Delayed Iranian Applications Update - UCalgary HR and ISS

After meeting with Susan Parker, the vice provost of the student experience at the University of Calgary, and Brianna (Bree) Huene from International Student Services, the university announced a presentation on immigration topics for Iranian students and postdocs. About 70 people signed up for the meeting and at least 50 people showed up. The meeting was held on July 4th, 2018, in ST 140, at UofC main campus.

Previously, in the first meeting we had discussed things about

- Running a survey by the university to collect more thorough info
- Talking to the governors, MP's, etc to raise the issue
- Talking to the provincial government to help ease some of the troubles in the meantime:

<li value="1">Health care card renewal
- Driving license extension
- etc.

- Writing to the federal government and asking for the issue to be resolved. - The message the university is sending to departments regarding hiring Iranian students needs to be fixed.

In this meeting the presenters were:

- Brianna (Bree) Huene, RCIC, intl student immigration specialist
- Mayda Borbely, RISIA, intl student services assistant
- Catherine Sun, RCIC, Consultant, immigration
- Carlina Bamforth, RCIC, Consultant, immigration

Other people in attendance were:

- Susan Barker, vice provost of student experience (opened the meeting and then left)
- Casey Blais, from UToday
- about 50 Iranian graduate students and postdocs

Overall, the presentations were general information about immigration (temporary and permanent) with some question and answers, mostly aimed at students. There were a few topics about the delays, in bold fonts below.

What was discussed:

Susan:

University is aware of the problems, including the president and provost The problem is complicated We want to raise awareness in the community UofC will do an institutional survey Raise the issue with the provincial and federal government There is a gap in reaching out to undergrads etc, please tell us what else we could do

Bree:

The government claims the delays are in the security checks We’re working to help raise awareness in the community

Mayda:

Resources available at UofC for international students Drop any time at the office Q: Does this extend to non-students? HR will tell you

Bree:

Study permits, renewal process Post-grad work permits, application, renewal If there are delays with study permit etc, go see Bree so that they can work on it

Carolina:

Government gave the same answer about work permit delays Postdocs qualify for expedited processing, it wasn’t very successful, depends on the officer, it should take 2 weeks. Q: Something about A4, trainee, and not being a job Q: The NOC does not match our job as we don’t teach, makes it a trainee A person that has an open work permit does not need a LMIA

Catherine:

Bridging open work permit Q: do the benefits extend over the implied status?

Bree:

For a temporary resident visa:

- Apply VERY EARLY (this was Bree's advice)
- Include a letter of explanation that why you are applying so early
- Include your CV and that letter of information at the beginning

Q: the IRCC has not been responsive and that causes issues. -> survey Nicole every months gives information about PR application and one on one sessions

Mayda:

Driving licence in alberta can be extended Alberta health card can be extended for 90 days, in her case they did re-extended it too SIN doesn’t extend

Bree:

Family need to apply at the same time of the main applicant, separately Urgently leaving Canada without a valid Canadian visa: Only to USA with a valid study/work permit Aleberta temporary worker advisory

Casey ran a quick interview with me, and he was given the results of the survey, and I emailed him some of the news coverage, and some of the tweets and links of other things happened so far. He will write a story for UToday.

Bree will work with me to design and run a more informative survey regarding the impact this has had on UofC affiliates.