Determined to put an end to the long delays in processing Quebec permanent residence applications, immigration lawyers are preparing to file a lawsuit against the Minister of Immigration, Sean Fraser, and officials of his department to force them to deliver the goods. Currently, more than 40,000 Quebec skilled worker applications for permanent residency have been pending for months, some for five years, according to the notice that The duty was able to consult.
“I don’t understand why this isn’t the first file on the minister’s desk. It really should be treated as a priority! said Stéphanie Valois, president of the Quebec Association of Immigration Lawyers (AQAADI), the organization that will be the plaintiff in the lawsuit on behalf of immigrants.
Filed on February 23, the formal notice gives Immigration Minister Sean Fraser 15 days to act, failing which a lawsuit will be filed in Federal Court. Faced with the ministry’s radio silence, the president of AQAADI does not hide her exasperation. “It would be better for everyone if we didn’t have to file a lawsuit, but if that’s what it takes to get the minister’s attention, we won’t have a choice,” said Ms.and Valois. Because file processing times are meaningless! »
There is “a backlog of approximately 25,000 admissions over the immigration thresholds required by the Government of Quebec for 2020 and 2021”, which leads to delays in the processing of files, of 28 months on average for Quebec, compared to 6 months in the rest of Canada, argued AQAADI, which represents 400 immigration lawyers.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is being asked to commit to settling applications filed in 2018 (or earlier) within three months and those filed in 2019 within six months, “until up to the catch-up of the delay in the thresholds set by the Government of Quebec” in 2020, 2021 and 2022. “We want a clear commitment, and if [le ministre] don’t give it to us, it’s the Court that will give it to us, ”said the former president of AQAADI, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, who was mandated to defend the cause. He regrets that files from 2021 are processed before others, older ones, which have been waiting on the shelves for several years.
Up to five years of waiting
Amine Belfaiza and his wife, Oumaima Nasri, are two Moroccan citizens working in Quebec who have been waiting for 60 months (five years) for the outcome of their file. After obtaining his Quebec Selection Certificate (CSQ), the couple’s principal applicant, Mr. Belfaiza, submitted his application for permanent residence in January 2017, and the progress bar visible in his IRCC online account indicates that the processing is 100% complete and that he should have obtained his permanent residence on April 29, 2019. However, according to the “Online services” tool, his file is still at the “Receipt of application “.
Élise Nathalie L. Lardinois, of Belgian origin, applied for permanent residence after being selected by Quebec as a skilled worker in August 2019, 30 months ago. However, when she checks the status of her application using IRCC’s online tool, she finds that it only began to be processed on April 6, 2021 and that she still has not been finalized.
According to Mand Cliche-Rivard, the Quebec inventory of pending files contains cases with “unacceptable” delays.
“How come I have clients who have been waiting since 2018 for their file to be finalized? My problem is that, during this time, the federal government is processing tens of thousands of files outside Quebec without delay,” he recalled, referring to an accelerated access program to permanent residence. for 90,000 temporary workers set up a year ago. “AQAADI says: enough is enough! »
In recent years, the inventory of people holding a CSQ who are waiting for a positive response to their application for permanent residence has increased considerably. In 2020, the federal government admitted just over half of the immigrants provided for in the Quebec Immigration Plan. Since then, the media have witnessed a ping-pong game between Quebec, which accuses Ottawa of not processing the files of its skilled workers quickly enough, and the federal government, which blames Quebec and its immigration targets. low.
For AQAADI, the federal government is entirely responsible. “IRCC fails to respect Quebec’s requests for files to be finalized for 2020 and 2021 and most likely for 2022,” reads the formal notice.
An incomplete recovery
According to the most recent government reports consulted by The duty, the federal government admitted 50,171 people and enabled Quebec to meet its immigration targets for 2021, but it failed to meet the order for the approximately 7,000 additional places to constitute the pandemic catch-up.
In fact, barely 2,700 of the 7,000 immigrants in this first catch-up stream were admitted for permanent residence. These candidates for immigration, mostly skilled workers, have all been selected by Quebec, said the Minister of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI) of Quebec, Jean Boulet . “Several of them are also on Quebec territory, with temporary work permits, and are only waiting for their permanent residence to be granted by Ottawa,” added the minister, who said he was waiting for the federal government to speed up the rate and absorb the delay thanks to an addition of resources.
While the maximum overall target of 47,500 people in the 2021 Immigration Plan has been exceeded, that of the “Economic” category is the only one to be below the set threshold. While Quebec planned to welcome between 27,500 and 29,300 total economic immigrants, only 26,825 people were admitted by the federal government.
The shortfall does not come from the sub-category of skilled workers, which has 25,000 immigrants, or about 1,000 more than the planned maximum, but rather from the category of “business people”, which only received than 1,600 of the 4,300 candidates expected.
When asked why certain targets were not met, IRCC was unable to answer the Homework within the time allowed.