Bridge to Canada Immigration

01/31/2017

Atlantic Immigration Pilot
This program will open in early March 2017.
The Atlantic Immigration Pilot is for skilled immigrants and international student graduates who want to permanently live in:
New Brunswick
Newfoundland and Labrador
Nova Scotia
Prince Edward Island
To apply, you need a job offer from a designated employer in an Atlantic province. With the support of your employer, a settlement service provider organization will help you and your family settle in Canada.

This program is a pilot program. It may change at any time.

06/02/2016

French speaking foreign workers exempt from the LMIA (former LMO)
http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=1078419

Starting today, Canadian employers hiring skilled French-speaking temporary workers from abroad who want to work in Francophone minority communities outside of Quebec will be exempt from the Labour Market Impact Assessment. This will make it easier for employers to hire them.

10/05/2015

Nova Scotia is launching two new business immigration streams to attract international entrepreneurs and to retain international graduates of provincial universities and colleges.

The Entrepreneur Stream aims to attract individuals who wish to start or buy, and actively manage, a business in Nova Scotia. The International Graduate Entrepreneur Stream provides an immigration opportunity for students who have graduated from a Nova Scotia university or community college and have started their own business. Both streams will open on January 1, 2016.

More information on both streams, please contact.

08/12/2015

EXPRESS ENTRY NEWS

Ninth draw with Comprehensive Ranking Score under 600)

Canadian Immigration authorities invited 1402 applicants for permanent residence with the lowest Comprehensive Ranking Score (CRS) of 471. It was the ninth draw under the Express Entry System where the lowest CRS score was less than 600 points.

Express Entry is an immigration system implemented by Canadian immigration authorities ("CIC") on January 1, 2015 which manages skilled worker applications under Federal Economic programs. This includes the Federal Skilled Worker Program, the Skilled Trades Program the Canada Experience Class and certain parts of the Provincial Nominee Program.

Through August 8th 2015, CIC conducted 14 draws, issuing 17,382 invitations to apply for permanent residence.

What this means for employers

Employers are encouraged to consider securing an LMIA or nomination under provincial nomination programs (PNP's) to ensure long term retention of employees.

What this means for candidates

It is expected that the majority of applicants to be issued (ITA's) under Canada's Express Entry Immigration system in 2015, will require a CRS score of less than 600 points, enabling many applicants permanent admission to Canada without a job offer or nomination under a provincial immigration program.

08/06/2015

August 5, 2015 – Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has released its mid-year report on Express Entry, Canada's new immigration application management system. The report (covering the period from program inception to July 6, 2015) provides the first full picture of the Express Entry system, and includes information on total applicants, total invitations, as well as a complete breakdown of candidates by score profile.

Some highlights:

CIC received profiles from 112,701 potential candidates between January 1 and July 6, 2015.
A total of 48,723 were not eligible for the pool as they did not meet the minimum criteria for permanent residence based on the Federal Skilled Worker, Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Trades or Provincial Nominee Program.
Out of the 12,928 invitations issued for the period covered by the report, 70% had qualifying scores over 600 points – meaning those candidates had qualifying job offers supported by a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), Labour Market Opinion (LMO) or Provincial Nomination Program (PNP) Certificate.
The vast majority of candidates (85%) invited to apply through Express Entry were already in Canada.
Despite issuing 12,928 invitations, only 7,528 completed applications have been received. Of these completed applications, only 844 permanent resident visas have been issued, and fewer than half of these, 411, have landed in Canada as Permanent Residents.
There were 41,218 candidates in the Express Entry pool as of July 6, 2015.
Of the candidates still in the pool on July 6, 2015, 87% were clustered around the 300-450 comprehensive ranking score (click here for graph). These candidates do not have LMIA, LMO or PNP nominations and are awaiting CIC to lower their scores for invitations.
If Citizenship and Immigraton Canada is to meet its target of 185,000 primary applicants in 2015, it has a very long way to go.

01/08/2015

NS Demand: Express Entry

This is an opportunity for eligible candidates to live and work in one of Canada’s most beautiful provinces. Nova Scotia is also predicted to have the third-highest level of economic growth of all Canadian provinces in 2015.

NOVA SCOTIA DEMAND: EXPRESS ENTRY
The Canadian province of Nova Scotia has launched a new immigration stream for aspiring permanent residents called Nova Scotia Demand: Express Entry. This stream has been allocated 350 spaces and is administered under the Nova Scotia Nominee Program (NSNP). Individuals do not necessarily need a job offer in order to apply.

Who can apply?
Candidates are assessed against a points grid that measures education, language ability, work experience, age, adaptability factors, and whether the candidate has an arranged job offer from a Nova Scotia-based employer. There are up to 100 points available, and potential candidates must score at least 67 points. Candidates should note that the points grid for Nova Scotia Demand: Express Entry is not exactly the same as the points grid used to assess candidates for the Federal Skilled Worker Program.

Potential candidates must also have at least one year of full-time (or equivalent part-time) work experience within the past five years in one of the 29 skilled opportunity occupations considered in-demand. The opportunity occupations include various professions in the engineering, science, healthcare, finance and computing industries, among others.

What is the application process?
Nova Scotia Demand: Express Entry is aligned with Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s (CIC) Express Entry immigration selection system, which came into operation last week.
Potential candidates may either:
1) apply directly to the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration (NSOI) and then enter the Express Entry pool with a provincial nomination, which will trigger an invitation to apply for permanent residence; or
2) be selected from the Express Entry pool by the NSOI.

To find out if you are eligible for any of over 60 Canadian immigration programs, including immigration streams under the Nova Scotia Nominee Program, please contact [email protected]

01/06/2015

British Columbia is adding a new stream to the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) called Express Entry British Columbia. This new stream allows PNP to use CIC’s Express Entry system to meet BC’s specific labour market needs.

The PNP’s new Express Entry British Columbia stream will result in faster and more efficient processing for eligible skilled immigrants and significantly reduce their application processing time.

Individuals who meet all of the following requirements will receive priority processing of both their PNP application, and if nominated, permanent residence application:

If you are interested in applying to the PNP and want to determine if you qualify under the Express Entry British Columbia stream, you need to ensure that you meet the minimum criteria for both the relevant PNP categories as well as one of the eligible federal economic immigration programs.

You must meet the minimum criteria for one of the categories under the Express Entry British Columbia stream:
Express Entry British Columbia - Skilled Worker*
Express Entry British Columbia - Health Care Professional*
Express Entry British Columbia - International Graduate*
Express Entry British Columbia - International Post Graduate

*Please note - To qualify under these categories, you must have a valid offer of indeterminate full-time employment from a B.C. employer.

You must also meet the minimum criteria for one of the following federal economic immigration programs:
Federal Skilled Worker Program
Federal Skilled Trades Program
Canadian Experience Class

This includes a mandatory language proficiency level, and may also include an independent evaluation of your education that is assessed against Canadian standards

01/05/2015

Immigration, Legal and Business Support for Immigrants

01/05/2015

01/02/2015

Receive Provincial Nomination from the Saskatchewan Express Entry Program: Job Offer Not required.

Point Based, Occupation Based System