As of the end of last year, there were more than two million immigration applications to be processed by IRCC, including those seeking work and study permits along with those applying for permanent residence. CARLOS OSORIO/Reuters
The federal government is considering emergency measures to reduce its backlog of immigration applications, including removing eligibility requirements for nearly half a million visitor visas, according to a policy memo seen by The Globe and Mail.
A draft document from December revealed that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is trying to significantly reduce or eliminate its inventory of visitor visa applications by February and is prepared to use “aggressive measures” to do so. There were more than 700,000 applications for temporary resident visas (TRVs) in the system as of early December, a fraction of the total.
In total, there were more than two million immigration applications to be processed at the end of last year, including those seeking work and study permits, along with those applying for permanent residency. IRCC is concerned that the stockpiles “undermine public confidence” in the department, the memo said.
To reduce the number of visitor visa applications, IRCC was discussing two options, according to the memo. In the first, the department will process about 195,000 applications in bulk. This may include large numbers of tourists from countries that require a visa to visit Canada.
In the second option, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser would waive certain eligibility requirements for approximately 450,000 applications. As other efforts are made to reduce TRV lag, this solution will apply to all other applications.
By waiving the eligibility rules, foreign nationals will not have to prove that they will leave Canada when their visa expires.
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Visitors will still be subject to eligibility checks. This ensures, for example, that applicants are not a known threat to national security.
Two IRCC sources said the government had opted for the second option and that an announcement could be made within days. The Globe and Mail did not identify the sources because they are not authorized to discuss department policies publicly.
This will be a temporary destocking measure and the final version of the policy may differ from what is proposed in the document.
As a result of the change, one of the sources said, immigration officials will not assess whether visitors have sufficient funds for their stay in Canada.
In a statement, Mr Fraser did not respond to questions about the policy memo or the changes under consideration.
“Canada is now processing visitor visa applications faster than even before the pandemic,” he said. More than 260,000 visitor visas were processed in November, he said, compared with a monthly average of about 180,000 in 2019.
“Despite the progress we’ve seen, there’s still a lot more to do to achieve pre-pandemic processing times,” Mr Fraser added.
The memo indicated that these measures could be kept secret, saying that none of them should be disclosed to the public.
However, immigration consultants are likely to see “large volumes with high approval rates” until the measures end up being disclosed in access to information requests.
IRCC is under considerable pressure to reduce the list of applications. As of November 30, there were approximately 2.1 million applications in the system, more than half of which were in backlog – meaning they have been there longer than service standards for processing.
There has been an improvement recently: two months earlier there were 2.6 million applications in the system.
Prospective visitors and immigrants are extremely frustrated by processing delays. This led to damage to IRCC’s reputation and a wave of lawsuits against it. Some PR applicants have waited years for a decision, for example, while others are nearing the end of their work permits but have yet to hear whether they can stay in the country and continue their work.
IRCC says it has invested millions of dollars in its processing capacity and hired hundreds of new employees to speed up decision-making.
“We’re actually moving cases out of our system faster than they’re coming in, which gives me faith that we’re back on track,” Mr Fraser told a press conference in December.
However, stocks are significantly higher than before the pandemic, and as the federal government pursues record levels of immigration, a huge volume of applications continues to come in.
Mr Fraser can use his powers under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to waive eligibility requirements. This was done recently to expedite visa processing for participants in the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP15) in Montreal.
The memo outlines various pros and cons of this approach. On the plus side, this would help reduce application inventory, resulting in better processing time for incoming files.
However, the document said that not all applicants would be “genuine visitors”. This could lead to approximately 8,600 asylum applications, also known as refugee applications. The memo notes that India and Nigeria are the two largest sources of TRV applications, and both countries rank in the top 10 for asylum seekers in Canada.
The increase in claims will subsequently put more pressure on all aspects of the refugee system, according to the document.
In addition, IRCC will approve eligibility for people with past denials and “derogatory information,” the memo said.
The two sources at the immigration department characterized it as a hasty decision that will result in fewer applications being considered. They said many officers in the department were appalled by the approach.
The sources also doubted how effective this method would be in quickly reducing the backlog, given that immigration officials would still have to carry out eligibility checks on applications.
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