar Yaqub on 15 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Alberta’s “semi-skilled” nominee stream for lower-skilled workers – a hodgepodge of narrow, sector-specific pathways – currently makes temporary foreign workers in the food and beverage processing, hotel and lodging, manufacturing, trucking, and foodservice sectors eligible for nomination.[
  • Employers and workers in these sectors follow a relatively complex application process.[xcii] First, employers specify the number of nominations they intend to make, and outline the job description and requirements, settlement and retention plans, and any sector-specific requirements to the provincial government. This process allocates a specific number of nominations to each employer directly, limiting the maximum number of nominations according to sector.[xciii] Once allocations are made, employers are eligible to select foreign workers who meet the basic education and worker experience requirements for nomination.
  • In Alberta, lower-skilled foreign workers must be employed with the nominating employer for a minimum period of six months before they are eligible for nomination. Other requirements for education and experience in workers’ home countries vary across sectors. After nominated workers have been approved as nominees by the province, they apply CIC for permanent residency status.
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  • process of allocating nominations to employers before they select individual nominees disadvantages workers in at least two ways. First, it further discourages workers from accessing existing employment protections such as minimum employment standards in the face of employer abuses, by giving employers sole discretion to “reward” workers with nominations. Given that these nominations represent a direct path to permanent residence status in Canada, they are obviously extremely valuable to workers. As Yessy Byl, the Alberta Federation of Labour’s Temporary Foreign Worker Advocate, points out, some employers “use this program as a further excuse to exploit workers who desperately want to immigrate.
  • Many dangle the possibility of nomination in the AINP to ensure acquiescence to unreasonable requests such as unpaid work, additional work, etc.”[xcvi] Second, by limiting the number of allocations made to each employer, this system is likely to increase competition among workers for nominations and may even discourage employers from participating in the nominee program altogether because they regard it as arbitrary and unfair.
  • MPNP requires employers to notify temporary foreign workers, within their initial six months of work, that the employer intends to nominate them through the MPNP. This requirement has the advantage of minimizing worker uncertainty about their future status while they are still ineligible for nomination under provincial requirements.
  • further reform might be for the province to remove the six-month work requirement, making foreign workers eligible for nomination as soon as they begin work in Canada. This would at least provide the opportunity to do away with the temporary “trial period”, during which workers are arguably most vulnerable. Such a reform, however, may also serve to increase employer control ever further and calls into question the overall legitimacy of a program that gives private actors such broad scope to nominate immigrants without even basic requirements to prove their bona fides. Realistically, these challenges point to the inherent inadequacy of the TFWPs as an entry point for permanent economic immigration through an employer-driven nominee program. Palliative reforms that fail to recognize underlying problems of regulatory devolution and resulting institutional mismatch are unlikely to generate the kinds of outcomes for vulnerable foreign workers that fairness and sound economic policy-making are likely to demand.
  • employer beliefs that individuals from certain countries of origin are better able to perform this or that job create racialized profiles within particular sectors and industries.
  • Left to the sole discretion of employers, the effects of nominee selection processes in this area will likely be to ossify and entrench aspects of race and gender discrimination as part of Canada’s economic immigration system.
  • Employers in Manitoba, for example, have been active both in lobbying for an expanded nominee program and in developing surrounding institutions and services. 
  • developed a network of services for foreign workers that have been widely hailed as successful innovations – at least in those workplaces and urban environments where workers are able to take advantage of them.
  • Alberta’s nominee program requires employers to provide workers with in-house language training services or to arrange for provision by a third party. Likewise, the AINP obligates employers in most streams to design an accommodation and settlement plan for nominees that “demonstrate employer support and assistance toward successful integration of the workforce, community and society integration.”[cvi] While these seemingly modest requirements may appear to be positive developments in the direction of improving workers’ security and likelihood of successful settlement, the implied trend is clearly toward the devolution of support services away from the provincial government and toward private actors, the effects of which remain largely unevaluated.
  • There are two specific criticisms directed at this aspect of regulatory devolution. One is that obliging employers to provide essential settlement services further skews barging power to the disadvantage of workers by enmeshing their personal and family lives even more closely with authoritative decision-making processes undertaken by their employers. Jenna Hennebry has pointed out that:
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VI. Lessons for Ontario (and Others) - 0 views

