The Y-Axis Blog

Ottawa, October 30, 2009 — Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, tabled Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s 2009 Annual Report today in Parliament.

“While other countries have cut back immigration levels as a short-term response to the global economic downturn, our government is actually maintaining its immigration levels to meet the country’s medium- to long-term economic needs,” said Minister Kenney.

“Canada plans to welcome between 240,000 and 265,000 new permanent residents in 2010, the same number of immigrants as in recent years. In 2010, Canada will again welcome more new permanent residents than the average annual intake during the 1990s,” said Minister Kenney. “The focus of the 2010 plan is on economic immigration to support Canada’s economy during and beyond the current economic recovery.” (more…)

Punjabi is set to become the fourth most widely-spoken language in Canada by 2011, after English, French and Chinese, Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Canada Minister Jason Kenney said on Friday.  

The 2006 census by the Canadian government revealed that Punjabi is currently the sixth most-widely spoken language in Canada, after English, French, Chinese, German and Italian. However, Punjabi is set to overtake German and Italian over the next four years.   (more…)

Markham (2006 population 261,573) is a town located in the Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario directly north of Toronto, and is part of the Greater Toronto Area. One of the fastest-growing communities in Canada, Markham is also the largest town in Canada.

Markham is the fourth-most populous municipality in the Greater Toronto Area, after Toronto, Mississauga, and Brampton. It is home to many cultures. It also claims to be Canada’s Hi-Tech Capital with a number of key companies in the area, such as IBM, Motorola, Toshiba, Lucent, Sun Microsystems, Apple, AMEX, and home to the head office of graphics card producer ATI (now part of AMD). 

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Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) March 16, 2009 — The Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP) allows H1B workers who are currently employed in an H1B position that is listed as an occupation of high pressure can qualify for Permanent residency with no job offer or employer requirement.

To qualify for this program, an H1B worker must meet the following basic criteria:
1. A Candidate must demonstrate a clear ability and intention to live permanently in Alberta;

2. A Candidate must be currently working in the United States and possess a valid visa in one of the following temporary skilled worker visa categories: H1-B, H1-B1, H-1C, E-3 at the time the AINP makes a final decision on the application; (more…)

By Bryan Palmer 

Canadian immigration has announced its ‘Opportunities Ontario Provincial Nominee Program’ (PNP) has been broadened to process twice the number of visa applications processed by the pilot scheme.

The pilot scheme for the programme was launched in May 2007 and the new official scheme will incorporate a category for employers and investors in Ontario who want to hire skilled workers from abroad and a category for Ontario businesses hoping to hire international graduates to work in Canada. 

Both categories have been widened to include a larger group of possible visa applications. Previously, businesses were only able to seek applicants in 20 specific occupations under the skilled worker category.

This is now the General Category and includes managerial and skilled foreign workers with at least two years experience in a larger range of industries. 

To fill post-graduate work permits, employers no longer have to seek students who have studied in a field relevant to the vacant position and can have studied in a university or college anywhere in Canada and hold no previous work experience. 

The required investment from investor visa applicants has been reduced to $3 million and the creation of five permanent Ontario jobs, down from a $10 million required investment and 25 new jobs. 

Ontario hopes that 1,000 nominees will become permanent residents in 2009. The PNP entitles nominees to priority processing for permanent residency.