The April 3 draw saw the minimum Comprehensive Ranking System score drop by a point to 451 compared to the previous draw.
A tie-breaking cut-off date of January 9, 2019 at just before 3.35am EST was used for the draw. If more than one profile has the same score, the date the profile was submitted is used to decide which receives an ITA.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada have now issued ITAs to 24,550 candidates in 2019, against a high-skilled immigration intake target of 81,400.
Canada’s immigration ministry broke the record for annual Express Entry ITAs in 2018 with 89,800.
Nearly two-thirds of Canadians want to see a change in the Canadian citizenship law to discourage birth tourism, according to a new poll.
The Angus Reid Institute survey saw 64 percent of respondents say babies born on Canadian soil should not automatically get citizenship, as is currently the case.
As many as 60 percent supported a change in the citizenship law to discourage expecting parents from deliberately coming to Canada to give birth.
However, more than half of respondents still said the policy of birthright citizenship is a good one.
The poll found older people were more likely to see birth tourism as a problem.
The latest figures show Canadian birth tourism numbers could be much higher than official figures suggest.
A study released in November 2018 by Policy Options author Andrew Griffith found that while Statistics Canada reported 313 births to mothers residing outside Canada in 2016, the actual number could be more than five times greater.
“The impact of this practice can no longer be described as insignificant given its effect on the integrity of citizenship and public perceptions that birth tourism is a fraudulent shortcut to obtaining citizenship,” Griffith wrote.
The discrepancy came to light when non-resident birth figures produced by a single health facility – Richmond Hospital in British Columbia – exceeded the officially reported numbers for the whole of Canada.
Griffith used numbers from the from the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) of the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), which showed there were 3,223 non-resident births in Canada in 2016.
This figure is not representative of birth tourism alone, as it also includes other temporary residents (including corporate transferees and international students) and Canadian expatriates returning to give birth. The total also does not include Quebec, which refused to release the information.
But it does show birth tourism is not only a bigger problem than first thought, it is also a growing problem.
Griffith’s DAD figures show an increase from 1,354 non-resident births in 2010 to 3,628 in 2017.
In 2017, non-resident births accounted for 1.2 percent of all births in Canada.
But why such a large difference between official data and the DAD figures? Griffith writes: “The likely explanation for the discrepancy between hospital financial data and vital statistics agency data is that birth tourists use their real addresses for hospital payments but their temporary Canadian addresses on birth registration forms.”
Griffith offers three potential solutions to help tackle the issue:
1) Make birth tourism grounds for visitor visa refusal
Griffith suggests introducing a question about intent to give birth on the visitor visa form, with visa officers given the power to request a pregnancy test in high-risk cases.
A woman who has not declared her pregnancy could be found guilty of immigration fraud, with the child’s citizenships subsequently obtained fraudulently.
While the approach would create a deterrent, it would be difficult to enforce, Griffith says.
2) Qualified birthright citizenship
Canada could copy Australia’s 2017 move to change its citizenship act to introduce qualified birthright citizenship. This would mean a person born in Canada only gets citizenship “if the parent is either a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident and if the child has lived in Canada for 10 years after birth.”
The downside to this approach would be costly changes to the way births are registered, with parental pictures and proof of residence currently not required.
3) Regulatory and financial approaches
Griffith suggests taking financial action against non-residents who give birth in Canada. “While financial measures do not address objections to birth tourism in principle, they could discourage some birth tourism and would address the cases where birth tourists are not paying their hospital bills,” he writes.
The Canadian passport is the sixth most powerful in the world, allowing holders to travel to 184 countries without a pre-arranged visa.
Canada sits alongside the UK, Belgium, Greece and Ireland in sixth spot on a list headed by the passports of Asian giants Japan, Singapore and South Korea, which boast visa-free travel to 189 destinations.
The so-called ‘power’ of a country’s passport is indicative of its standing among the largest and most developed nations in the world.
Canada regularly features among the countries with the world’s most powerful passports. Visa-free access is seen as a measurement of the freedom of citizens of a certain country.
In the last two years, Canada has added Mexicans, Romanians and Bulgarians to the list of nationalities it allows to enter the country without a pre-arranged visa.
When flying into Canada, holders of visa-exempt passports are required to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorization in advance of their travel.
In 2018, Canada’s federal government made important changes to passport rules with the aim of protecting children under 16 and preventing the document being misused.
Changes include giving power to the Canada immigration minister to issue without the need for an application, or refuse to issue, a passport to a child, if they believe it is in the child’s best interest.
The minister can also cancel a child’s passport if they believe it is in the child’s best interest.
Under the changes, the minister is also given the power to refuse to issue a passport if they believe it will be used by someone other than the bearer.
Gender Neutrality
These changes come after the federal government implemented gender neutrality on passports and other immigration documents in August 2017.
Those who do not identify as male or female can now indicate their gender with an ‘X’.
The move comes after the Canadian Human Rights Act was amended to add gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination.
The Canadian government says it will work towards a ‘consistent federal approach’ when it comes to gender neutrality.
Rules for Dual Citizens
Dual citizens must make sure they are aware of Canada’s passport rules.
Following the introduction of the eTA in 2016, dual citizens now require a Canadian passport to fly into the country.
When the new rule was introduced, Canadian missions all over the world were inundated with Canadian passport requests. Previously, dual citizens could use the passport of their other country of citizenship.
The eTA rules forced thousands of dual citizens to apply for a Canadian passport.
Canada Citizenship
Canada’s federal government made a number of changes to Canada’s Citizenship Act after Bill C-6 came into force in October 2017.
The foremost change made by Ottawa was to reduce the physical presence requirement for permanent residents to become citizens to three years out of the last five.
Previously the requirement was four years out of the last six.
Changes to the Citizenship Act also included reducing the age range for applicants who must meet the language and knowledge requirements.
A further change allows candidates to count the days spent as temporary residents and protected persons spend in Canada as half days (up to 365 days) towards their physical presence requirement.
