They say, my friend, that Canada has opened the door to immigration for Egyptians, and many people thought that this meant immigration to Canada had become easy for Egyptians. That’s why we wanted to clarify a few facts about the topic:

First of all, Canada has opened the door to asylum for any human being on the face of the earth. If you have problems of religious, political, or racial persecution, or as a result of being denied any of your rights in your country, or if you come from areas of war or natural disasters, you can apply for asylum to Canada through its embassy in your country. You submit documents proving that you are persecuted or that there are real problems threatening your life and future. They hold a hearing session with you, meaning a personal interview, with a translator present if you do not speak the language. This interview requirement was recently canceled for Egypt and Yemen to speed up procedures, which is what caused confusion among people.

You submit your documents and wait for the response. If approved, they send you a medical examination request from the embassy. You take it and go for medical tests with approved doctors in Egypt. After that, you send your passport to the embassy to receive the visa as a refugee if the medical examination is accepted. You then enter Canada and receive permanent residency for life, but with conditions that differ from the conditions of permanent residency for immigrants:

An immigrant, in order to maintain and renew residency, is required to stay in Canada for two years out of every five years. These two years can be consecutive or separate, and they can travel freely to any country in the world. As for the refugee, they are not allowed to return to their home country, renew their home country passport, or even renew a driver’s license, otherwise the asylum will be canceled. Simply put: you asked to leave your country because of problems—why would you want to go back?! Then just stay there.

The refugee arrives in Canada and has a sponsor for one year. The sponsor can be the government, or a group of Canadian volunteers in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or without it. The sponsor provides housing, food, clothing, and transportation for one year. The refugee’s children enter schools, all for free, naturally. They also provide language-learning centers so the refugee can later work, explain the country to them, and help them adapt. After one year, you work and support yourself, and the government helps you find a job.

After four years, you have the right to apply for a Canadian passport, and after obtaining it, you can travel wherever you want—even to your home country.

Canada used to accept 7,500 refugees annually from around the world until the end of 2015. The number was increased to 16,000.

What does that mean? It means Canada takes 16,000 people per year from the entire world. Even if the number increases by a few hundred, it is carefully calculated. That means Egypt’s share might be around 200 people. If distributed across all of Egypt, that would be about 8 people per governorate.

So why did Al Jazeera, as usual, phrase the news in that way?!

For more information, and away from rumors, please visit the official website of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada at the following link:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/