Immigration Dept rejoices as "Lost Canadians" citizenship bill is passed

by rohitmex

95% of the cases of "Lost Canadians" will be resolved, said Citizenship and Immigration Minister Diane Finley, thanks to Bill C-37.
People who are citizens when this law comes into force will not lose their citizenship as a result of these amendments.

The new law will give citizenship to:

Those who became citizens when the first citizenship act took effect on January 1, 1947 (including people born in Canada prior to 1947 and war brides) and who then lost their citizenship; Any person who was born in Canada or became a Canadian on or after January 1, 1947, and who then lost citizenship; and Any person born abroad to a Canadian on or after January 1, 1947, if not already a citizen, but only if they are the first generation born abroad.

An amendment to the Citizenship Act, Bill C-37 has sorted out various quirks in 19th century legislation that affected as many as 200,000 people who lost, or never had, their citizenship.

Bill C-37 has just received Royal Assent and is in its final stage of coming into law.

"Today is a very special day for Canada with the passage of this legislation," said Immigration Minister Finley on the 16th of April.

"By introducing this legislation last year, our Government took decisive action to help those people who had their citizenship questioned, and to protect the value of Canadian citizenship for the future."

Finally, the door has been opened to "Lost Canadians" to regain their citizenship, which they have either lost or never had in the first place due to little-known quirks in the Citizenship Act itself.

"We're very pleased to have been the government that was able to resolve this situation finally," Canada's Immigration Minister told CBC News.

The bill flowed out of a series of reports from CBC News in 2007 that highlighted the fact that thousands of people were at risk of losing their citizenship because of outdated provisions in existing and former citizenship laws.

Shocking findings by the news channel's investigation included that there may be more than 200,000 immigrants living in Canada who could lose their citizenship for various reasons.

These reasons include:

Canadian-born children who have lost their citizenship because their fathers became US citizens at a later stage; The law from 1947 to 1977 required people living outside of Canada on their 24th birthday to sign a form to keep their citizenship; Immigrants born in a hospital south of the border were not considered citizens unless they later registered as Canadians; and Some immigrants were stripped of their citizenship because they or their ancestors were considered illegitimate.

In May of 2005, Parliament passed a law speeding up Canadian citizenship for those in the first category, a category which has affected more than 100,000 people.

Under the law of the time, children of fathers who decided to take out citizenship in another country automatically lost their Canadian citizenship as well, even if they weren't living with them at the time.

This new law will come into effect no later than a year following Royal Assent.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada said exceptions to the law allowing lost Canadians to register are those born in Canada to a foreign diplomat, those who've renounced their citizenship with Canadian authorities, and those whose citizenship was revoked by the government because it was obtained by fraud.

If you are interested in Canadian immigration, you can find more information on Migration Expert's website.

In order to find out which Canadian visa you qualify for, just do our free visa eligibility assessment, which is available online and will deliver instant results!

Read more about Canadian Immigration

About the Author
Rochelle works for Migration Expert Canada, a global leader in online immigration services. For more information on Visas to Canada and Living In Canada, visit www.MigrationExpert.com/canada/ today.

English course added in aid of immigration in Canada's Bathurst

by rohitmex

In order to help newcomers, an English course for immigrants is being offered in Bathurst with the bill going to Immigration Canada, meaning that newcomers won't have to pay for the course.
This applies to all newcomers to Bathurst, a city in New Brunswick, who have obtained permanent resident status in Canada.

The course will be offered on the Youghall campus at The New Brunswick Community College (NBCC).

This brand new English program that supports immigration to Canada has been introduced by the NBCC last week on the 16th of April at a news conference held at the school as it celebrated 20 years of language training.

The news conference was held in order to remind the public of current services and to introduce this new service for northern New Brunswick.

Said coordinator of the NBCC language training centre, Nicole Poirier: "These services have been offered for a while in the southern part of the province and we started this program to really help newcomers who have the permanent resident status to adapt to our region".

Thanks to the latest service via Immigration Canada, newcomers are excited about the prospect of improving their English language skills for free.

"We are learning for free since last October," said Heeyoun Shin, an immigrant that has left Korea four years ago. "This is good."

Poirier said language training has been available at NBCC Bathurst for more than 20 years and over the years, even more services have been added.

"We've had two programs that have been offered here for the last 20 years. We offer English and French intensive programs that start in September and go until the month of April. If somebody has the goal of becoming bilingual, that's the way to go."

She said that the college eventually added night classes and on-site training for some local businesses as well, as they're aware of the fact that not everyone can always do a full-time program.

In addition to that, NBCC also offers customised courses for people that may not fit in with the programs that they offer in the evenings.

If you are interested in Canadian immigration, you can find more information and advice by registered migration consultants on Migration Expert's website.

If you would like to know which Canadian visa you qualify for, you can do our free online visa eligibility assessment, which will deliver instant results!

Read more about Immigration to Canada

About the Author
Rochelle works for Migration Expert Canada, a global leader in online immigration services. For more information on Visas to Canada and Living In Canada, visit www.MigrationExpert.com/canada/ today.