THE PROCESS

Obtaining Landed Immigrant Status was everyone's goal who sought refuge in Canada. Getting "Landed" was a simple process in most regards, it was based upon a point system. You were given points for different factors. For instance, you were given five points for speaking English, five points for speaking French. One point for every year of completed schooling, a varying number of points for your occupation or trade etc. The true beauty of the system however was that unlike almost every other country in the world, which accepted applications for immigration only from applicants who were still in their home country, Canada permitted potential immigrants to apply for this status while already being in Canada. And should you be rejected on your initial application, you could appeal the process which could take years. But, and this is without a doubt perhaps the biggest "but" of all time, an applicant could remain and live in Canada while awaiting their appeal hearing. Again, this could take years. (This happened in my case. I applied for Landed Status in 1971. I was rejected and appealed. I was finally granted Landed Status in 1974.) So basically the job of the counselors at all of the aid centers was one of preparing the individual to do as well as possible on their initial application for Landed Immigrant Status.

We knew what trades or skills were most in demand in Canada, (We had obtained a copy of the Canadian Immigration Department's Directory Of Occupational Skills And Services, a MOST valuable book, indeed.) thereby insuring the most points possible for career possibilities. We had Priests, doctors, lawyers and indian chiefs who would offer up letters of recommendation or reference for individual applicants. It was a process not unlike a client and his attorney preparing for a court appearance. In many ways that was exactly what it was, because the outcome, good or bad, was most definitely a life altering experience. Still, with the right preparation and a bit of scheduled luck we managed to maintain a success rate of getting people landed that hovered around 85-90%. Okay, so maybe we bent the rules a bit here and there, in fact, maybe we just out and out lied in a few cases but Canada gained from our dirty deeds. They got a helluva lot of new citizens who had a heart, a mind and a conscience. Some have gone far and garnered much success in their adopted nation, of this I have no doubt.

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Gary W. Davis.
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This Page Last Updated On May 1, 2008.