ETA Canada Travel Pass News

From the 30th, the UK will grant work visas for at least two years to graduates of major world universities such as Harvard, regardless of their country of origin.

As it became difficult to travel freely with Europe due to Brexit (the UK’s exit from the EU), the immigration policy was relaxed to attract talented people.

The target school must be in the top 50 of the world university rankings by at least two of the world’s three largest university evaluation institutions (QS, ARWU, THE).

According to the British government, US universities including as Berkley, Yale and Harvard have the most with 20, followed by universities in Japan, Germany, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and China.

In Canada, the three universities are the University of Toronto (UT), McGill and the University of British Columbia (UBC). There are currently no Korean universities.

As of the visa application date, those who have obtained a degree from these universities within 5 years are eligible, regardless of the country of origin. Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees can stay in the UK for two years and PhD degrees for three years, after which they can switch to other long-term work visas. Family travel is also possible. There is no limit on the number of people for visa issuance.

The new visa system limits the number of applicants, but the conditions are much more relaxed than the previous work visas. So far, to get a work visa in the UK, you have to prove that the UK company offering the job is a sponsor, meets a wage level, and doesn’t take away a job from a British worker.

Meanwhile, the UK government is allowing foreign students who are graduating from British universities to stay for up to two years after graduation to find and begin work.

There is a shortage of manpower at major Canadian airports and immigration procedures are severely congested.

After the number of travelers surged due to the easing of quarantine rules, passengers arriving at the airport are experiencing great inconvenience due to insufficient on-site manpower handling immigration.

At present, even after major quarantine rules such as mandatory pre-coronavirus screening have been abolished at airports across the country, basic quarantine procedures such as mandatory quarantine-related questions during immigration screening and instant random testing are still being implemented.

However, the confusion at the arrival hall has not been resolved for several months due to lack of preparation and shortage of manpower by the airport authorities.

There is absolutely not enough space at the airport to accommodate arriving passengers, so even when an aircraft arrives, passengers are often not able to get off immediately, resulting in hours of waiting in the cabin.

This ‘congestion’ is the worst at Toronto Pearson Airport.

A passenger who arrived from Orlando, the US on an Air Canada flight on the 16th, complained that he stayed in the plane for more than two hours after hearing the announcement that he had to wait in the plane due to circumstances at the arrival hall.

He said, “As the passengers’ dissatisfaction and anger grew, the flight attendants suffered hardships.

An airport official urged the government to make an immediate decision, saying that the only way to solve the problem is to shorten the time by completely eliminating the mandatory quarantine-related questions and random corona tests at the time of immigration.

The official said, “The current screening process takes four times longer than before the Corona crisis,” he said.

He also pointed out that “the normalization of travel and quarantine rules cannot coexist.”

In response, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation said, “We are delighted that Canadians can travel as they did before, but there is more work to be done to ensure a full recovery.” “he said.

Toronto airport stop after closing Canadian airspace

A Russian plane parked at Toronto Pearson Airport is in a position to pay a parking fee of nearly $100,000. The Russian freighter belonging to the Volga-Dnepr airline has been at the airport since February 27, shortly after the Canadian government closed airspace for Russian aircraft.

The Greater Toronto Airport Authority charged the plane 74 cents per minute for parking. The total cost of parking for 88 days is $93,000. However, the airport administration did not respond to the question of whether a bill was sent to the airline, citing legal reasons.

The freighter, which arrived in Canada from China via Anchorage and Russia in February, was due to leave Toronto shortly after arriving in Canada.

The Canadian Department of Transportation said in a statement on Wednesday that it had no plans to allow the planes to depart.

The immigration backlog phenomenon is gradually resolved.

Immigration Secretary Sean Fraser recently announced that the average processing time for spouses has returned to the pre-coronavirus level of 12 months. This period applies equally to domestic and foreign applicants.

According to the Ministry of Immigration, the average processing time for spouse invitations due to the corona crisis was 17 months when applying overseas and 15 months when applying in Korea.

