Canada continues to be one of the best destinations for immigrants around the world. But growing backlogs, exhausting processing time, and a lack of communication and transparency are causing growing frustration among those seeking their Canadian dream.
According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) published on the immigration news website CIC News, the backlog increased to more than 2 million applications in all categories in April, compared with 1.8 million in March.
CTVNews.ca received over 100 responses to our call from people who fell behind, from those facing delays in visa processing to those waiting to become permanent residents.
Meghrajsinh Solanki, a business analyst and compliance analyst based in Windsor, Ont., Is one of two million candidates still unknown. He has been waiting for almost three years for his family’s application for permanent residence. In September 2019, he and his wife applied to the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) program, designed for skilled workers with Canadian work experience.
But Solanki has not heard any updates from immigration officials about the status of his application for more than four months, and has no idea how much longer he will have to wait.
CEC invitations have been suspended since September 2021, but the IRCC plans to resume them in early July 2022.
We have seen so many dreams of having a good life together here in Canada, raising our children, and so on. But it was just postponed, delayed and yet we have nothing in hand, “he told CTVNews.ca on the phone on Tuesday.
Meghrajsinh Solanki and his wife have been waiting for three years to hear their application for PR.
While Solanki lives in Canada on a work visa, his wife still lives in India and they cannot reunite until they are granted permanent resident status. He applied for a visa for his wife’s visitors last September, but said she was denied. He has applied again this month and is waiting to receive an answer.
Solanki says his experience with the Canadian immigration system has been so disappointing that he has even considered giving up his candidacy and returning to India permanently, even though he has already bought a house in Canada.
“Of course, no matter how much you have, if you don’t have your loved one with you, there’s just no point in living apart,” he said.
PERFECT STORM
When COVID-19 struck for the first time, the IRCC closed many private offices and canceled interviews, citizenship ceremonies and other appointments until its staff moved from work to home.
“I can tell you that such a transition to work from home is not easy,” Daniel Levy, a senior lawyer at Cohen Immigration Law, told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview.
On top of that, the federal government introduced new immigration programs that only contributed to the already backward immigration system.
In April last year, the government created a new permanent residence for 90,000 key temporary workers and international graduates.
Last September, following the break-up of the Afghan government and the Taliban’s takeover, Canada introduced special resettlement programs for at least 40,000 Afghan refugees. As early as March, the Trudeau government also introduced an emergency travel permit between Canada and Ukraine, which allows an “unlimited” number of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion to arrive in Canada on temporary residence visas.
All of this has created a “perfect storm” for the continuing immigration backlog, according to Stephen Green, a senior partner at immigration law firm Green and Spiegel LLP.
“We have a great immigration policy. I think we have the best in the world. Really. But the problem is that at the moment we don’t have the ability, due to this perfect storm, to deal with any increase in numbers, “he told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview. “We need to resolve this urgently.”
CTVNews.ca looked more closely at the processing time for some of the popular visa categories to understand the timing of the immigration backlog. Please note that these processing times are subject to change as the IRCC continues to add new data.
Green says he currently has more than 5,000 permanent residency cards in Etobicoke, Ont. the immigration center is waiting to be distributed and some of these permanent residents are abroad and have been waiting for more than a year.
The time it takes to process PR applications takes so long that many people miss meetings, he said.
Even for permanent residents who are about to acquire their Canadian citizenship, the processing time is also grim, taking an average of 27 months, according to data extracted from CTVNews.ca on May 1, 2022.
But for some future Canadians, such as Montreal resident Carolina Marcucci, it takes even longer. She applied for citizenship in September 2019 and passed her citizenship exam last August, but has no idea when she will be invited to take the oath.
“It is disappointing that I cannot communicate with them and do not know if there is a timeline or I will have to wait another three years,” she told CTVNews.ca by phone.
LIFE ON DUTY
Long delays mean that applicants have to postpone critical life events and decisions as they continue to wait for a decision from immigration officials.
Processing time is often inconsistent among applicants, and for some, such as Daniel Bernardes and his wife, who wait nearly 10 months, the process can take much longer.
The couple applied for the Provincial Nomination Program (PNP) last July, but have been awaiting an update ever since. Accumulated cases have left the family exhausted, and Bernardes said it has depressed him.
“We had really high hopes when we came here with all the news we get around the world that Canada is a country that invites immigrants, I’m not so sure now,” he said.
In 2021, as their application was in progress, Bernardes had postponed his sister and mother-in-law’s visit to Brazil, both battling health complications.
“If I’m in Brazil and (my PR card) arrives in Canada, it’s a huge fiasco because I’m almost stuck in my home country,” he told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview.
Daniel Bernardes with his wife Iva (center) and their daughter Sofia (left) have been waiting for nearly 10 months to receive up-to-date information about their PR.
With the restrictions eased this year, Bernardes’ wife is reserving tickets to see her mother and sister this summer, hoping their permanent residence will be approved by then. But last month, both sick family members in Brazil died before she had a chance to say goodbye.
“Although the IRCC is not responsible for their deaths, this PR process prevented her from returning home earlier and still seeing her mother alive. “Only those who have lost someone without being able to say goodbye would realize how sad it is,” he said.
Caroline Hayashi, a medical worker and mother of two from Hamilton, Ont., Has also applied for permanent residency status as part of a new path for key workers. She and her family submitted their application last May, but a year later she is still waiting.
Caroline Hayashi, a health worker and mother of two from Hamilton, Ont. lives separately from her husband in Brazil and has been waiting for an update of her application for a year.
Like many applicants, Hayashi and her children had to live separately from her husband in Brazil, who could not join them until the family received permanent residence. On top of that, because the family has not yet received their permanent residence, Haiashi’s 12th grader’s son cannot go to university or college without paying excessive international tuition fees.
“I can’t move on with my life. And even my son, he wants to start his life at university or college and we can’t decide without that answer, “she told CTVNews.ca by phone. “We’re getting depressed from this situation.”
LACK OF COMMUNICATION, TRANSPARENCY
For Solanki, the worst part of his experience dealing with immigration bureaucracy in Canada is not the long processing time, but rather the lack of communication from immigration officials about when to expect an answer.
“The problem is not waiting. The real problem is that they don’t even tell us how long to wait. It’s absolutely uncertain and made our lives uncertain, because every decision in our lives depends on it,” he said.
And for Marcucci, she says there were times when she was detained for two to three hours to try to contact an agent.
“It’s very impossible to reach an agent,” she said.
At present, statistics related to the list of cases reflect a certain point in time, and as applications are finalized and new applications are received every day, these numbers tend to fluctuate frequently.
Alex Fomchenko, an immigration lawyer who runs his own law firm, says he has heard countless such stories. Applicants may try to call a helpline, but will often receive voicemail saying no agents are available.
“The system is getting worse every day. And you are wondering if this government is living in a bubble, because it is so detached from this reality, “Fomenko told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview.
As a person about to become a Canadian citizen, Fomchenko himself also copes with the same delays and lack of communication. He has been trying to reschedule his citizenship ceremony for the past two and a half months, but has been unable to contact anyone. He is now hesitant to visit his daughter in Denmark, fearing he may miss any subsequent IRCC communications while he is away.
People who start their permanent residence status from abroad have even more problems getting to an immigration agent and …
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