New immigration regulations, issued this week, require fluency in either English or French. In addition, a master's degree and several years of work experience will be necessary along with having a job or family in Canada at the outset in order to establish immigrant status. The rub is that these rules are retroactive and apply to thousands of immigrants currently waiting for their applications to be processed.
See "Canada tougher on skilled immigrants", IAN GUNN, BBC News Online, December 18, 2001