By Shelby Thevenot, Kareem El-Assal and Alexandra Miekus
MONTREAL, Canada (CIC NEWS) – The world is constantly evolving and so are we. Over the years, CIC News has become one of the Internet’s most popular sources of information on Canadian immigration, and we do not take that lightly.
We are humbled when we see our work cited in ground-breaking studies, picked up by other media, and being a part of the policy-making process as it was for the federal government’s study on the COVID-19 impact on Canadian immigration. It validates our efforts of delivering valuable information to anyone with an interest in Canadian immigration and motivates us to keep serving our readers.
It is impossible to tell the story of CIC News without mentioning CanadaVisa.com. In 1994, the late Attorney David Cohen launched one of the first online assessment tools for the Federal Skilled Worker Program on the CanadaVisa website. Before the Internet, you either had to go to a government official or an immigration lawyer in order to see if you were eligible for Canadian immigration.
CanadaVisa became the place to check your eligibility for Canadian immigration, and get help from a lawyer if you needed it. The content strategy on CanadaVisa was to offer centralized information on all of Canada’s economic immigration programs. Although you can access the government webpages separately, CanadaVisa gave users an option to find information on these programs at one location.
It soon became clear that there needed to be a way to update users on the new happenings in the Canadian immigration space. Without a unified news source, it is difficult to keep track of all the new immigration draws, and policy changes that affect immigrants.
Where CanadaVisa would have static content, CIC News would offer a newsletter that would keep people up-to-date with the ever-changing Canadian immigration landscape.
The first CIC News story ever was published on November 30, 1996. It was an update on an inland visa processing post in Vegreville, Alberta. After that, we published a series of Q & A articles where lawyers answered readers’ questions.
Today, nearly 4,000 articles later, hundreds of thousands of people all over the world are signed up for our newsletter. Up to two million unique users visit our website each month. We believe our success is driven by the goal provide the information that our readers need to come to Canada, and settle here. We are also a source of information for immigration lawyers, policymakers, academics, and anyone interested in the field of Canadian immigration.
We report on immigration programs and services, the Canadian economy, and the political climate on immigration in Canada. We have been there throughout the pandemic, keeping up with COVID-19 measures at the border and the effects it has had on Canada’s immigration system, job market, and population growth. We will still be here as the coronavirus situation continues to unfold.
Also, we will be monitoring the backlog at IRCC, providing monthly updates on the number of new permanent residents, and covering the Express Entry, PNP, and other immigration draws that you have come to know us for.
We have come a long way over the past 25 years, and we are looking forward to our future. We invite you to read our top 25 stories ever.
This article originally appeared on CIC NEWS on November 30, 2021.
