His story is among those of 40,000 people awaiting family reunification in the province. Added to the bottleneck created by Quebec’s immigration targets is a deepening crisis in Haiti. For three years, Véronique Tardif has been waiting for her husband taken there and she gets no estimate of the date when they will finally be reunited.
She had to go out of her way, and even “miracles,” says her immigration consultant, simply to obtain all the documents requested by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). Even if complete, will his file remain caught in the bottleneck caused by the threshold of 10,400 places per year in family sponsorship set by Quebec?
Obtaining a simple Haitian police certificate became a process for the couple, a procedure required by IRCC. “You must submit a request in person to the office of the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police,” indicates the Canadian ministry on its site. However, this same judicial entity is at the front of the war against gangs and the investigation into the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
In Port-au-Prince, armed gangs have in fact surrounded the courthouse, police stations as well as various headquarters of public institutions at several times since 2022. A state of emergency and a curfew are now in effect in the Haitian capital, where M’s husbandme Late, Lucner Mondelus, resides.
Trying to obtain a certificate was therefore “really complicated”: “It’s not like knocking on the door of the Guy-Favreau complex,” argues the Montrealer, referring to this government building in the metropolis. You have to “know the right person” and be very patient, she says.
For each new document requested, her husband “puts his life in danger”, also notes Mme Late, because of the risks inherent to traveling in the Haitian capital.
Waiting over waiting
“This situation is undermining me,” says the young fifty-year-old cancer survivor. Working two jobs, with a “heavy heart”, “exhausted” by all the steps, she now lives permanently with worry in her stomach. “I no longer listen to the news because it is too distressing to know what is happening in Haiti,” she says.
Introduced by mutual friends, the two members of the couple rubbed shoulders during several of the woman’s trips to the country. “I went back several times when it was still possible, before COVID. » When it temporarily became possible to travel again, in December 2020, she went to Port-au-Prince and they got married.
Returning to Montreal, in February 2021 she prepared a sponsorship application so that Mr. Mondelus could come and live with her in Quebec. It will take more than six months for his file to be considered officially opened by IRCC.
More than a year passes again. In August 2022, IRCC requests proof of their romantic relationship and a medical examination, completely normal procedures, indicates its accredited immigration consultant, Johanne Boivin-Drapeau.
But again, in 2023, “we are asked for a whole battery of documents”, more than 25 elements in total, underlines the latter, a little surprised.
It must be said that Mr. Mondelus lived for several years in the United States and in a few different states, which further complicated the search for documents. Even after an FBI report added to the evidence that Mr. Mondelus had no criminal record anywhere he lived, the demands continued. “The report is clear, there is no problem. They don’t trust the FBI? » asks Mme Boivin-Drapeau.
“The supreme insult” for Mme Late came when the Canadian visa office in Mexico wrote to him to “go the extra mile,” in correspondence including The duty was able to become aware.
Not at the end of their sorrows
On top of that, Véronique Tardif has the constant impression that she and her husband are treated “like simple forms, without any consideration for all the challenges we experience”. She also deplores the fact that they find themselves separated “while politics is being played on our backs”.
The last response received on the progress of the file came from the office of the local MP, which Mme Tardif asked repeatedly. IRCC said the latest documents sent were “readable” and if approved, the passport could be sent to a neighboring country. With the Canadian embassy in Haiti closed and the diplomatic staff having been reduced to nothing, where will the man be able to obtain his preliminary interview?
“Despite all the good faith and efforts, they are still blocked,” denounces Mme Boivin-Drapeau. Even once the case is admitted, it is impossible to know where Mr. Mondelus will fit in the increasingly thick pile, she adds.
In response to this type of request for information, an automatic message now indicates that it is Quebec which “holds exclusive power over the selection of immigrants in the family class”. Receiving more applications than Quebec allows it to process, IRCC sees a backlog forming.
In Ottawa, 20,500 applications have already been approved and have accumulated in recent months, according to figures from federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller. He recently said he wanted to circumvent the thresholds decreed by Quebec. At the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration, at the preliminary provincial stage, it is indicated that 19,400 people are also waiting to obtain their Quebec selection certificate. In total, there are between 40,000 and 43,000 people waiting, if we cross-reference the data from the two ministries.
“I pay my taxes and we are not going to ask the government for a penny. He’s going to come live with me, I’m going to pay the three months of health insurance up front, the opening of all the files. He’s going to work,” says Véronique Tardif. “There is no human element in immigration,” she breathes.