With Citizenship and Immigration Canada making it increasingly difficult to speak to an officer,
there are few places to turn for information that can be relied upon.
The Canadian Immigration Podcast was created to fill this void by offering the latest information
on Canadian law, policy, and practice.
Please welcome, ex-immigration officer and Canadian immigration lawyer, Mark Holthe as
he answers a wide variety of immigration questions and shares practical tips and guidance to
help you along your way.
Welcome to the Canadian immigration podcast.
Today is August the 5th 2015.
Today's question comes from Ripu, and I hope I'm pronouncing Ripu’s name correctly.
With that being said, those of you who would like to leave a question for this podcast,
another alternative is to leave a voice mail message for me on the website, and there's
a widget that is on the right side of the website.
And if you would like to leave me a question, you can also leave a voice message for me
with your question in that fashion, and if the quality of the voice is sufficiently clear,
I will input your question into the podcast directly so that I don’t have to read it
and mispronounce your name.
Anyway, so Ripu sent me an email on August the 2nd and its entitled AINP.
So we know that this is going to be related to the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program.
So I suspect Ripu is here living in Alberta and practicing.
He indicates here in his message, “Hi mark.
I’m an international graduate on three years’ post grad work permit.
My work permit is going to expire April 2016.
I have applied for my AINP in February of 2014 as a food service supervisor which is
still under process.
So my question is what should I do before my work permit expires?
Should I try express entry without an LMIA, or wait more for the AINP.
And my second question is my company wants me to be promoted to a Sous Chef, but I do
not want to take it, because my AINP is entitled as a food service supervisor.”
And his question is obviously, “can I take that position or not?”
So as can be seen from Ripu’s situation here, he is on a three year post grad work
permit that cannot be extended without an LMIA.
And his first question basically revolves around what should he do?
So as time is running out, we know that the processing times with the Alberta Immigrant
Nominee Program are lasting a long time, upwards of 25 months.
This is not a first day and first out process.
So just because you submitted your application before another candidate doesn't necessarily
mean that your application will be processed first.
The AINP has the ability to determine which industry they are going to allocate the nominations
that they’ve been given.
And each year currently they have a quarter of 5,500 nominations.
And over the few years, the food service industry has dominated the number of nominations that
have been granted.
So because of that, the program manager, Bratcher Fan has had a very difficult job in determining
which industries would receive the nominations.
And he has done his very best to allocate them evenly amongst the industries that are
in demand, and to not over favor any one industry over another.
So unfortunately for Ripu, the likelihood of the nomination coming through any time
soon is probably a little bit more remote.
Now there's no guarantee, and I'm sure if I asked everyone to comment on this particular
podcast what their experience is, we would find many people that have had their AINP
nominations extended, who have actually submitted their applications after Ripu, and others
that maybe in the exact same situation who have not received their nominations from the
province.
Obviously as an immigration lawyer, it has been extremely difficult for me to properly
advice people on what to expect, because there's often no rhyme or reason as to what happens.
So on the case of Ripu here, he asks “Should I try to file through express entry without
the LMIA or should I wait?”
Well, one piece of advice that I'm giving all of my clients and all individuals who
ask is to apply under every possible category that you qualify under, because of the uncertainty
that citizenship and immigration Canada has created.
In other words, because no one is guaranteed a nomination through the province, or even
guaranteed an invitation to apply through express entry.
As a result of this uncertainty, every single person should apply under every category that
they have the option of applying under.
You can have multiple permanent resident applications.
You just can’t have multiple sponsorships if you are sponsoring a family member.
So if you want to file under one of the Provincial Nominee Programs or submit another application
through express entry, then by all means submit them because with no guarantee, it's best
to cast that net wide and give yourself the absolute best opportunity of success in the
end.
Let’s face it, if you have an express entry application that is nearing completion and
you have a PNP application that is still in the queue, once the express entry goes through,
then you can simply withdraw the Provincial Nominee Program application.
Now some people may say, “I have to pay $550 as a processing fee to submit that application,”
and that is true.
So there's some cost to this multiple application strategy.
However, if the difference is being able to remain in Canada as a permanent resident and
not, then I can tell you I know very well which option that I'm going to choose for
$550 which is a lot of money.
If it's difference between being able to stay in Canada and having to return home wherever
that home may be, I know what I'm choosing.
So I recommend for Ripu that you actually do proceed forward with express entry even
though you do not currently have an LMIA.
Ripu’s second question relates to whether or not he should allow his employer to promote
him to a position of a Sous Chef from his current position of a food service supervisor.
And the reason that’s an issue is because his AINP application appears to be tied to
that position.
