The significant delays in immigration to Canada could lengthen further before improving, admits the Minister of Immigration, Sean Fraser.
“We are really close to the expected peak [de l’attente pour obtenir un visa]said Minister Fraser on Wednesday. It is possible that there will still be an increase for about a month, but then it is expected that there will be a significant reduction in the time it takes to issue a visitor’s visa. [ou] for different immigration routes. »
Speaking from British Columbia, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship announced the hiring of more than 1,250 new public servants by the fall to try to solve the significant backlogs in the system and issue immigration documents within service standards “by the end of the year”.
He promised in the same breath to publish monthly on the government website data on the volume of requests and the time required to obtain certain documents.
“It’s important for people who want to come — and we want them to come — that they have an idea of how long it’s going to take. »
The duty revealed in July that a visitor visa application could take up to five months of waiting, depending on the country they are from. Embassies have asked those who have been waiting for their document for more than a year and whose situation does not change to reapply, contrary to the indications on the government website.
The minister again refused to say on Wednesday whether or not he was advising these people to file a new request, under the pretext that “people can make their choice”. On the other hand, he clearly underlined that the filing of a second application would benefit from an accelerated process.
Foreign workers and students also find themselves in a chaos of administrative delays caused by the backlog of applications attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which portends a cascade of problems for businesses and educational institutions.
Progress… despite setbacks
“We are starting to make some pretty serious progress,” said Minister Fraser, in a press briefing interrupted by the noisy passage of planes and helicopters in the port of Vancouver.
He illustrated this progress by processing 760,000 more files in July this year than in July last year, out of a total of more than 3.7 million files. On the other hand, 54% of the system’s requests have already exceeded the deadlines prescribed by the service standards, he admits.
Despite the progress mentioned, the average wait for a visitor applying for a visa from Haiti, for example, has dropped from 87 days at the end of July to 98 days as of Wednesday. The Canadian embassy asked to allow 30 days to obtain this document before the pandemic.
“There is broad support for Canada’s increase,” the minister also repeated, at times addressing directly those who plan to come to the country to welcome them.