In accordance with the Access to Information Act (ATI), information can be obtained on immigration records held by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. ATI reports have valuable information on the processing of your Canadian permanent and temporary residence applications. It is not the same as the e-Client found on CIC website, which provides very limited information on the status of your file.

To protect the health and safety of Canadians, as well as reduce and prevent excessive demand on Canada's health and social services system permanent or temporary resident applicants may be required to undergo a medical exam. Your dependants must also pass a medical examination if they are coming with you or even if they are not coming with you. Applications for permanent residence will not be accepted if that person's health..

If you want to become a Canadian citizen, you must:

1. Determine if you are eligible to become a citizen.
2. Apply for citizenship.
3. Take the citizenship test, if you are between the ages of 18 and 54.
4. Attend a citizenship ceremony, if you are 14 or older.

Canada's new government has announced support and funding for a project organized by Carrefour d'immigration rurale (CIR) Evangeline in Wellington, P.E.I. (Canadian Province of Prince Edward Island), to assist in attracting immigrants to this rural Francophone community. A funding of $49,150 provided by Canada's New Government through the Official Languages Action Plan, is being used for a number of activities including community and school awareness programs..

Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) will make it easier for business immigrants to set up new businesses in the western Canadian province of British Columbia. Last week British Columbia Provincial Nominee Program had lowered the minimum investment requirements for all three categories of the British Columbia PNP Business Stream. The investments have been lowered from $800,000 to $400,000 for Business Skills, from $300,000 to $200,000 for Regional Business, and from $1 million to $500,000 for Strategic Projects.

The European Commission has criticized about Canada's visa requirements for the eight recent European Union (EU) members. Canada and the European Union had a reciprocal visa-free status for visitors until 2004, when Hungary, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Poland joined the EU. Presently, citizens of these countries, along with those from Romania and Bulgaria (which became EU member states in 2007) require a temporary resident visas to visit Canada.

Most newcomers and immigrants to Canada tend to settle in the three biggest cities which are Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Many newcomers have also choosen to live in the medium-sized cities, which they feel have as much to offer as the larger cities with a better quality of life. Of the 1.1 million immigrants who landed in Canada between 2001 and 2006, about 70 per cent settled in one of the "big three" cities..

The point system is one of the selection tools used to determine if you are eligible to apply for Immigration to Canada. It is assessed on six main factors including age, education, work experience, language ability and adaptability. The maximum possible score is 100. If your score is the same or higher than the pass mark, then you may qualify to immigrate to Canada in the selected category.

A new Statistics Canada 2006 report reveals that the province of Manitoba has the highest employment rate in Canada among recent immigrants. In Manitoba, the employment rate among this group is a country-leading 73.1 per cent and its unemployment rate is only 6.8 per cent, the second lowest in Canada.

On August 24th, Canada's Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney announced the implementation of the redesigned permanent resident (PR) card. The PR card will be in circulation beginning today. The new card contains micro-lettering and fine line patterns that are resistant to copying, similar to banknotes. Also, the card holder's photograph and personal details are recorded on a bar code in an encrypted format that may only be read by authorized officials.