Gotta love Canada!

Oct 18, 2002
11,593
3
BT jan all federal investor and entrepreneurs immigration programs have been stopped since 2012. Certain provinces can still nominate investors that contribute a non-refundable $180,000 investment (I think Quebec and PEI), but that is also going to stop by the end of this year. According to the immigration minister, the new investor program starting next year would require an investment in the range of 2-3 million dollars.

Just last week Canada cancelled 68000 investor files that were in process. I think the $75000 ads are just scams by immigration lawyers.
 

shahinc

Legionnaire
May 8, 2005
6,745
1
According to the immigration minister, the new investor program starting next year would require an investment in the range of 2-3 million dollars.

Just last week Canada cancelled 68000 investor files that were in process. I think the $75000 ads are just scams by immigration lawyers.
God Bless Progressive Conservative Party ;)
 
Oct 1, 2004
8,122
205
BT jan all federal investor and entrepreneurs immigration programs have been stopped since 2012. Certain provinces can still nominate investors that contribute a non-refundable $180,000 investment (I think Quebec and PEI), but that is also going to stop by the end of this year. According to the immigration minister, the new investor program starting next year would require an investment in the range of 2-3 million dollars.

Just last week Canada cancelled 68000 investor files that were in process. I think the $75000 ads are just scams by immigration lawyers.
It will be back. Trust me on this. Short term play. Especially with the conservatives.
 
BT jan all federal investor and entrepreneurs immigration programs have been stopped since 2012. Certain provinces can still nominate investors that contribute a non-refundable $180,000 investment (I think Quebec and PEI), but that is also going to stop by the end of this year. According to the immigration minister, the new investor program starting next year would require an investment in the range of 2-3 million dollars.

Just last week Canada cancelled 68000 investor files that were in process. I think the $75000 ads are just scams by immigration lawyers.
Someone I know, applied in 2012 (April or May I believe) and got his visa in November 2013. Total balance transferred to an RBC account in his name: $124,000

No lawyer involved.

As for the new programs, they can't be sustained because the system is heavily funded by the inflow of immigrants' capital. Unless they can attract hundreds of thousands of millionaire applicants every year, this is nothing more than a pre-election maneuver.
 

Flint

Legionnaire
Jan 28, 2006
7,016
0
United States
Is this an unabashedly cash-for-visa program or do they have to start a real business and hire people? BTW, having a million dollars in Iran today is no big deal. Car showrooms are full of million dollar cars.
 
Oct 18, 2002
11,593
3
Someone I know, applied in 2012 (April or May I believe) and got his visa in November 2013. Total balance transferred to an RBC account in his name: $124,000

No lawyer involved.

As for the new programs, they can't be sustained because the system is heavily funded by the inflow of immigrants' capital. Unless they can attract hundreds of thousands of millionaire applicants every year, this is nothing more than a pre-election maneuver.
BT jan, he probably applied under the entrepreneur program which was different and has been cancelled as well. For investor immigrants they have to pay a lot more.

The capital from the investor class immigrant is miniscule. Based on Stats from CIC, over the past ten years Canada has accepted an average of 2000-3000 investors a year in the federal program. If they each brought in $120000-$150000, the total would be only 250 to 450 million dollars a year.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/facts2012/permanent/02.asp
(Check the line "investors p.a. principal applicants")

Overall the cost of investor immigrants for Canadian economy has been more than its benefits. Even if you raise it to 3 million dollars to balance it, there will be sufficient number of applicants.
 
Last edited:
Oct 18, 2002
11,593
3
Is this an unabashedly cash-for-visa program or do they have to start a real business and hire people? BTW, having a million dollars in Iran today is no big deal. Car showrooms are full of million dollar cars.
There were two different categories: investor (which was cash for visa) and entrepreneur class (in which you had to start a business). Both programs were cancelled in 2012. However it is not as if you could just pay cash and immediately get Canadian immigration. There was an annual cap on the total number of people who cold immigrate each year, and in recent years people had to wait in line for 5-6 years until it was their turn.
 

Flint

Legionnaire
Jan 28, 2006
7,016
0
United States
There is a model for this if the country is also to benefit. In the US, there was the Homestead Act of 1862 where land was granted to individuals on the condition that they farm and develop it. This can be modernized for today's environment by asking the new immigrants to settle in some designated regions of the country that need an infusion of cash and people. This way you can also tell how committed the people are to their newly adopted country.
 
Oct 1, 2004
8,122
205
There is a model for this if the country is also to benefit. In the US, there was the Homestead Act of 1862 where land was granted to individuals on the condition that they farm and develop it. This can be modernized for today's environment by asking the new immigrants to settle in some designated regions of the country that need an infusion of cash and people. This way you can also tell how committed the people are to their newly adopted country.
I think we have a similar program in Canada, and often you see Filipinos and Ukrainians working in very small towns, but once the 4 or 5 year mandatory stay period is over, they move to bigger cities.
 
