Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced measures to improve client experience and modernize the immigration system. These measures are part of a broader process to address key challenges faced by our clients, and achieve the more predictable processing times that our clients expect and deserve.

We know that many talented and skilled newcomers have waited long during the pandemic. In the Economic and Fiscal Update 2021, the Government of Canada proposed $85 million in new funding to reduce application inventories. The investment will support additional staff, allowing us to welcome people who can help address labour shortages and to return to processing service standards in various programs by the end of this year, including for study permits, work permits and permanent resident card renewals. We are also working to reduce processing times for visitor visas and proof of citizenship.IRCC made over half a million decisions on permanent resident applications in 2021. We are further increasing processing capacity.

To further support permanent residence applicants, we will be expanding the digital application portal to include more clients in summer 2022. The transition to an online application process will minimize COVID-19-related delays associated with processing paper applications, and will provide clients with immediate confirmation that their application was successfully submitted. Efforts to date have allowed average processing times for spousal sponsorship applicants to return to the service standard of 12 months for new applications.

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The as the authorities, this plan contains immigration targets for this year and also for the two years, to welcome immigrants under its various economic, family and humanitarian class programs.

Meanwhile, this will be the first announcement since the country made an astonishing announcement in October 2020 to welcome over 400,000 new immigrants per year moving forward or 40, 000 per year than its previous targets.

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Transport Minister Omar Alghabra informed about Canada’s final orders and guidance, issued to airlines and railways following consultations.

“All travellers in Canada aged 12 and older must be fully vaccinated before boarding planes, trains or cruise ships in this country from October 30. Even those fully vaccinated need to show proof of a negative molecular COVID-19 test upon returning to Canada. Ottawa is facing pressure to drop that requirement,” the orders said.

Canadians travelling abroad will need to follow the rules of the specific airline and country they are entering, which may include testing.

According to the government’s rules, travellers should be fully vaccinated two weeks prior to travel.

To qualify as a fully vaccinated traveller to Canada, you must have received at least 2 doses of a Government of Canada-accepted COVID-19 vaccine or a mix of 2 accepted vaccines.

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In a tweet tagging minister, CM Capt wrote, “Urge @DrSJaishankar, MEA, GoI, to arrange for immediate evacuation of all Indians, including around 200 Sikhs, stuck in a Gurudwara in Afghanistan after the #Taliban takeover. My govt is willing to extend any help needed to ensure their safe evacuation. @MEAIndia”

There is mayhem in the country after Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, almost 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition and locals are attempting to forcibly enter planes leaving the Afghan capital. A video in which people were seen attempting to enter planes forcibly to flee the country has gone viral on the social media.  In this chaos, at least five people reported dead.

Meanwhile, India is trying to evacuate hundreds of its officials and citizens from Kabul, officials said.

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The Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan, almost 20 years after being ousted by a US-led military coalition and locals are attempting to forcibly enter planes leaving the Afghan capital. A video of the incident has gone viral on the social media.

Media reports state that US troops, who have taken over the airport as evacuations out of the city continue, had reportedly fired in the air to scatter the crowds earlier on Monday morning.

Reuters news agency puts the death toll higher, with one witness saying he had seen the bodies of five people being carried to a vehicle. Another said it was unclear whether the victims had been shot or killed in a stampede.

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ZURICH/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Trade tensions between India and the United States intensified on Friday as New Delhi filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over steep fee increases for U.S. non-immigrant temporary work visas.

The WTO said in a statement that India has disputed the doubling of the fees for H-1B and L-1 work visas and limits on their numbers. The visas are typically used by thousands of Indian nationals hired by information technology services firms operating in the United States.

The complaint comes just days after the United States won a WTO ruling in favor of its challenge to India’s domestic content rules for its solar power subsidy program after months of negotiations failed to produce a settlement.

In its filing, India said the new U.S. visa measures seemed  inconsistent with the WTO commitments the United States had made, because the moves treat Indian IT workers in the United States less favourably than their American counterparts.

In December, the U.S. Congress doubled the cost of sponsoring H-1B visas to $4,000 each and L-1 visas to $4,500 each as part of a major spending bill. Indian business lobby NASSCOM estimated that would inflate costs for Indian IT export firms by $400 million a year.

India is upset that the visa fees were raised without consultation. Its $150 billion outsourcing sector provides about three quarters of the country’s annual revenue from the United States. The outsourcing companies send thousands of staff every year to work at client locations.

Analysts say the measure will cut 50 to 60 basis points off the profit margins of companies like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys starting this fiscal year, which begins in April.

A spokesman for the Indian trade ministry declined to comment on the filing.

In Washington, U.S. Trade Representative spokesman Andrew Bates said that the United States “looks forward to discussing our H-1B visa program with our Indian counterparts.”

“We are confident that the United States’ visa program, which was recently updated on a bipartisan basis by Congress, is fully consistent with our WTO obligations,” Bates added.

The United States has 10 days to respond to the request, which will go to the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body if the two countries cannot reach an agreement.

(Additional reporting by David Lawder in Washington)

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