However, in some cases it took up to 34 months.

Due to a serious backlog, some waiting people in Canada could not find a job and did not receive various welfare benefits such as health insurance. Waiters abroad have been separated from their spouses for years.

The cause of the delay in spouse immigration procedures is that the computerization of the Immigration Department was slow and the business was processed based on outdated paper documents.

In order to proceed with the Spouse Immigration process, the Canadian citizen sponsoring the spouse must be at least 18 years of age and demonstrate financial support.

Spouses receiving support must prove that they are legally married to a Canadian or have lived together for 12 months, and their health and criminal record will be reviewed.

30% of young immigrants will leave Canada within the next two years?

According to a recent poll of young immigrants aged 18-34 by Leger, 30% of respondents are likely to move to another country within two years.

One of the difficulties noted by immigrants is the high cost of living. After the global price rise from Corona, the price shock from Ukraine is in full swing, and young immigrants are staggered by the soaring apartment rents, especially due to the lack of a jeonse system.

The national cost of living has soared at the fastest rate in 30 years with inflation increase likely to rise further.

Home prices have risen 52% over the past two years, driven by record low interest rate mortgages, and housing is increasingly scarce as rentals dwindle.

Jennifer, a resident of Thornhill, said, “The high cost of living in Canada is a big obstacle for immigrants who have just arrived in Canada. It is difficult to meet living expenses even with a double-earning salary,” he said.

Also, immigrants with college degrees are not happy about issues related to fair job opportunities and salaries. 29% of immigrants with college degrees agree that immigrants are not paid fair wages.

They said they do not recommend Canada as an immigration destination for these reasons.

Tae-Hoon Oh, a lawyer at the Oh Tae-Hoon Migration Corporation, said, “There are quite a few cases where the husband returns to Korea and only the wife and children remain among young immigrant families.

Dave Scholz, Vice President of Ledger, said, “These findings suggest that particularly young and highly skilled migrants can leave Canada.”

When the pandemic brought the cruise industry to a halt, many operators gave customers credit for future travel however getting a cash refund from the operators was like pulling teeth in the cold and for some, impossible.

Following an investigation by the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) in Washington, new reimbursement rules have been put in place and have been in effect since April 18.

The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) in Washington launched an investigation which ultimately resulted in new industry rules and regulations for cruise operators.  The updated rules came into effect on April 18 2022.

A cruise is defined as “non-performing” if the voyage is cancelled or has been delayed for three days or more.

The updated cruise rules state that in the event of a “non-performance” of a cruise, passengers are entitled to a full refund of the entire deposit, including incidental costs.

The FMC has announced that cruise lines are required to post clear instructions on how a passenger can request and receive refunds on their websites.  It is expected that all operators adhere to the updated rules and supply refunds within a reasonable time.

The updated rules apply to all cruises scheduled after April 18, 2022, for all cruises scheduled prior to this date the previous operator’s refund conditions will still apply.

The FMC website has the most up to date information regarding refund regulations and an option to file a complaint against a cruise operator’s refund policies if a passenger believes the refund policy is not inline with the new rules.

The federal government has improved domestic employment-related regulations for temporary foreign workers to promote employment.

To overcome the nationwide labor shortage, the Federal Immigration Department has changed and applied various matters from the 4th, including extending the validity period of the LMIA, which is applied by domestic employers when hiring foreigners, from 9 months to 18 months. did.

In addition, the maximum time period of employment for workers has been extended for those who are working through the high wage and global talent stream to three years, previously being two years. These measures will provide more opportunity for workers to obtain permanent residency.

The limit on the number of seasonal workers employed at farms was removed and the working period was increased from 180 days per year to 270 days per year.

The changes will see sectors including manufacturing, hospitality, construction, health and residential care facilities hiring up to 30% of their total workforce in low-wage positions through the temporary migrant worker program.

