Friday, June 25, 2010

On June 26th, 2010 Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced amendments to the immigration procedures regarding Permanent Residence Applications under the Skilled Worker and Professionals Class and the Canadian Experience Class. These are the two classes new international faculty members at Queen’s typically apply under to obtain their PR.

Applications submitted before June 26th will not be subject to the new rules. All applicants must now provide results from an officially designated language testing agency. These results must be submitted with the application for PR, or it will not be processed. Previously, language ability could be proven via a written submission by the applicant. This is no longer acceptable. People whose first language is one of Canada’s official languages must also undergo the test.

IELTS is the only CIC-approved language testing agency in Ontario. Only IELTS test results are acceptable for immigration purposes.

The test fee is $285, and the closest IELTS testing sites are Toronto and Ottawa. Times and dates can be accessed through the IELTS link on the Faculty Recruitment Site. The test takes an entire day and the only acceptable ID is a valid passport which must be presented prior to taking the test.

Test results indicate that they are good for one year. However, according to information received from the Buffalo Visa Office, which processes in-Canada PR applications, CIC officers will accept IELTS language tests regardless of the date they were taken.

Queen’s employees who will be applying for PR can review the Faculty Recruitment web site for detailed information on these new rules.

Elimination of the “University Professor” class does not affect Queen’s international faculty recruitment Previously, the Skilled Worker Class was open to a category called “University Professors”. This category has now been removed from the roster of skills and professions required in the Canadian labour market. However, this will not affect our new international faculty members as they come to Canada with “arranged employment”.