VISA CENTRE ATTENDS MEETING WITH CANADIAN MINISTER OF IMMIGRATION IN LONDON

The Honourable Jason Kenney, P.C., M.P., Canada's Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism responds to questions raised by Grant King, Director of Visa Centre.

On Monday 21 June 2010, Visa Centre's London office attended a luncheon meeting at Canada House together with the Deputy Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, plus other Canadian dignitaries and Canadian media for a briefing by Minister Kenney on Canada's strong economic performance ahead of the G20 Meeting in Toronto next week.

At the meeting, Grant King, Director of Visa Centre questioned the Minister on whether the 2008 reduction of the eligible skilled occupation list to 38 might have sent the (wrong) message to UK new settlers that Canada was essentially closed for skilled immigration. Minister Kenney advised that the cut had been largely designed to clear the backlog of permanent residence visa applications that had developed. Minister Kenney commented that "the previous processing times of up to 5 years were not competitive with Australia & New Zealand where new settlers could often obtain their visas within 6 months". "Cutting the occupation list has allowed the backlog to be cleared". This being the case, the Minister now advises now that changes to the occupation list will occur shortly, possibly within one week, and that further changes to Canada's immigration policy will occur later in the year. The indications are that these changes will be positive.

Following the meeting, Grant King commented that "This is great news for new settlers. Changes to the occupation list and an expansion of the number of eligible occupations, will open up more opportunities for high skilled immigrants to Canada from the UK, Europe and elsewhere" Photo- Grant King (right) and Mark Taylor of Visa Centre's London office at Canada House following their luncheon with the Canadian Minister of Immigration

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