Statistics show a significant drop in the annual number of Chinese, Indians, Filipinos and Pakistanis applying for permanent residency between 2006 and 2011. Specifically, applications from China fell 45 percent; India by almost 51 percent; the Philippines by 32 percent; and Pakistan by 65 percent.

While the number of Canadian immigration applications did decrease overall for the top 10 source countries, the declines of the Asian countries were bigger than English or French-speaking countries. The top 10 source countries include the US, France, the UK, China, and India.

Additionally, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the number of immigration applications from the US has dropped by only 10 percent and applicants from France fell by 7 percent in 2011.

In recent years, Canada has been making significant changes to the immigration system by tightening language requirements, restricting eligibility to limited occupations in demand, and capping the amount of applications accepted each year. If you would like to see what occupations are still available for Canada’s Federal Skilled Worker Program, please check our updated report here.

“I really don’t care where people come from as long as they are able to succeed in Canada. I think more employers have the same attitude,” Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said. “One issue here is language proficiency. All of the data says the primary reason why foreign trained professionals are not hired in Canada is language proficiency, which is an indicator of people’s soft social skills.

Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in Canada. Please check our Canadian page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/canada.html

“Thousands of highly-skilled foreign nationals are working successfully in Canada on a temporary basis,” said Kenney. “Expediting their transition to permanent residence would help Canada retain bright and talented people who already have Canadian work experience and the ability to communicate in English or French. In many cases, they already have a job lined up. Such newcomers are set for success.”

In order to respond to Canada’s growing skill shortages, the department announced they will reduce the work experience requirement for eligible temporary foreign workers applying for permanent residency. Under the current rules, applicants applying for permanent residency under the temporary foreign worker stream of the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) must have spent at least 24 months in full-time job within the last 36 months. Under the proposed changes, the requirement would be reduced to only 12 months of work experience.

These changes follow the department’s recent announcement to make Canada’s immigration system more efficient while focusing on jobs and growth.

“The CEC is a key part of our plan for the future of immigration in Canada, and so it is gratifying to see the dramatic growth in the program since its inception,” said Kenney.

The CEC is a program for temporary foreign workers or foreign students who graduated in Canada to become permanent residents. Currently, in order to be eligible applicants must:

• plan to live outside the province of Quebec.
• be either: a temporary foreign worker with at least two years of full-time skilled work experience in Canada, or a foreign graduate from a Canadian post-secondary institution with at least one year of full-time skilled work experience in Canada.
• have gained your experience in Canada with the proper work or study authorization.
• apply while working in Canada or within one year of leaving your job in Canada.
• include the results of an independent language test with your application.

In 2011, around 6,000 immigrants were accepted into the CEC, a 50% increase from 2010.

Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in Canada. Please visit our Canadian page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/canada.html

Currently, only 50 percent of overseas-born engineers working in Australia are working in their field of expertise, compared to 63 percent of Australian-born engineers, according to Engineers Australia statistics. In 2010 there were around 9,000 foreign-born engineers in Australia, of which about 2,500 are on Australian temporary visas under the General Skilled Migration Program (GSM).

“The key issue people from overseas have is understanding the Australian workplace – what they might expect in the Australian workforce and how best to fit in,” said Catherine Chaffey, general manager of Navitas Workforce Solutions.

The program will be available for up to 20 engineers every couple of months. The first course, which ran in Perth in January, had participants from China, Iraq, Pakistan, Columbia, India, the Philippines and the UK. The program is open to all qualified overseas-trained engineers with work rights in Australia including those with permanent residency.

Chaffey said Navitas would consider extending the program to engineers and other occupations elsewhere in Australia so long as there was local demand. She added that Navitas had delivered its professional year programs to over 3000 students, with over 70 percent employed in their fields within six months of completion.

If you would like to apply for an Australian visa and are a qualified engineer you can apply under Australia’s GSM program. GSM is for professionals and other skilled migrants who have skills in particular occupations required in Australia and who are not sponsored by an employer. Australian Immigration uses a Skilled Occupation List (SOL) as part of their points system. In order to qualify for skilled migration to Australia, you must nominate an occupation from the SOL.

The following are occupations listed on the SOL for Engineers:

• Engineering Manager
• Electrical engineer
• Mechanical engineer
• Civil Engineer
• Structural engineer
• and more

In order to qualify for one of these occupations, applicants must have a level of skill commensurate with a bachelor degree or higher. In some instances relevant experience and/or on-the-job training may be required in addition to the formal qualification. Registration or licensing may also be required.

