The last 5 years have been particularly interesting years for those thinking of immigrating to Canada. You probably know that IRPA, the new Canadian immigration law, came into effect just about three years ago. This change has unfortunately made immigration to Canada, from Russia specifically, so much harder.

This can be clearly seen in the fact that even the number of people who applied for immigration in 2004 is more than 7 times less then the number of applications made in 1999. Only 580 applicants applied for immigration to Canada in 2004. The goal of the immigration ministry for the Moscow embassy is to accept more than 2500 families from Russia every year. Obviously they are no where near those levels for 2004. This is certainly a problem and the embassy is doing its best to attract applicants. The embassy needs the applicants so much that they are actually even having almost monthly seminars for those interested in immigration. This, ironically, is very different from 1999, when the embassy kept applicants out of the visa section using an armed Canadian soldier.

However, the changes in the immigration law should not really deter all those interested from applying to immigrate, as now the circumstances are actually better for those who hope to immigrate. Now although more complicated, still immigration to Canada is possible for more people than one may think.

IRPA, the new immigration law, was created in order to raise standards and accept only the best immigrants from all over the world. In creating IRPA, the bureaucrats of the Canadian ministry of immigration decided to create an objective system that would make all those hoping to immigrate from any country around the world, the same chances. They tried to create a system that would make it very easy for immigration officers to accept immigrants based on simple and easily identifiable factors. They wanted the law to be such that any Canadian immigration officer in China, France or Russia would not need to know the local situation in those countries, but would be able to make a decision using only objective documents. Unfortunately, IRPA does not reflect this hope and makes the criteria very different for immigrants from different countries. One great example is the situation in regards to the way education in Russia is considered under IRPA. It has always been a debatable question within academic circles about whether a Russian “diploma” received upon completing studies at the institute is equivalent to a Canadian Bachelors degree or that of a Masters degree. Under IRPA, a Russian diploma is unfortunately considered to be a Bachelor, which means that immigration applicants actually lose 5 points for not having a masters degree. This loss of points on education means that Russian applicants need to receive much higher points on the IELTS, the English exam. Scoring such high points on the IELTS is difficult even for native speakers. In my experience, even some of my clients who I believed are fluent in English, have not scored high enough on the IELTS to make up for the fact that their diploma is not considered to be a masters degree.

As such, clearly most hopeful immigrants believe, quite correctly, that their chances are not high. Nevertheless, IRPA did provide a chance for those who objectively cannot receive 67 points, which is the pass mark, to be accepted by an immigration officer based on totally subjective factors. This is actually where the understanding of a licensed professional immigration consultant can be of great assistance in helping many applicants to be accepted for immigration to Canada .

The immigration officer has the right to accept an applicant even if he does not receive the pass mark points. In Moscow, the visa officer will use this right only under some very subjective circumstances. When I meet with interested immigrants, I need to spend quite a lot of time with them personally in order to understand whether or not they are the type of applicant who will be accepted even if they do not garner the required amount of points. It is my training, knowledge and 13 years of experience working in Russia that helps me understand what kind of person will be accepted based on the subjective view of an immigration officer. My personal contact with my clients lets me make that judgment. As a matter of fact, I really do not understand how immigration firms in Canada can make that judgment, while working through their middlemen in Russia . The subjective aspects of IRPA are precisely the reason that it is incredibly important for me to get to know my clients so that I can work out the right strategy to be accepted for immigration to Canada .

To finish, although at first glance, IRPA makes immigration to Canada very difficult for Russians, a closer look shows that it is possible. Now, as a matter of fact, because of such a small amount of applicants coupled with embassy’s need to accept immigrants, it is a very good time to look into immigrating to Canada even if it may seem to be too difficult to be possible.

For more information on any questions relating to immigration to Canada please call our Moscow office at 095 363 0915/0916 or our Montreal ’s office at 1 514 284 1332.

Nuri Katz
president of Apex Partners of Canada Inc.

Short note:
Mr. Katz is a licensed immigration consultant (CSIC number M041798), living in Moscow since 1991. Since then he has been working in the immigration field helping people from the former Soviet Union, to immigrate to Canada . He speaks fluently Russian.