Permanent Residency: Permanent Resident

Federal Government Dept: One such change would allow the federal government to strip people of their permanent-residency status if it determines that the country from which they fled is now safe to return to, according to Montreal Gazette. Acquiring Canadian citizenship is the only escape from the uncertainty, but before someone can apply for citizenship, he or she must have been a permanent resident of Canada for at least three years and a refugee bill introduced last week in Parliament might well help streamline Canada's cumbersome refugee-determination process, but along with the bill's positive measures are some potentially worrisome changes. In practical terms, this means that refugee claimants who have been granted permanent residency status will still have to live for years with the threat of deportation hanging over their heads. The current refugee-determination process is overly long, which means that by the time a refugee has been granted permanent residency, several years have often passed. By then, families have put down roots and started a new life. It seems unfair at that point to force people to go through the upheaval of starting over yet again because of events over which they have absolutely no control. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.