Voyager970

Well took the plunge and me and the wife made the 40 mins journey through to the SECC for the Glasgow show

First thing I noticed was that is was busy. The first person we spoke to said that the Saturday show was full to bursting !!!

Was this an indication of how many people are getting out, or are thinking about getting out of the UK to another country

Headed for the stands that I was wanting to get info on
1. Removal companies. All very friendly and more than willing to give advice and offer advice. I have booked a few to come and give me a quote for the house contents for a 20ft container.

2. Next stop was the Canadian High Commision stand. Well suprise, suprise a large queue. Waited about 30 to 40 mins to speak to a nice friendly processing officer, Yip she actually processes files for PR through the London office.
1st question I asked was about the points. She stated that the new Canadian govt gave no indication that they would going up, what she did say was that they will possibly be issueing more skilled workers visa's. in the hope that it would lower the waiting times as the bulk of her work was skilled workers applications.
I also asked if the pass mark was to be increased would it affect applications aready in the system, ie those who have had their AOR.
I was very suprised by her answer, in a nut shell she confirmed that all applications who have recieved their AOR will have there paperwork assessed on the points that they had recieved their AOR and your application will be locked in at those points.
If the points were to go up you would not be assessed on the new increased points. She quite clearly stated that they had already been taken to court and they did not want this to happen again !!!
So all you guys who are near the border mark for points I dont think you need worry. It came straight from the horses mouth today. You will be assessed on the points at what you received your AOR, which for most guys will be 67 points.
This was a big worry for us as we are on 74 points !!!

She did state that she was working on applications who had recieved their AOR in May 2004, now theres and indication of the wait. Also confirmed that if there was to be a delay in your application you would recieve a letter to confirm this.

3. As I am looking at going to Canada, hopefully in August on a work permit I asked if this would speed up our PR application. Again a positive answer. She did clarify a few points on this subject. If you are going to Canada on a temp work permit with no chance of the job being made permanent she stated that your application would just proceed along the normal channels at a snails pace, but if your temp job offer was to be made permanent then your file would be immediately pulled to the top of the list and processed straight away.
So I guess anyone going out on a work permit with their PR application ongoing your best bet would be to get the job offer made permanent, which would dramatically speed up your PR application.

4. Also spoke to the currency broker guys. Again all very positive and all of them stated they had enjoyed their time in Glasgow, they all thought that us Jocks were very friendly. One broker who we chatted to was at the Sandown show and was very shocked at the ignorance of people going an immigration show.

5. We met Sue Gerryts from www.relocation2bc.com
and also Jayne Wisdom from www.canilink.com

Two very friendly people, although Sue Gerryts had lost her voice and could hardly speak.

Came home with the usual customary pens and plastic bags full of brochures and leaflets.

Not much else to report. I thought we had very positive answers from the guys we spoke to and the show was really busy, considering it was Mothers day !!!!

Eddie

PMM

Hi

Glad you enjoyed your visit, but the officer should be corrected. The retroactivity of the new Act has been tested in the Federal Court and CIC's position was upheld. Here is what the Regulations state:

"Selection criteria

76. (1) For the purpose of determining whether a skilled worker, as a member of the federal skilled worker class, will be able to become economically established in Canada, they must be assessed on the basis of the following criteria:

(a) the skilled worker must be awarded not less than the minimum number of required points referred to in subsection (2) on the basis of the following factors, namely,

(i) education, in accordance with section 78,

(ii) proficiency in the official languages of Canada, in accordance with section 79,

(iii) experience, in accordance with section 80,

(iv) age, in accordance with section 81,

(v) arranged employment, in accordance with section 82, and

(vi) adaptability, in accordance with section 83; and

(b) the skilled worker must

(i) have in the form of transferable and available funds, unencumbered by debts or other obligations, an amount equal to half the minimum necessary income applicable in respect of the group of persons consisting of the skilled worker and their family members, or

(ii) be awarded the number of points referred to in subsection 82(2) for arranged employment in Canada within the meaning of subsection 82

Conformity — applicable times

77. For the purposes of Part 5, the requirements and criteria set out in sections 75 and 76 must be met at the time an application for a permanent resident visa is made as well as at the time the visa is issued.