So there are a number of different categories that Ripu could have applied under.
Ultimately the post grad work permit, I don’t know where that was obtained.
But there's international graduate category, there's also within the strategic recruitment
stream, there's a post graduate category, or there's the employer driven stream.
And so depending on the type of application that Ripu applied for, it may be critical
that he remain in that position.
Now over the last few years, the AINP has not been as willing to allow an employer to
move an individual to a different position when an application has been in the queue.
It just creates more work for them and with high volumes of applications they are really
looking for every opportunity they can to bounce applications.
Now ultimately it's possible for Ripu’s employer to reach out to the AINP and say,
“Hey, we are looking at promoting him to a Sous Chef position.”
They would obviously at least over the next little while, because he's under the post
grad work permit category, at least that’s his work permit.
He can be promoted to that position without need for an LMIA or any other change, but
it is possible for the employer to reach out to the AINP and ask them what they-- you know
if it's possible for them to continue to support his position as a Sous Chef, and to make sure
that he doesn't lose his position in the queue.
Now there's no guarantee of that, but that’s something that I often will instruct my clients
to do, or we would do on their behalf.
We would reach out to the AINP and ask them for direction.
There's no policy on this, so it's difficult to know for certain how they would treat this.
So with respect to that, I think that’s really the issue.
Ripu needs to decide if the position that he's going into as a potential Sous Chef,
if it makes sense for him to do that based on whatever the AINP says.
So one thing we'll find as we go through these question and answer process with the Canadian
Immigration Answers podcast is that there are often no clear and decisive answers to
every question that’s asked.
And I'm almost positive that people that will be listening to this podcast, will say to
themselves, “Hey I did it a different way and it worked out just fine.”
So understand that with lack of clear policy, there are really a number of different options
that could be pursued depending upon the pre-directions of the officer who is adjudicating the application.
And so these suggestions that I'm giving are definitely not the only options that are available.
And I definitely don’t pretend to be all-knowing when it comes to every aspect of immigration.
But I know that these strategies will work if an individual follows them.
And ultimately, although there may be other pathways forward, I'm confident in giving
these suggestions.
Now because of the complexity of this situation, Ripu, you will definitely want to make sure
that you have all the information that you can before you make any decisions.
And it's very easy for an employer to just promote you because they really don’t have
a stake one way or another in your permanent resident process.
They just want to have a worker who is working in a position that they really want them to
work in.
And sometimes you have employers that are very loyal to you but often you as an employee
you are of value to them, because you are making them money.
And you need to look out for yourself.
You need to make sure that you are protecting your own interest, and so you were very-very
wise to take the time to consider this before you rush in to accepting a new position, which
I presume will also come with an increased wage.
So this concludes this episode of the Canadian immigration answers podcast.
I hope that the general information that was provided today is of use to others out there.
Once again, I want to invite anyone who would like to leave a question for us to answer
through this podcast through our website at www.ht-llp.com.
And you can leave a message there, you can send me an email, you can leave a voice message
on our widget that is on the side bar, the right sidebar of the website.
And if you leave a voice message I can even embed it directly within to this podcast if
the audio quality is sufficiently good.
So thanks a lot for listening today and instead of my regular outro I have got a little song
that I thought will be really fun to have and to include at the end of this podcast
so that if people look at it will authorize and say, “Hey that’s kind of goofy.”
You can just end the podcast right now.
But I thought it was kind of fun.
It's kind of just a fun little song that’s representative about how I feel about this
beautiful country Canada, and whatever I can do to help you out there, navigate your way
through the complexities of this crazy immigration world.
All right, thank you very much and I hope to get back to you soon with more answers
to your immigration questions.
[SONG] Oh Canada, greatest country in the world,
We want to share, the richness of your soil, This place I love, my home, and native land,
We welcome all and with you we’ll stand, We’ll set you straight with love, policy,
and practice, Here on the Canadian Immigration podcast.
I am your guy, for info that’s up to date, Help with your forms, or whatever you might
need.
This place I love, my home, and native land, We welcome all and with you we’ll stand,
We’ll set you straight with love, policy, and practice,
Here on the Canadian Immigration podcast.
To visit, work, or learn and grow, If you need help we’ll meet your goals,
We’ll hold your hand; we’ll make it so, Here on the Canadian Immigration podcast,
Here on the Canadian Immigration podcast.
Thank you for listening to the Canadian Immigration podcast, your trusted source for information
on Canadian law, policy, and practice.
If you would like to contribute a question for future podcasts, or wish to set up a legal
consultation with Mark, please visit www.ht-llp.com.