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Minister McCallum South Asian Media Meet and Greet
8-23-2016
Tuesday, August 16, 2016 Surrey, BC – The Honourable John McCallum, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship met local Members of Parliament for a Summer Meet and Greet with the south asian local media during his visit to Surrey.
Highlights of his visit
Minsiter Mccallum stated that he supports additional points for siblings for express immigration.
He mentioned that so far about 29,000 Syrian refugess have been admitted to Canada and the good news is that about 99 percent have found permanent housing. John also stated that the Refugees healthcare program has now been restored which was taken away by the Conservatives. Under the Liberals we now have a Government that believes that a "Canadian is a Canadian."
His Minsitry is also looking at relaxing the language test for older people for citizenship. They are also exploring ways to reduce the time it takes to sponsor families especially for spousal sponsorships.
The liberals are looking at to set a target level for immigration. Immigration helps the aging Canadian economy. Currently his department is looking at ways to bring a more more effecient immigration system . International student will also be allowed additonal points so that they can stay in Canada after their studies. John expressed the need to streamline express entry system further and to have a compassionate system.
Some of the concerns raised by the SouthAsian Media was that there was a huge backlog of immigrants from Chandigargh. John Outlined that there is a reduction now and the new system which will be implemented in fall will further reduce the times. He Stated that for couples "two years is unacceptable" amount of time to sponsor your spouse.
His departement has also referred cases to Delhi and has added additional staff at the same time they are looking at ways to reduce fraud.
They will also be looking at Regulation 4 which makes it neccessary to proof intention to get married inorder to apply for spousal sponsorship thereby increasing the time it takes for the application process.
He further stated that Low skilled workers should go back home after 4 years. John states that his Objective is to make immigration system better than Quebec which is much more immigrant friendly.
Currently the PR card is getting better in terms of their processing time. He might consider increasing the age back to 22 from 19 for family sponsorships.
When AlameenPost asked about the Syrian refugees that arrived earlier who have to pay for their costs of travelling to the tune of about $10,000, John expressed that his Government will look at all refugees costs to come up with a new policy.
He also stated that the appeal system is much better now and much faster than before to some extent that for some cases there is not enough time to prepare for the their case.Application time for citizenship is better now from two to three years ago and he believes one year is a reasonable time.
On Professional credentials he stated that it is a provincial issue but he said perhaps they should have Predeparture meetings before they leave their countries. He will also look at the Quebec minister proposal for best practicess in credentials across Canada.
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