Before emigrating to Australia as a skilled migrant you need to have your skills assessed by the relevant assessment authority for your occupation. For this occupation you will need to be assessed by Engineers Australia. They assess professional qualifications in engineering for the purposes of skilled migration to Australia.

Once you have your positive assessment letter from Engineers Australia, you can apply for the skilled migration visa electronically and count your assessment points in the points test in order to qualify for the visa.

Global Visa Support offers a variety of programs in Australia. Please visit our Australian page for more information: http://www.globalvisasupport.com/australia.html
 

“Too many live-in caregivers have completed their work obligations but must continue living in the home of their employer, waiting for their application for permanent residence to be reviewed,” said Kenney. “This is understandably frustrating. That’s why we have started issuing open work permits to live-in caregivers as soon as they have completed their obligations and submitted an application for permanent residence.”

Under the new procedures, a foreign caregiver can apply for permanent residence after 3,900 work hours, rather than after two years of work as a caregiver in Canada as required under the old system, ensuring overtime is appropriately recognized. The Live-in Caregiver Program allows Canadian families to hire workers from abroad to provide care to a child, an elderly person or an adult with disabilities when there is a demonstrated shortage of Canadians and permanent residents to fill available positions.

“The change I have announced today will help caregivers settle into their new life in Canada while they wait for their permanent resident applications to be processed,” Kenney added. “And with the significant improvements being made to our global case processing system, my department’s officers will be better able to manage the file load between Canada and missions abroad and improve the efficiency of that processing.”

In 2010, Canadian immigration admitted a record number of permanent residents through the Live-in Caregiver Class—nearly 14,000 in all— This is similar to the number of live-in caregivers who entered the country as temporary foreign workers in 2007.

The changes announced by Canadian immigration include:

• the elimination of the need for a second medical examination when the caregiver applies for permanent residence;
• increasing the amount of time a caregiver has to complete the required 3,900 hours for permanent residence from three years to four;
• the adoption of a standardized employment contract that ensures both parties agree to the salary, hours of work, vacation time, overtime, holidays, sick leave, and the terms of termination and resignation;
• defining the costs the employer is obliged to pay, including the caregiver’s travel expenses in coming to Canada, medical insurance, workplace safety insurance and third-party representative fees;
• emergency processing of work permits and employer authorizations to hire live-in caregivers who have been abused and need to leave their employment immediately; and
• an assessment of the genuineness of the job offer, as well as confirming the employer has sufficient financial resources to pay the wages of the caregiver and whether the accommodations being provided are adequate.

Global Visa Support offers several Canadian programs. Please visit our website for more information: http://globalvisasupport.com/canada.html

In 2012, Canadian immigration plans to accept 55,000–57,000 Federal Skilled Workers, which is up from 47,000–47,400 in 2011. The Canadian government stressed that these additional numbers will help meet market demand, as well as reduce the backlog of applicants for the skilled worker immigration program from previous years.

The Federal Skilled Worker Program is Canada’s most popular immigration route for immigrants to obtain permanent residency. Under this program, potential candidates are awarded points for their ability to adapt and contribute to Canada’s economic development. In order to be eligible you must either:

• have a job offer with an eligible employer;
• have been legally residing in Canada for at least one year as a temporary foreign worker or an international student; or

• be a skilled worker with at least one year of experience in one or more eligible Canadian skilled occupations within the last ten years.

In a recent speech, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney expressed his optimism about the program and about Canadian immigration, “The government’s number one priority remains the economy. We recognize the importance of immigration to our labour market and we value the contributions of skilled immigrants who add to our international competitiveness.”

Canadian immigration completed an extensive review of the Federal Skilled Worker Program in 2010, which seemed to suggest that the program was working well and was leading to the selection of immigrants who perform well economically. The report also found that 89 percent of Federal Skilled Workers were employed or self-employed three years after landing in Canada. This would appear to suggest a strong continuing need for skilled immigrants in Canada.

“CIC will continue to ramp up efforts to modernize our immigration system to make it more nimble and responsive to labour market needs,” said Kenney.

Global Visa Support will be happy to assist you with your application for Canada.

According to the press release by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Canada’s Experience Visa, created in 2008, is one of Canada’s most recent programs aimed at ensuring Canada retains a skilled work force “and motivated individuals who have demonstrated a strong work ethic, have an ability to contribute to the economy, and will easily integrate into Canadian life”.

In order to be eligible for the visa class, applicants must be either: a temporary foreign worker with at least two years of full-time skilled work experience in Canada, or a foreign graduate from a Canadian post-secondary institution with at least one year of full-time skilled work experience in Canada. Applicants must be fluent in English or French and apply while working in Canada or within one year of leaving their job in Canada.