www.lco-cdo.org/rable-workers-baxter-sectionVI work immigrants
shared by Omar Yaqub on 15 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Employer-driven recruitment and nominee selection processes place serious limitations on the opportunities to address foreign workers’ employment-related insecurities through the PNPs
  • PNPs act less as a “response” to the problems of temporary status and more as a extension of existing trends
  • Manitoba have innovated significant legislative reforms and promoted third-party participation in order to correct some of these imbalances, Ontario should also consider alternative models for provincial economic immigration, with the overarching goal being to reduce employers’ reliance on TFWPs and to put decision-making power back into the public hands.
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  • In jurisdictions where PNPs are likely to remain employer-driven, provincial and federal governments should work together to ensure strong regulatory standards and to take the lead in settlement service provision
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III. Overview of the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs) - 0 views

www.lco-cdo.org/...able-workers-baxter-sectionIII work immigrants
shared by Omar Yaqub on 15 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • According to all PNP agreements signed to date, provincial governments hold exclusive authority to establish program criteria, nomination quotas, and administrative schemes, leaving the federal government with a limited role to monitor basic admissibility requirements under the IRPA and to negotiate evaluation processes for each provincial program. The language of the framework agreements indicates unequivocally that these programs are designed for the provinces to occupy maximum jurisdictional space.
  • At the level of program design, current PNP agreements enable the provinces to establish their own criteria for making nominations and to set target numbers for nominees from year to year.
  • Most provinces have created distinct sub-categories or streams in their PNPs based on skill level, family statues, or planned business development, and sometimes restrict these to specific industries and occupations.
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  • All existing PNP streams for lower-skilled workers require nominees to first become temporary workers admitted into the province through one of the federal TFWP streams and to work under a temporary permit for a minimum time period before they are eligible to apply as a nominee (6 and 9 months are common). Other program steams for higher-skilled workers allow nominees to be recruited form outside Canada and to arrive directly without first applying through the TFWPs.[lx]
  • A second common feature of PNPs is that they, like the TFWPs, are essentially employer-driven and thus reflect strongly the interests and demands of influential private actors.  Employers directly generate the demand for foreign workers, sometimes participate actively in developing specific PNPs, and invariably exert a high degree of practical control over nominee recruitment and selection processes.
  • PNPs to provide access to permanent immigrants whose employment skills are specifically selected to meet these labour requirements is clearly attractive to businesses. PNP immigration processes also tend to be much faster compared to those at the federal level, closing the sometimes-lengthy gap in time between the point at which employers identify labour needs and the point when workers are actually available to fill these positions. PNPs may also allow employers to bypass the federal LMO requirements under certain conditions, which is significant since employers have expressed some frustrations with the time and resources they need to devote to fulfill these requirements.[lxv]
  • [t]he PNP and the TFW Program are popular with some larger employers but often prove too costly for smaller ones to adopt.”[lxvi] Large businesses can more easily afford the significant administrative costs that can attach to recruiting, transporting, re-settling, and training nominees, such that the demands of these enterprises are most likely to dominate nominee programs
  • recent example, Maple Leaf Foods spent an estimated $7,000 per worker to employ individuals in their Brandon, Manitoba processing plant, bringing them to Canada initially through a TFWP and subsequently nominating them for permanent residency through the Manitoba PNP.[lxvii]
  • the federal-provincial agreements on immigration with Ontario and Alberta contain annexes that provide provincial governments and employers with greater flexibility in assessing labour market needs, without requiring input from HRSDC in the form of an LMO
  • Ontario and Alberta annexes explicitly recognize that pursuant to s. 204(c) of the IRPR, CIC is authorized to issue a temporary work permit without requiring a prospective employer to seek an LMO if requested to do so by the province
  • Under these sub-agreements, Ontario and Alberta agree to establish procedures and criteria to govern this authority, and to provide annual estimates of the number of temporary work permits issued by this route
  • A few critics of the TFWPs and PNPs in Canada have pointed out the overriding problem of employer control both in the policy-setting realm and in the actual workplace. Their criticisms raise concerns about effects on national immigration policy, on labour protection policies, on the realization of actual protections for vulnerable workers, or as some combination of these
  • [s]ome argue that letting employers choose who enters is against all the principles that have shaped Canada as an immigration country
  • Alboim and Maytree target the devolution of decision-making and program development from the federal government to the provinces and private interests, resulting in fragmentation of immigration priorities and procedures
  • Others have focused specifically on the fact the PNPs bind foreign workers closely to employers, exacerbating rather than relieving some of the real insecurities that figure prominently in the TFWPs
  • Some proponents of existing PNP models have countered that the problems associated with employer control over economic immigration are overstated and maintain that market-based incentives will effectively penalize abusive employers. These parties believe that economic immigrants will be attracted to responsible employers, such that employers will have adequate incentives to place voluntary restraints on formal and informal bargaining power.
  • But this argument rests on the dubious assumption that information about employer practices is readily available and that it will be accessible by temporary foreign workers – who, as discussed below, face significant barriers related to language, education, cultural, and access to support services. Without this information, so-called “reputation effects” are unlikely to place serious restraints on employers’ actions
  • Overall, it is generally clear that implicit standards of self-regulation fall well below what is necessary to protect workers, particularly in light of the broad employer discretion now inherent in existing PNP models. The main questions, taken up in the following section, are about what aspects of nominee program design premised on this discretion actually contribute to workers’ insecurities and about whether responses by governments and third-party actors can be considered sufficient to meet the resulting concerns.
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Provincial Nominee Programs Across Canada - 0 views