The ban on LMIA applications for low-wage jobs in the lodging, food service, and retail sectors in areas with unemployment rates of 6% or higher was ended, and applications can be made in these areas as well.

However, the impact of these measures on the Korean American industry, which is suffering from a labor shortage, is expected to be negligible.

“The extension of the validity period of the LMIA means that if foreigners staying abroad had to enter Canada within 9 months, this period was extended to 12 months,” said Lim Cheol-soo, CEO of Canada Plan Immigration and Study Abroad Consulting. These measures are meaningful in terms of resolving the labor shortage problem for Canadian society, but they are almost unrelated to restaurants, the main business of Koreans,” he explained.

The tourism industry is pouring out complaints about the corona restrictions at Pearson Airport.

The Ontario tourism industry has urged the federal government to lift coronavirus restrictions on the recent delays in immigration at Pearson Airport.

Chris Bloer, president of the Wenzhou Tourism Association, said on the same day, “Anything needs to be done before we lose our international standing and the expected profit from overseas business travelers and tourists.”

Federal Transport Minister Omar Algabra said on the 11th that although airport security is increasing staff, the lack of manpower is probably not the main reason as the number of flights is still at 70% of pre-pandemic levels.

Although there is a shortage of manpower, the Canadian Air Transport Security Agency revealed that customs clearance processing time is being delayed due to corona-related inspections of inbound travelers, implying that various additional procedures due to the corona are the main cause of delays in procedures.

On the other hand, Onju also showed a calming phase of the corona virus that day. The number of new cases increased by 165 from the previous day, but decreased by 540 from a week ago. The number of deaths, inpatients, and intensive care patients decreased by 18, 225, and 30, respectively, from a week ago.

Is it because the federal government neglected to supply and supply security personnel?

Due to the lifting of travel restrictions due to the corona crisis, major airports across the country, including Toronto Pearson Airport, are crowded. Due to the crowds of travellers, the waiting time before boarding the plane is long, causing complaints.

The Federal Air Transport Security Service (CATSA), which is responsible for screening passengers and baggage, said on the 2nd that “the time to pass through the checkpoints is being delayed as travel demand recovers.”

New Democratic Party lawmaker Matthew Greene said, “I visited Pearson Airport on the morning of the 2nd to return home to Ottawa, and I was amazed.  Congestion at the airport is expected to continue for the next several weeks.

Federal Transport Minister Omar Al-Habra said the government is in talks with related ministries to secure adequate manpower, but it could take several weeks to normalize.

CATSA provides current waiting times at Pearson Airport through its website.

Air Premia claims to be Korea’s first ‘hybrid’ airline and are about to start routes to Canada. This is good news for Koreans who have a narrow selection of airlines to Korea.

If a new airline enters the Korea-Canada route, which is currently operated by only two airlines, Korean Air and Air Canada, improvement in service and price reduction is expected due to competition to attract customers.

Founded in 2017, Air Premia received the government’s air transport business license in 2019 and is scheduled to start service between Los Angeles and Singapore around June or July of this year. After that, it plans to advance into long-distance routes such as Vancouver, Hawaii, and Spain.

If the Vancouver route starts, the Toronto route can also be expected. Air Premia applied for permission to operate the Incheon-LA route with the U.S. Department of Transportation in July last year and is awaiting approval in the first half of this year.

The ‘Hybrid Service Carrier’ promoted by Air Premia refers to a new concept airline created by taking only good points for customers, such as premium services from large airlines and low fares from low-cost airlines.

The plan is to secure and operate 10 Boeing 787-9s, which are mid- to long-range aircraft, by 2024.

The new airline says it will provide consumers with a variety of choices and benefits while providing business-class services, including introducing premium economy seats with good cost-effectiveness, providing high-quality in-flight meals and Wi-Fi, and large seat monitors.

In particular, the maximum seat width is 42 inches, which is the widest among models in the same class. The price is said to be 80% of that of its competitors.