Before the program was created, highly skilled foreigners could not become permanent residents from within Canada. “We’d tell them to leave the country because their temporary foreign work permit or student visa had expired” after they’d completed two years of contract work here or obtained a degree at a Canadian university,” Kenney recalled.

Kenney expects the number of candidates for Canada’s Experience Visa to rise to 7,000 in 2012, up from 2,545 in 2009. Last week, Canada welcomed its 10,000th permanent resident who came in through this stream since its inception in 2008. It is currently Canada’s fastest-growing immigration program.

Canada has continued to admit an average of 254,000 immigrants each year.

“We’re maintaining the highest per capita levels of total immigration in the developed world, with, I think, the sole exception of New Zealand,” said Kenney.

“The CEC and the PhD initiative represent what we hope is the future of immigration to Canada: bright young people who have a Canadian education or work experience that will be recognized by Canadian employers, and who have strong English or French language skills,” said Kenney. “Such newcomers are set for success.”
Global Visa Support can help you to enter Canada under our Canada: Study-Migrate program.

A K1 visa is generally applied for a fiancé visa which is non immigrant visa but it allows the person to enter into the country to marry. After marring each other, an application is made for the status for permanent residence. Obtaining the K1 visa i.e. the fiancé visa is a multi – step process. Firstly the citizen of any country files a formal written request for his permanent residency and immigration services. Once that approval is received by the local Government, the foreign fiancé will file a case and will give an additional documentation to the local embassy, take all the medical exams and the visa interviews for the same.

This service is forwarded to the National Visa centre for processing and then after approval is collected by beneficiary’s embassy. Fiancé visa is generally issued for the period of six months and is issued for the purpose of travelling in order to get married. People who wanted to apply for this type of immigration service must be 21 years of age or above, and the partner should also be permanently and well settled there. And only after the marriage the partner can go for the permanent residence there.

Today there is high anxiety level regarding the Fiance Visas. Many of the people find this way better and the easiest one in order to get settled in any of the foreign country. One can also contact the immigration experts for these visas. The petitions filed for these types of visas are quickly and accurately solved.    

In order to achieve this goal, a Green Card or a permanent residency will be right away available to any foreign student having an advanced degree from any U.S. college/institute of higher education. Vocational student are mostly in a field of technology, science, industrial, or mathematics. India has the most number of students in these fields. They have an offer of service from a U.S. employer in a field associated to their degree after they graduate.

There is a lot of foreign immigration which are illegal although they are highly motivated and experienced worker. They are asset to the American company. The new regulation proposes to limit the present family-based immigration system that a lot of Indians prefer to join their families who live and has an occupation in the US. Simultaneously, they have planning to tighten of rules for H1B and L1 visas, which are the two most well-liked among Indian skill professionals.

Skilled labour is a must for expansion of any country.  India has a lot of skilled workers. Most people want to stay in US because of superior opportunities and extra income. For the permanent settlement for Indians in US, there is a need to get a permanent ticket to be in US permanently. This ticket is known as green card. They are recognized by the employers in US.

President Barack Obama has also called for a complete immigration modification and recognized this as one of his top priorities to the country benefits. This is to prevent the loss of American jobs to illegal foreign labour workers.

Here we will focus on first type of settlement that is the sponsorship by a family member.

The following is the whole process to get a sponsorship:

1. The sponsor must be a U.S citizen or a lawful permanent resident of U.S and can provide document to prove the status of relationship and background.
2. The family member must be a close one and the allowed sponsors can be: Spouse, Unmarried child under 21 years old, unmarried son or daughter over 21 years old, married son or daughter of any age, brother or sister or mother or father if the sponsor is at least 21 years old.
3. The sponsor must be completely willing and he has to file a petition filling up an I-130 form.
4. The sponsor must be capable of supporting the family members and can provide resources that will bring the whole family 125% above the poverty line.
5. After this I-485 is filled this is the final step to get green card.

To get a sponsorship and green card from the sponsorship of the employer:

1. Employer must determine that the person is eligible for lawful permanent residency.
2. A labour certificate must be issued mentioning that no skilful labour is available in US for the same purpose so labour has to be hired globally.
3. If the labour certificate is issued than the petitioner can file I-140 form along with I-485 form which is the ultimate step to get a green card.
4. Immigrant visa number is issued and priority date is checked.
5. If priority is current then the resident in US can change his status to lawful permanent resident or if he is abroad then he files for immigration in embassy.