North Star Immigration Law

Thinking about our friends in Tumbler Ridge today. Such a gorgeous place, with some of the most interesting people. Sending love from Nova Scotia ❤️

Page 1 of Epstein’s Application for Rehabilitation, which is an IRCC form. It omits many required details.

Page 2 of Epstein’s Application for Rehabilitation, which is an IRCC form. It omits many required details

Epstein’s Application for a TRP/Rehabilitation (which would have been needed to enter Canada), if this is what was actually submitted, could not have been lazier or sloppier. Most people would be more conscientious writing a grocery list.

PFL WTF We have seen a spike in the number of inquiries about Procedural Fairness Letters people are getting from provincial immigration offices. Feels like the tip of the iceberg.

I promised some thoughts on immigration consultants, so here they are😬 #canada #immigration

open.substack.com/pub/northsta...

Well, that’s pretty shady: This week, #IRCC slashed study permits and told int’l students they aren’t welcome anymore. Then, they started an ad campaign to attract…int’l students? www.canada.ca/en/immigrati...

All in all, this isn’t really transformative or earth shattering - it’s more of the same in terms of reductions and pulling the rug out from under people who have followed the rules to get here.

PS: we are waiting to see what the actual program-by-program breakdown looks like.

“…a one-time initiative to recognise eligible Protected Persons in Canada as permanent residents over the next two years” [one time only?! Because processing times have blown up to 10+ years which means that’s how long it will take successful refugee claimants to see their families again]

“The 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan is already delivering results: new temporary foreign worker arrivals have fallen by about 50 per cent this year, and new international student arrivals are roughly 60 per cent lower than in 2024. Asylum claims are also down by one-third so far in 2025”[🙄]

“IRCC will transfer responsibility for employer-focused compliance inspections under the International Mobility Program (IMP) to Employment and Social Development Canada” [🔥as long as ESDC has the resources to handle this]

“…a one-time measure to accelerate the transition of up to 33,000 work permit holders to permanent residency in 2026 and 2027” [meh, sounds like the old TR-to-PR mess, how about just get processing times under better control, and whatever happened to more occupation-specific draws?]

“….a targeted, one-time initiative to recruit over a thousand highly qualified international researchers to Canada” [👏 yes to brain gain]

“…in the coming months the government will also launch an accelerated pathway for H1-B visa holders” [no shade on H1-Bs, but how did the program go last time around? How many approvals actually came? What about making it easier for Americans to come here in non-CUSMAs jobs, like allied healthcare?]

Immigration takeaways from the Budget 2025: Canada Strong budget.canada.ca/2025/report-...

In short: the party is over and this is the hangover.
#canada #immigration

A screenshot from IRCC's processing times tool that says a Humanitarian and Compassionate application will take 10 years to process if submitted today.

Not very compassionate: IRCC's processing time tool now says it will be TEN YEARS for a Humanitarian and Compassionate applications to be processed if submitted today. 10 years! Imagine if you were someone with a compelling H&C and this is the wait time.

4. Int’l students who graduate from Cdn schools have the most success settling here of all immigrants. They should have a clear, fair pathway to achieve PR. They’ve already invested here, built skills, and contributed. Cap total study permits overall, but reward grads with stability & retention.

Obviously immigrants aren’t the cause of Canada’s housing crisis and services crunch. Poor planning is. But the system exists to ensure the people who are here, contributing and sacrificing now, get to stay. It just needs a couple tweaks 😉

5. With things in the US pushing innovators north, Canada should welcome self-employed leaders. Expand “significant benefit” work permits and give PR points to self-employed Canadian work experience. Right now: self-employed = disqualified under Express Entry. This is a huge opportunity for Canada.

3. Stop issuing LMIAs for unskilled fast-food jobs (looking at you, TEER 5 Food Counter Attendant). These workers have virtually no PR pathway and end up as temporary residents in perpetuity. Businesses must adapt, not rely on workers who end up trapped on closed work permits.

2. Skilled workers already here should be at the front of the PR line. Instead, IRCC has runs random pilots (francophone streams, extended family PR streams) and bypassed people with who are already in Canada working and contributing.

1. Restore the balance: In 2016/17, temporary residents (students and workers) were <5% of Canada's population. Today it’s nearly double. IRCC should reset the cap to sustainable levels without shutting the door completely.

5 things IRCC could do right now to improve the immigration system without reinventing the wheel. A Friday afternoon🧵

If you’re blaming the TFW program for unemployment, you’re looking in the wrong place. The real culprit is an economy where the expectation of endless corporate profits takes priority over people. And a politician wiling to use TFWs as a dog-whistle to score cheap points is a disgrace.

The solution isn’t to shut the door on TFWs. It’s to hold employers accountable. Pay fair wages. Offer decent conditions. Compete for talent. Retention improves when businesses treat workers like humans, not disposable labour.

Youth unemployment isn’t about foreign workers. It’s about a labour market hollowed out by low wages, precarious working conditions and wealth inequality. Young people and foreign workers face the same challenge: an economy tilted in favour of the few.

We've been saying for years: if you’re good enough to work here, you’re good enough to stay. TFWs deserve a fair pathway to PR so they’re not trapped on closed work permits, at the mercy of unscrupulous employers and predatory agents/consultants (that's a rant for another day).

(And if your fast food franchise can only turn a profit on the backs of TFWs then I suggest your business model is flawed)

Most TFWs are in remote, seasonal, or tough sectors like agriculture, food processing, caregiving and skilled trades. Yes, some fast-food franchises overuse TFWs. But let’s be clear: the problem is employer abuse, not the workers themselves.

Blaming youth unemployment on temporary foreign workers is scapegoating. These are people who came to 🇨🇦 legally, studied, graduated, and worked under the rules we set. The real issue? Rising inequality of wealth and a job market reshaped by unchecked corporate greed

Screaming into the void, but here goes: Growing inequality of wealth is destroying living standards and changing the job landscape for young people. Not immigrants, not temporary foreign workers.

Bill C-2, Canada’s new border bill, an attack on the human right to seek asylum Amnesty International Canada says Bill C-2, the federal government’s new border bill, is an attack on refugees’ right to seek asylum.

With Bill C-2, the Canadian government threatens to chip away at that right, making it harder for people seeking safety and freedom to file an asylum claim and have it assessed fairly.
amnesty.ca/human-rights...

Looking for suggestions to move away from US SaS products in our law office. We currently use Trello for task management, Adobe Acrobat (for immigration PDFs), Office 365 (we moved from Sync to SharePoint a few years back which was an effort), and Zoom for phones. #adobe #lawoffice #help