Canada Immigration new rules effective from June 26, 2010

To reduce the federal skilled category backlog, Canada will accept only 20,000 applications with a maximum of 1,000 applications per occupation for those applying under the occupation list. However, this limit does not apply to applicants with a job offer. These changes are in line with other countries viz UK, Australia and New Zealand as these countries match the supply and demand needs of the local market. These criteria affect the applicants who have applied on or after June 26, 2010. If the application was received before June 26, 2010, it will be processed according to the rules that were in effect at that time. Canada is also proposing new eligibility criteria for the immigrant investor program. Instead of $800,000 the personal net worth of the investor required will be $1.6M so it makes an even greater contribution to the Canadian economy. The investor will be required to make an investment of $800,000 instead of from $400,000. Other countries have much higher criteria for investors; it should be noted that Canada has not changed its criterion since 1999 that makes it the most popular destination for investor category and draws a larger number of applicants than can be admitted every year under the immigration plan. Due to this processing times have been increasing. Canada has stopped accepting new investor applications until the new criteria are announced.

The 29 occupations for the Federal Skilled category are:

0631 Restaurant and Food Service Managers
0811 Primary Production Managers (Except Agriculture)
1122 Professional Occupations in Business Services to Management
1233 Insurance Adjusters and Claims Examiners
2121 Biologists and Related Scientists
2151 Architects
3111 Specialist Physicians
3112 General Practitioners and Family Physicians
3113 Dentists
3131 Pharmacists
3142 Physiotherapists
3152 Registered Nurses
3215 Medical Radiation Technologists
3222 Dental Hygienists & Dental Therapists
3233 Licensed Practical Nurses
4151 Psychologists
4152 Social Workers
6241 Chefs
6242 Cooks
7215 Contractors and Supervisors, Carpentry Trades
7216 Contractors and Supervisors, Mechanic Trades
7241 Electricians (Except Industrial & Power System)
7242 Industrial Electricians
7251 Plumbers
7265 Welders & Related Machine Operators
7312 Heavy-Duty Equipment Mechanics
7371 Crane Operators
7372 Drillers & Blasters - Surface Mining, Quarrying & Construction
8222 Supervisors, Oil and Gas Drilling and Service

Tejal Laul, Director Kampus Landing says “Canada continues to admit good number of students under Student Partnership Program popularly termed as SPP. There are 38 colleges under SPP. Minimum 6 bands IELTS is required to put the file under SPP; TOEFL is not accepted. The student with TOEFL score can file under but the file is not considered under Student Partnership Program SPP. Under Student Partnership Program SPP, the students have to submit very few financial documents viz bank loan approval.”

Oxford On the ‘Top’ again.

Oxford University remains at top of league table for sixth year running. 

The university league tables provide information for more than 600,000 applicants who face tough competition for places

With Cambridge coming second, Warwick comes third and St Andrews fourth – the pair have switched positions from last year. University College London, Lancaster, Imperial College, London School of Economics, Loughborough and York are in the top 10. London Metropolitan has come last.

The tables rank universities according to the following measures: how satisfied their final-year students are; how much they spend per student; the student/staff ratio; the career prospects of their graduates; a value-added score and what grades pupils have to achieve to stand a chance of being offered a place.

The tables provide vital information for the more than 600,000 university applicants who this year face the toughest ever competition for places.

Britain's oldest universities still dominate the high rankings.

Every year, final-year students score their universities according to how satisfied they have been with their courses, as part of the National Student Survey. The tables, compiled by independent consultancy firm Intelligent Metrix, heavily weight the results of this survey when compiling the rankings. Other league tables concentrate on research ratings.

The tables reveal that Kingston has fallen the highest number of places from last year – from 73rd to 98th, but Huddersfield is the biggest climber, having risen from 96th last year to 54th this year. Hertfordshire has also shot up, from 97th place to 60th.

Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group of large, research-intensive universities, said maintaining high rankings would be "challenging" because universities face "growing cost pressures and fierce competition from better resourced institutions in other countries". She said:

Aaron Porter, president-elect of the National Union of Students, said universities should be more open and accountable about where their funding is coming from and how it is used. He said: "Students have a right to expect a higher quality of education and improvements to their experience. They should also increasingly demonstrate to prospective students what they can expect from their experience and

‘Bogus students problem’ persists even today

As the US, UK and Australia compete for international students, fears of bogus applicants abusing visa systems persist, but recent research suggests fraud risk levels could be low.

The owner of the Florida Language Institute and one employee pleaded guilty last week to charges of making false visa applications on behalf of students applying to study English at their school.

The school, in the suburbs of Miami, was raided in March following a 12-month surveillance operation by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As well as the arrest of the two defendants and seizures of $2.4m in assets, 81 students from 12 countries were also detained in the Miami area.

The defendants are alleged to have failed to report that the majority of the school's students did not attend classes regularly.

Cases involving suspected visa abuses linked to education and the threat posed by allegedly bogus students grab headlines in other countries. The US, Britain and Australia compete to attract students travelling abroad for study – numbers that, according to OECD estimates, exceeded 3 million in 2007. Institutions must be seen to be safeguarding both their national security and the reputation of their education sectors.

The first line of defence against bogus applications is the application process itself. In the US last year, more than a third of the 490,000 student visa applications made were turned down. The UK rejected a similar proportion of the 350,000 requests it received. Yet only Australia has published a detailed analysis of why students are being refused visas, and by doing so, it has shone a light on the scale and impact of student visa fraud.

The evidence from Australia is that fraud is limited and that the detection and prevention procedures currently used by the department of immigration and citizenship (Diac), which are similar to those used by the US and UK, are fit for purpose.

Countries targeted for scrutiny include India, Mauritius, Nepal, Brazil, Zimbabwe and Pakistan. China, where only government registered agents are allowed to dispatch students and which sent 18% of Australia's 2008 total, was held up by Diac as a model for other countries.

The UK is also keen to improve the quality of agents, who are responsible for placing one in five foreign students. A British Council-led initiative has brought together representatives from the main countries offering English language courses to work on co-ordinating policies.

However, a categorical assessment of the risk posed by student visa fraud will require greater transparency from immigration authorities. Otherwise it is not possible to erase these problems completely.

Courtesy guardian.co.uk