Voyager970

PMM,

I fully undertsand where you are coming from with your reply. I am fully aware of the current regulations and this is why I asked her this exact question.

I did querie this exact point that you stated and her answer was "that they did not want to end up in court again". ( quote )
I believe the class action lawsuits that were brought against the Canadian govt were somewhere close to 130,000 cases.
These cases have all been put back into system, hence a possible increase in the waiting times.

Why would an officer who works directly for the Canadian immigration dept in London UK, who also processes permanent residency applications state something that was factually wrong and against their current immigration rules and regulations.

I do not understand the logic in this on !!!!!!
Is there any logic !!!
Maybe they have rules and regs in place but actually bend them a little to ease the currect pressure on the system.

WHO KNOWS, NOT ME ANYWAY !!!!!!!!!

Eddie

dozzzzy

I asked 2 immigration officials at Sandown, the same question with respect to my application, and both them stated that they thought that if the points requirement went up then they would asses my case on the points required at the point of application submission, in my case as of July 2004 67 points was as still is the requirement. They weren't hard and fast about it saying this is absolute, but one of the processing officers also referred to the 2001 debacle and said that they didn't want that to happen again. I don't think that you could take CIC to court about it if they do raise the points and your case was assessed at the new higher points value, but it was nice to hear from to case officers that they felt that the change would not be applied retroactively in my case due to the closeness of processing completion, sorry a case of I'm all (well maybe ) right Jack.

just my 2€'s worth

Dozzzzy

high.rise

We went on saturday, to be honest, it wasn't that busy. We'd been to Sandown previously, in 2004, and were surprised how quiet the Canada stands were in Glasgow. We joined the queue to talk to a CHC rep and there was only one person in front of us! There was a queue to get into the show, but most people headed for the Aussie stands and there was no queue at all when we left a couple of hours later. I thought compared to the previous Sandown show we'd been to, Canada was very poorly represented (and at Sandown I thought Canada was poorly represented!).
The CHC reps were, as ever, friendly and informative, basically gave us the same info as you Eddie (currently processing May 2004 etc), but whilst they said they didn't anticipate the points would go up (not likely to say otherwise really are they?) they said there was no guarantee the application would be judged on the points applied for at that time although it was likely this would be the case. They said this would be reviewed if and when the points do ever go up.
My understanding is that if the points go up, it's possible that the applicant could be judged on the revised points, although I would like to stand corrected on this one. There's no point guessing, just have to wait and see. The CHC rep we spoke to did stipulate that the backlog wasn't due to staffing problems at CHC London, more to do with the number of visas permitted each year so it will be interesting to see if they meet the quota, but we were more interested in the 'when will it be processed' question rather than the 'why isn't it'.
All in all, the answers to our particular questions were answered in a succint and helpful manner, the show did help to confirm that all going well Canada is where our future lies...if they ever get around to processing our visa......

high.rise

Pretty much what we got from it that they were 'hopeful' that the application would be judged on raised points but there are no guarantees.

PMM

Hi

The officer was speaking of the class action suit in Rasolzadeh v. M.C.I.
which the Federal court ruled in favour of those who applied prior to 2002 but NOT those who applied after 01/01/2002 as at that time the Regulations had been published in the Canada Gazette. If CIC doesn't use the retroactivity in
Sec 77 of the Regulations, there will not be any reduction of the almost 800K applications in the backlog. Processing times will then stretching towards 5 years or more for skilled workers.

high.rise

apologies, that should have read they are 'hopeful' they application would not be judged on raised points....must learn to preview before submitting.

rod burner

Hi Eddie hows the welding practice going ,just thought I would let you know we got our medical requests the other day.we went to sandown the other day met Ian&jane again for a chat,spoke to cic apart from that the rest was crap.
Good luck
Dave

Margaret2

Hi, we were there also, visiting the Australian end, i thought it was pretty rubbish, well the australian bit anyway. It would have been ok , if you were first starting out on the visa process, but like me on the waiting game, there wasn't much.

We were looking for employment advice, banks and pension advice.

As said the shippers were about the best thing and have also got a couple coming to give us quotes