Jun 9, 2004
13,753
1
Canada
So to recap, both the investment and entrepreneur programs have been cancelled now and those 68000 people have to apply through some other program?! What other programs do we have then, skilled and seasonal workers and family reunions right? Is there anything else? If they have indeed been cancelled, I think that's a move in the right direction.
 
Oct 18, 2002
11,593
3
So to recap, both the investment and entrepreneur programs have been cancelled now and those 68000 people have to apply through some other program?! What other programs do we have then, skilled and seasonal workers and family reunions right? Is there anything else? If they have indeed been cancelled, I think that's a move in the right direction.
Not just investors. The department also cancelled 280,000 skilled worker applications and refunded their application fees. Very few new skilled worker applications have been accepted over the past 4 years (10,000 in 2011, zero in 2012 and 5000 in 2013) and the family renuion program has also been put on hold since 2012 (except for spouse and children). For the past three years they have been mostly processing remaining applications in the queue from the past. The only program that is still accepting new applications is the special program for university students and workers already in Canada.

Canada is introducing a new immigration system in 2015 which is similar to the Australian/American model. The essence of it is that in order to immigrate to Canada you will have to have a sponsor, either a company that guarantee you a job, or a province that wants you. Family renuions will berestricted too. My guess is that the investor and student programs will be left to the provinces; i.e the individual provinces would decide how many investors they would like to accept (perhaps with conditions similar to what flint suggested).

Another thing that is going to change is the citizenship law. The government has changes the residency requirement for citizenship from 3 years to 4 years and mandated "intent to reside", i.e. you can no longer complet the residency requirement and apply for citizenship and go back to Iran. Language test requirements have been aded too. The government has also said they are planning to change the "Jus soli" principle for citizenship, i.e. they do not want to grant automatic citizenship to everyone who is born here. Again this is a change to make Canadian immigration system more in line with Australia and Newzeland.

I agree that overall these are all moves in the right direction.
 
Oct 18, 2010
6,271
848
and an update of this story.looks like the iranain-canadian got hold of a lot
of sensitive information about the harper regime and their involvement with
the apartheid regime in isreal by sweet talking the canadian official in bed.

MONTREAL -- Passport Canada secretly supplied a new identity and passport to a Mossad agent living in Canada after the Israeli spy participated in the 2010 plot to kill a leader of terrorist group Hamas in a Dubai hotel, a Montreal businessman has alleged.

Mysterious Canadian-Iranian businessman Arian Azarbar made the startling allegations in an exclusive interview with QMI Agency.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/02/15/businessman-alleges-canada-gave-israeli-spy-new-identity
on the other hand as long as you are an assassin for the apartheid regime in isreal you get your passport
for free.all you need to do is to kill for the chosen 1%.canada is a joke in all aspects.
 
Jun 9, 2004
13,753
1
Canada
Many thanks for the info Deerouz jaan - concise and accurate as always. I'm still a little bit confused though... It almost looks to me like the Chinese and Iranian population has doubled or quadrupled since the early 90's and the number of immigrants from other countries also doesn't seem to jive with these 2,000-10,000 per year numbers. Do I just have the wrong perception of the explosion in these immigrant populations or how are all these people coming to Canada?
 

Flint

Legionnaire
Jan 28, 2006
7,016
0
United States
Of all the immigrations laws in the US, the one that has absolutely got to go is the so called family "reunification". It has become a vehicle for bringing in grandpas and grandmas, uncles and aunts whom even the children don't want to bring over to live with them and in many cases them themselves don't want, but who is going to turn down a free green card. The only criterion should be how an immigrant contributes to the economy.
 
Oct 18, 2002
11,593
3
Many thanks for the info Deerouz jaan - concise and accurate as always. I'm still a little bit confused though... It almost looks to me like the Chinese and Iranian population has doubled or quadrupled since the early 90's and the number of immigrants from other countries also doesn't seem to jive with these 2,000-10,000 per year numbers. Do I just have the wrong perception of the explosion in these immigrant populations or how are all these people coming to Canada?
BH jan,

There are many other classes, the majority come under skilled workers and family classes. Canada still accepts between 250000-300000 new immigrants a year, but these are mainly from the backlog of those who have been waiting for years for their applications to be processed.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/facts2012/permanent/02.asp

The above link gives a breakdown of different categories. In 2012, about 2600 principal applicants were accepted under investor class, with their families (6743). In the same year, about 90,000 people were accepted under the skilled worker program (the number includes their family), close to 40,000 spousal/partner sponsorship, 40,000 nominated by provinces, 21000 parents and grandparents, and about 23000 refugees and their families. the total number of new immigrants for 2012 was 257,000.
 