www.cnmag.ca/...nominee-programs-across-canada work immigrants
shared by Omar Yaqub on 12 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • In 2010, over 36,000 people entered Canada under the PNP. And in 2012, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) intends to welcome up to 45,000 people under the PNP. These totals include nominees, spouses and dependents. This is seven times more people than came to Canada under the PNP in 2004.
  • In the fall of 2010, the Council of Atlantic Premiers expressed concern that current federal immigration policies do not serve the present and future needs of the Atlantic provinces and they called on the federal government to remove the caps on PNP nomination certificates.
  • Nova Scotia wants to double immigration, and hopes to issue 1,500 certificates per year by 2020.
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  • Province of Manitoba disputed the original cap of 4,600 nominees. They successfully argued that the Manitoba PNP is critical to long term prosperity and population growth in Manitoba.
  • This resulted in over 15,000 nominees and their families moving to Manitoba in 2010. This accounted for 77 per cent of total immigrants to Manitoba. And Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety, Candice Hoeppner recently announced that the Canadian Government  would continue to grant Manitoba a record amount of space in 2012.
  • Alberta will also receive a record amount of space in Canada's Provincial Nominee Program in 2012.
  • Alberta's PNP has increased almost 20-fold since 2004 – when 400 people were admitted – to over 7,000 in 2010. 23 per cent of immigrants to Alberta in 2010 came through the Alberta PNP.
  • Ontario PNP allows for the nomination of up to 1000 permanent residents each year. If this number seems low, it is because the Province of Ontario receives by far the largest share of immigrants through the federal government's other immigration streams. As a result, the Ontario PNP has focused on helping people who are in the process of earning an advanced degree in Ontario to obtain permanent resident status which enables them to live and work in the province indefinitely. Foreign workers and business investors may also be eligible.
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Value Added Immigration: Lessons for the United States from Canada, Australia and the U... - 0 views

www.epi.org/...value-added-immigration work immigrants
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  • Omar Yaqub on 15 Mar 12
     
    ration usually will
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Expedited Labour Market Opinion Application - 0 views

www.crcentre.ca/...index.php work alberta immigrants
shared by Omar Yaqub on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Expedited Labour Market Opinion Application The Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) and Service Canada (SC) have put in place an Expedited Labour Market Opinion (E-LMO) pilot project to accelerate the application processing times for obtaining an LMO in Alberta (and British Columbia). Applications from employers who qualify to particiate in the E-LMO project will be processed approximately within five (5) business days.
  • There are 33 occupations that employers may apply for under the E-LMO program, examples of some are:Journeyman/Woman CarpentersConstruction LabourersJourneyman/Woman Crane OperatorsDelivery DriversElectrical and Electronics EngineersFood and Beverage ServersFood Counter AttendantsFood Service SupervisorsHeavy-duty Equipment MechanicsHotel Front Desk ClerksHotel and Hospitality Room AttendantsIndustrial ElectriciansIndustrial Meat CuttersMachinistsManufacturing and Processing LabourersRoofersSteamfitters, PipefittersWelders
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