The Canada-U.S. border will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least November 21 as the battle to contain the spread of coronavirus continues.  Public Safety Minister Bill Blair made the announcement in a tweet on Monday, October 19. The closure had been due to expire on October 21, with the extension widely expected. “We are extending non-essential travel restrictions with...

South Korea slipped to the number 12 most important source of new Canadian permanent residents during the first six months of 2020, ousted from its spot as one of the top 10. COVID-19 and the international travel restrictions that came with it greatly reduced the number of South Koreans who were able to make Canada their permanent residence in the...

Ontario immigration has targeted six technology occupations with 772 Notifications of Interest in a new Tech Draw through the Express Entry Human Capital Priorities stream. Candidates with Comprehensive Ranking System scores between 462 and 470, were issued with NOIs in the October 15 Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) draw. They need to have submitted Express Entry profiles between October 15, 2019...

The Canada-U.S. border is likely to remain closed beyond the current October 21 deadline due to coronavirus concerns, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested this week. Trudeau said this week that as long as cases remain high in the U.S., the border would remain closed. “We have committed to keeping Canadians safe and we keep extending the border closures because the States...

British Columbia immigration excluded certain occupations due to coronavirus restrictions as it issued 417 invitations to apply in a new provincial draw. The October 13 draw saw British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program officials exclude 31 occupations where a high-volume of applicants have recently been approved. Read More British Columbia Targets 72 Tech Worker in New Provincial Draw British Columbia Invites 450, Excludes 31...

Tech firms in Canada are the likely beneficiaries of U.S. President Donald Trump’s clampdown on the H-1B visa widely used by Silicon Valley companies to bring in highly-skilled immigrants, say industry watchers. The new limits published in the Federal Register, the daily journal of the American government, are intended to stop tech giants from using H-1B workers as cheap labour...

The recovery seen in the aftermath of the first wave of coronavirus stuttered for a second consecutive month in August, as Canada immigration numbers dropped again. The latest federal government figures show 11,315 new permanent residents were admitted in August, down from 13,675 in September, a drop of more than 17 percent. The figure is also significantly down on August 2019,...

The 100th draw in the history of the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program saw 191 Letters of Advice to Apply issued to skilled workers and international graduates. The October 8 draw saw LAAs issued through three MPNP streams. Skilled Workers in Manitoba received 152 LAAs, with the lowest-ranked candidates scoring 528 points. International Education Stream candidates received 25 LAAs. The remaining 14 LAAs went...

Canada added 378,000 jobs in September, with unemployment dropping to 9 per cent in further encouraging signs of recovery from the coronavirus crisis. The Canada jobs Labour Force Survey unemployment figure is now almost 5 percentage points down on the peak of 13.7 per cent in May, with the country in the grip of the pandemic. September’s gains put Canada with...

Even during the COVID-19 global pandemic, Syria remains one of the most important sources of new Canadian permanent residents. In the first half of this year, the Middle Eastern country dropped from the seventh to the ninth spot in the rankings of the most important sources of new Canadian permanent residents by country of citizenship.  The uptick in Syrians becoming permanent...