Jun 9, 2004
13,753
1
Canada
Merci again Deerouz jaan. Now, I'm REALLY concerned. So, we basically have a population growth of around 350,000 per year, the majority of which (250,000) is coming from immigration. Housing starts have been hovering around 200,000 units for years now, even at 2 people per housing unit, that's new homes for 400,000 people a year which is already more than the population growth. If the immigration numbers start dropping significantly, who's going to absorb all these units?! I suppose a lot of the demand in the last 10-15 years was also from the babyboomer's kids moving out, but that phase is all but done now too. So, where does that leave the already over-priced Canadian real estate market and the overly indebted Canadian population?! :(
 
Oct 1, 2004
8,122
205
Merci again Deerouz jaan. Now, I'm REALLY concerned. So, we basically have a population growth of around 350,000 per year, the majority of which (250,000) is coming from immigration. Housing starts have been hovering around 200,000 units for years now, even at 2 people per housing unit, that's new homes for 400,000 people a year which is already more than the population growth. If the immigration numbers start dropping significantly, who's going to absorb all these units?! I suppose a lot of the demand in the last 10-15 years was also from the babyboomer's kids moving out, but that phase is all but done now too. So, where does that leave the already over-priced Canadian real estate market and the overly indebted Canadian population?! :(
The issue is there are really 2 poles where this is a problem. Toronto & Vancouver and its about condos. That's really all where it stems from.
 
Behroujan,

The housing market is inflated and will definitely slow down but there won't be a crash. What will happen is a situation similar to Sydney, Australia where real estate prices are insanely high for a single reason: urban whores

Believe it or not, there's a huge percentage of humans who prefer the urban matchbox lifestyle and will actually pay more money to be boxed-in with other rat-race contenders in high-rise buildings. This was very hard for me to accept at first, but now I realize where Toronto is heading.

As a result of this pathetic urban mentality, living-space replaces physical land as a commodity. So you could literally sell people enclosed air-boxes 500 feet off the ground and charge them more money than you would if you were selling them an acre of fertile and liveable land.

Many people's excuse for this pathetic lifestyle is "jobs are all in Toronto" which is far from the real reason. The real reason is people's social insecurities and fears. It is always more desirable to be fearful as a crowd than as a loner. People are full of fear these days. They want to hold each others' hands and feel relieved.

There's also that fucking new hipster liberal new generation bullshit contributing to this. Let's hold a pink iPad, wear some brand cloths, enroll in a useless university program, ride the subway and pretend like we're living "the life" with $30,000/year jobs. If things get hard, we could always arrange to "Occupy" some major intersection or square.
 
Jun 9, 2004
13,753
1
Canada
Behroujan,

The housing market is inflated and will definitely slow down but there won't be a crash. What will happen is a situation similar to Sydney, Australia where real estate prices are insanely high for a single reason: urban whores

Believe it or not, there's a huge percentage of humans who prefer the urban matchbox lifestyle and will actually pay more money to be boxed-in with other rat-race contenders in high-rise buildings. This was very hard for me to accept at first, but now I realize where Toronto is heading.

As a result of this pathetic urban mentality, living-space replaces physical land as a commodity. So you could literally sell people enclosed air-boxes 500 feet off the ground and charge them more money than you would if you were selling them an acre of fertile and liveable land.

Many people's excuse for this pathetic lifestyle is "jobs are all in Toronto" which is far from the real reason. The real reason is people's social insecurities and fears. It is always more desirable to be fearful as a crowd than as a loner. People are full of fear these days. They want to hold each others' hands and feel relieved.

There's also that fucking new hipster liberal new generation bullshit contributing to this. Let's hold a pink iPad, wear some brand cloths, enroll in a useless university program, ride the subway and pretend like we're living "the life" with $30,000/year jobs. If things get hard, we could always arrange to "Occupy" some major intersection or square.
Soroosh jaan, I think you're generalizing very different types of people into the same category and I'm guessing it's because you have not lived downtown. As someone who lived downtown for a few years, let me tell you that you are indeed living the life. You have great shopping, restaurants and entertainment practically at your door steps and I have visited friends who had roof top pools with a great view and a sexy crowd enjoying the sun and great music on a Saturday afternoon while the rat race burbs crowd is at Costco trying to save a dollar on 10 lbs. of chicken!

I agree that the Toronto landscape has changed a lot in the last 8 years since I lived there, with a lot of buildings popping up and not enough retail and service businesses to cater to them - but the energy levels you experience downtown are still not comparable to living uptown or in the burbs and that's not the crowd that spends an hour in traffic or on the TTC everyday to get to work and back. They normally walk or bike to work, live healthier lifestyles and are living their lives in the evenings rather than watching others live their lives on reality TV.

Even in 2005, I didn't know anyone who was not a successful professional, made less than $50k / year or was obsessed with their pink iDevice and if they wore brand names, it was because they could afford it and not to show off. Yes, most of them were liberal yuppies, but I did not meet a single person in the 3-4 years that I lived there that fell into the group you're describing - all that group lives uptown or in the burbs and the reason they're obsessed with their iDevices or what type of clothes they wear even if they can't afford it, is because they have nothing else to do at night but to watch the Kardashians on TV. If anything, the liberal yuppies I knew were the wall street crowd and everything the occupy movement was directed at.
 
Last edited: