Category Archives: News & Updates

In a press conference earlier today, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced two separate new immigration pilots – one for rural communities and another for francophone minority communities across Canada – while adding that the existing Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) will transition into a permanent program. In a press conference today, Immigration […]

British Columbia’s provincial attestation letter (PAL) system is effective as of today, March 4, 2024. International students must submit a PAL with their study permit application to prove that they have been accepted by a Designated Learning Institution (DLI) within the limits of its allocation. The B.C. government says the provincial government issues PALs to […]

Foreign nationals seeking permanent residence (PR) in Canada often look for the fastest pathway to achieving their goal and starting a new life in this country. On a basic level, Canada has four primary immigration classes: economic immigration, family-class sponsorship, humanitarian/compassionate immigration and immigration for refugees/protected persons. However, within those four general classifications, Immigration, Refugees […]

As of February 15, the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP) has temporarily paused processing applications for the Alberta Opportunity Stream until further notice. The AAIP says the pause will give the province time to “address its current inventory and focus its limited immigration nominations on priorities, such as filling labour shortages in healthcare, technology, construction, […]

Statistics Canada has released data on provincial retention rates for newcomers both one year and five years after they arrive in Canada. Overall, the report found that immigrant retention rates were on the rise in Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador) while retention rates in the prairie provinces […]

Although the term “family reunification” encompasses many groups (spouses, common-law partners, children, parents etc.), a big part of Canada’s family-class immigration is focused on the sponsorship of spouses and partners by Canadian citizens and permanent residents (PRs). In fact, family-class pathways are Canada’s second most popular method of immigrating after economic immigration. This is solidified […]

Family sponsorship is one of the largest categories of immigrants set forth by Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in the annual immigration levels plan. While this form of sponsorship allows Canadian citizens and permanent residents (and persons registered in Canada as an Indian under the Canadian Indian Act) to sponsor loved ones to immigrate […]

Starting today, international students studying in master’s programs that are less than two years in length, are eligible for a three-year post-graduation work permit (PGWP). Before today, the length of an issued PGWP was correlated with the length of a program of study. However, in recognition that master’s students are placed to perform well in […]

Following Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC’s) announcement on the 22nd of January, the department has also set a cap on the number of study permit applications it will consider in 2024. According to ministerial instructions released by IRCC, the department will consider a maximum of 606,250 study permit applications in 2024. This cap is […]

On January 22nd, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced it is implementing changes to stabilize growth and decrease the number of international study permits for international students in 2024. To better align the Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) with these changes, IRCC announced updates to the programs’ eligibility criteria. In particular, starting in September 2024, […]