BY SIMONE J. SMITH
You have been waiting to hear back about your Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR), but you have been told that they are backlogged. You feel your anxiety rising because you don’t want this to hurt your chances of getting your permanent residence, so you call Canada Immigration and they tell you that they are backlogged. You are frustrated, and feel hopeless, but you are unsure of what to do.
Maybe you have a family member, who was supposed to come to Canada, but then COVID-19 changed the world, and now your family members are dealing with travel restrictions, and Canada’s public health measures are posing difficulties for newcomers looking to enter the country.
The onset of the coronavirus pandemic changed the course of Canada’s immigration system in 2020 and while things have stabilized, the pandemic caused IRCC to make major adjustments in 2021.
Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced measures to improve client experience and modernize the immigration system. These measures are part of a broader process to address key challenges faced by clients, and achieve the more predictable processing times that clients expect and deserve.
In the Economic and Fiscal Update 2021, the Government of Canada proposed $85 million in new funding to reduce application inventories. The investment will support additional staff, allowing them to welcome people who can help address labour shortages and to return to processing service standards in various programs by the end of this year, including for study permits, work permits and permanent resident card renewals. They are also working to reduce processing times for visitor visas and proof of citizenship.
Ruby Sahota, the Member of Parliament for Brampton North, has been advocating for better client support and faster processing times at Immigration, Refugee,
and Citizenship Canada. “Immigration is the engine of the Canadian economy, helping to address labour shortages and keep our communities thriving,” said MP Sahota. “While Canada welcomed the highest number of permanent residents in a single year in 2021 by processing a record number of applications, border restrictions and other pandemic-related factors have led to delays for many applicants, and long waits for application updates.”
These improvements will build on what Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has already done to reduce wait times, such as hiring approximately 500 new processing staff, digitizing applications, and reallocating work among their offices around the world.
To help accelerate their processing work, they are expanding the use of advanced data analytics in helping officers sort and process visitor visa applications submitted from outside Canada. This system will improve client service by helping IRCC manage the increasing volume of visitor visa applications. IRCC made over half a million decisions on permanent resident applications in 2021.
They are further increasing processing capacity and plan to make 147,000 permanent residence final decisions in the first quarter of 2022, doubling what was done in the same period last year.
To further support permanent residence applicants, they will be expanding the digital application portal to include more clients in summer 2022. The transition to an online application process will minimize COVID-19-related delays associated with processing paper applications and will provide clients with immediate confirmation that their application was successfully submitted.
They are also introducing a new Permanent Residence Application Tracker this month for spouses and dependents, to allow clients to easily access their application information and status online.
To further address COVID-19-related challenges and expedite the process, IRCC has also developed a portal to allow permanent residence applicants in Canada to finalize their process and receive their permanent residency cards without any in-person interaction.
For citizenship applicants, IRCC has introduced online testing, developed an online application tracker, and launched virtual citizenship ceremonies. Over the last few months, they have hosted approximately 350 virtual ceremonies per month, and more than 170,000 new Canadians have been sworn in since April 1st, 2020. They are continuing to expand the use of virtual ceremonies.
Moving forward, they are exploring an option for those who wish to self-administer their Oath by signed attestation and celebrate their citizenship at a later date. This would shorten the waiting time for those at the final stage of their citizenship process.
The IRCC remains dedicated to providing meaningful, timely, and transparent information to their clients. This includes updating their online processing times tool in the coming months to give clients more up-to-date estimates of how long it will take to process their applications.
They are continuing to find ways to modernize how they deliver their programs and services, so Canada can continue to be a destination of choice for people all over the world.
