Nick Noorani Website

Bill C-50 targets immigrants from India and Pakistan with the lowest quotas. Lexbase, the country’s leading immigration law periodical run by Vancouver-based lawyer Richard Kurland reviewed the inventory of all overseas economic class permanent residence applications as of April 4, 2008, and was astonished to discover that there are a whopping 145,556 people in the queue in New Delhi, but the 2008 target allows for only 9,245 visas.
Which means that it would take more than 15 years for these visas to be processed, provided, of course, that no new applications came in!
In the case of Pakistan, the wait list is nearly 43,000 and a quota of just 3,600 — a wait list of 12 years!

Kurland told me: “No wonder Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) wants to shuffle the visa cards, and take away both the right to a visa and the ‘first come, first served’ rule for visa processing. India gets hit big. It is not ‘when’ you apply, it is ‘where’ you apply.”
What makes this worse is that no one tells immigrants exactly how long it will take for the visas to be processed. So a 40-year-old immigrant could very well be 55 by the time his visa finally comes through.
Last year, CIC Minister Diane Finley said, “India is a major source of immigrants to Canada, with highly qualified individuals. Canada wants skilled and talented professionals from India and around the world and is committed to helping them integrate quickly into the Canadian labour market.”
It will be interesting to see how this plays out — my bets are on reduced family class immigrants. Any takers?
Against this backdrop come fresh allegations about the citizenship process allegedly being fast-tracked in Conservative strongholds.
Of greater concern, however, is how will the Liberals respond when asked why they let Bill C-50 sail through the house? If they say they did not want an election, most immigrants I have spoken to will reply: “If you are unable to do the job we elected you for, don’t bother asking us for our vote again!”
While today’s immigration climate is strained politically, let’s not forget that the month of July brings with it Canada Day — a time to celebrate the many contributions immigrants and pioneers have made to this country over the years.
I’d also like to announce another landmark for immigrants — our brand new, national website is being launched in time for Canada Day. With a new and improved feel and attractive design, you’ll get lots of helpful information, tools, special sections and added value to complement the print version of the magazine. We will be bringing you online exclusives, extended story coverage, photo essays, videos and a variety of content from across the country.
Most important, the new website will help us continue to be the voice of the Canadian immigrant.
Happy Canada Day!