Dear CILA Members,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CILA Board of Directors hopes you are off to a successful start to the New Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are pleased to provide you with an update on our top developments to begin the year and what you can expect from us in the coming months:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stakeholder Relations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On February 7, Tamara Mosher-Kuczer represented<\/a> CILA before a Canadian Senate Committee study on Bill S-235, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n On January 29, CILA wrote a welcome letter<\/a> to IRCC\u2019s new Deputy Minister Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar. We are looking to schedule a meeting with him in the spring. We had met with his predecessor Christiane Fox in 2023 and were in touch with her regarding our forthcoming proposals on IRPA reform. (See more on this in the \u201cAdvocacy\u201d section below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Minister Miller\u2019s office responded<\/a> to the welcome letter we sent him in July. We are working with them to arrange a meeting by March to discuss the importance of providing IRCC clients with access to counsel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following the January 22 announced cap on international students, CILA released the following statement<\/a>, which was cited by the Times of India<\/a>. We are in the process of elaborating on our position since we anticipate international student policy will remain a prominent issue over the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CILA also submitted a letter<\/a> to the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC) to share concerns on unlicensed consultants offering immigration services in Canada. CICC\u2019s response was circulated on The Voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLEs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you to Mark Holthe for his presentation on PR Programs for Francophone Outside Quebec. Members can purchase access to the recording using the CILA 2024 Workshop Series registration form<\/a>. Once we receive your payment, we will send you the access details. We ask that members do not share workshop recordings or presentation materials with non-CILA members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you to Roxane Israel for hosting an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session. The AMA series is intended as a mentorship series. If you are interested in viewing the recording of this session, please reach out to info@cila.co<\/a>. Stay tuned for other AMAs later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sign up for our upcoming CLEs!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Join us on Thursday, February 22 for our feature presentation entitled \u201cProtecting Lost Canadians\u201d<\/a>, delivered by Sujit Choudhry and Naseem Mithoowani as they explore the implications of the Bjorkquist et al.<\/em> case on children born abroad to a Canadian citizen parent. This presentation is open to non-members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sign up for our Thursday, February 29 workshop, \u201cA How-to-Guide to Preparing H&C Applications\u201d<\/a> by Ronalee Carey as she covers practical questions to help you with H&C submissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New Articles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our Members helped us release a number of thought-leadership articles, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We sincerely thank Lev, Samuel, Yameena, Maryam, Siavash, and Michael for their great contributions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Want to write an article for CILA? Please click here<\/a> to learn how!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n