Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) recently announced they are consulting with relevant stakeholders about changing various aspects of the Federal Skilled Worker Program. CIC is considering changing the number of points awarded in three of the six selection factors. CIC is also proposing changes to educational requirements and stricter rules for assessing the validity of Canadian job offers. According to CIC, these suggested changes are meant to reflect the current needs of the Canadian economy and enable immigrants to better integrate into the Canadian economy.

Points Changes in Selection Factors
Applicants will still be required to attain at least 67 points out of 100, in addition to meeting eligibility requirements, in order to qualify for the Federal Skilled Worker Program. CIC is proposing to change the maximum number of points applicants can receive in the following three selection factors: language, age, and work experience. Currently, applicants can receive a maximum of 24 points for their first and second official Canadian language, a maximum of 10 points for age if an applicant is between the ages of 21 and 49, and a maximum of 21 points for paid skilled work experience within the past 10 years.

i. Language
One proposed change would increase the number of points applicants can receive for a first official Canadian language (English or French) to 20 points, rather than the current 16. CIC is also considering establishing minimum language requirements for certain occupational skill levels. A higher minimum language requirement would be required for applicants with work experience in professional occupations, such as doctors, nurses, and engineers. Applicants with work experience in skilled trades would have a lower minimum language requirement.

ii. Age
CIC is proposing to increase the number of points in the age factor from 10 to a maximum of 12 points. Rather than maximum points being awarded until age 49, the suggested change will only allow applicants to gain maximum age points until the age of 35.

iii. Work Experience
CIC is proposing to lower the maximum points for work experience from 21 to 15 points and increase the years of experience required to obtain maximum points. CIC has noted that foreign work experience is not a strong indicator of success in the Canadian labour market and the additional points would be more beneficial in the language and age factor.

Other proposed changes
In order to make the Federal Skilled Worker Program more accessible to applicants with trade skills, CIC is proposing to reduce the number of years associated with education for those with a trade or non-university certificate. Currently, applicants who have a one year trade diploma must have also completed 13 years of full-time education in order to claim maximum points for that diploma under the education factor. Applicants who have a two year trade diploma must have completed 14 years and those with a three year trade diploma must have completed 15 years of education. If the proposed change is accepted, applicants with trade diplomas would be able to claim maximum points for their education with fewer years of full-time education.

CIC is also considering requiring applicants to prove their credentials are recognized by the appropriate Canadian authorities if their profession is regulated in Canada. For example, engineering is a regulated profession in Canada. Under the proposed change, any applicant who has work experience as an engineer would be required to have their credentials recognized by a Canadian professional licensing body before they submit their application for Canadian permanent residency.

Finally, CIC is proposing to establish clearer regulations for assessing employers and assessing whether a job offer is genuine. The Arranged Employment factor is an important aspect of the Federal Skilled Worker Program and CIC has noted that applicants who have Arranged Employment fare better upon arrival in Canada compared to those who do not have Arranged Employment. There have been numerous cases of fraudulent job offers from employers looking to exploit immigrants for money. With clearer guidelines for assessing job offers and employers, CIC is hoping to deter potential fraud.

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

There are many standard ways to apply for the work permit in any of the country and they are as following:

1. The training and the work experience arrangements.
2. Student internships.
3. GATS.
4. The business and commercial arrangements.
5. The sports people and entertainers arrangements.
6. The sectors based scheme.

Each of these processes requires its own different applications and the job offer from the employer in that country only. Some of the countries provide the work permit only to the people who are attached to the categories of arrangements above whilst they reject the other ones.

The work permit systems in some of the countries are replaced by the new points based immigration systems. In some of the smaller countries the work permit is managed by the Ministry of Manpower that has introduced an internet platform for work permit transactions. With the internet portal, the ministry is able to process many of the work permit applications within one working day alone.

In some of the countries for the permission of work it has been taken into account many of the things like skills (including all the education), work experience if ever in any other country had performed, and importantly the type of the job applied for. Some of the people have also been restricted for the duration of the time they are permitted to work as well as it depends on the type of the job. Usually high school students are offered the jobs for timings.

The Green Card Lottery for immigrating to the United States is supposed to start soon. Yes, starting 2^nd October the applications for the lottery would be accepted, under the diversity visa 2011 program. Popularly this scheme is also known as the Green Card Lottery by lots of people around the world.

For decades now the United States has been a destination of choice for millions of people for the purpose of immigration. They look for a better living standard in the United States and through this program the dream of a lot of people now would come true. Under the Green Card lottery program the immigrants would not require sponsors for themselves, who are already residents of the United States. The activity of accepting the applications for the Green Card lottery would last for approximately 2 months and post that the same would be closed. The last date for submitting the application has been declared to be as the 30^th Nov 09.

There would be approximately 50000 visas that would be made available to people all over the world under the diversity visa 2011 program, to citizens of countries all over the world. The lucky people are to be chosen by a lucky draw. The people selected in this random selection procedure would get an opportunity to be a citizen of the United States come stay and work here. But this does not happen without having to fulfill any conditions.

The eligibility criteria which are mandatory, for any one to be eligible for the diversity visa 2011 program are.

1. The person should have a high school certificate or equivalent for the educational qualification.
2. Or with in the last 2 years the person should have atleast a work experience for a work type that would essentially require a two year training time.

The Unites States government would allow both the spouses to submit their applications which could be helpful in the procedure of making their chances better towards getting selected in the diversity visa 2011 program.

To apply for the diversity visa 2011 program otherwise known as the Green Card Lottery does not necessarily mean that you have to get in touch with a lawyer or an immigration agent, provided you are able to prepare the paperwork your self. Its extremely important that do prepare the paperwork correctly else your application would stand rejected in the lottery.

There are a couple of eligibility criteria for the program. These primarily circles around the education and previous work experience of the individual. About Education – The applicants would be required to have completed 12 years of education primary and secondary combined. And 2 years of work experience which should not be in more than the last five years. In some field it would need at least two years of training or experience to perform.

The application would happen online from the State Department’s website. An electronic application would be required to be filled in for the Diversity program visas. No mails or otherwise would be entertained.

There are some silent features of this online lottery that happens for the American green card lottery. First all the participants are placed on the same platform and there are absolutely no chances of partiality or favoritism to happen in this lottery.

Secondly there are no charges associated with this lottery from the US State Department website though. But there is some amount of nominal charges, which is applicable if tried to apply through the USAFIS organization website.

Free airline tickets would be provided to the winners of the program, to travel to the United States and stay there. Also the participants would be allowed to send their photos through normal mail. But the point to be noted here are, this feature is not available from if applied through the US State Department website. This is just a feature of the USAFIS organization website. But that does not mean that there would be discrimination done while choosing the winners.

In case you are from a country which does not appear in the list of eligible countries, then you can apply after acquiring a citizenship of a different country that is a part of the list.