Anyone who wants to visit Canada may need to be patient before they can do so. While Ottawa had promised a reduction in processing time and promised a return to normal by the end of 2022, The duty found that the official delays for obtaining a visitor’s visa have not diminished and have, on the contrary, exploded.
In six months, between July 2022 and January 2023, posted delays worsened in 179 out of 195 countries. In some cases, Canadian consular authorities sometimes take a year and a half to process visa applications, according to official data posted on the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) website that The duty has compiled.
“It’s not just the online delays that are long, it’s also in practice,” says Me Léa Charbonneau-Lacroix, associate lawyer at Brunel Immigration and who handles several visitor visa files. It filed applications last spring, summer and fall for clients. It has received several approvals recently and, “all countries combined”, the deadlines were eight or nine months. “Countries from Africa, South America, from all over the place,” she explains. Sometimes people want to come on vacation and they will wait a year to have a decision. It’s a bit unreal. »
In Tanzania, delays are breaking records. While a visa could be obtained in 64 days last July, it now takes ten times longer to be issued, more than a year and a half (611 days). In Honduras, while the waiting time was 82 days in July, it rose to 502 days in January. In Nicaragua, the situation is practically the same, except for a few days.
Delays are getting longer everywhere, even in Europe. In the United Kingdom, the delays are 22 times longer. Brits do not need a visa, but those who are not citizens and need a visitor’s visa for Canada can apply there. They now have to wait 222 days, whereas such a visa took barely ten days to be issued six months ago. In Greece, a visa that used to take three weeks to arrive now takes ten times longer.
Broken promise?
Last summer, following a series of articles from the To have to on the long processing times for visitor visas and work permits, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser reiterated Ottawa’s commitment to reduce processing times to allow a return to service standards by the end of the year.
“We are really close to the expected peak [de l’attente pour un visa], said Minister Fraser at the end of August. It is possible that there will still be an increase for about a month, but it is then expected that there will be a considerable reduction in the waiting time for the issuance of a visitor visa. [ou] for different immigration routes. »
According to the IRCC website, the “service standard” is 14 days for a visitor visa.
“That’s not what’s happening, slice Me Lea Charbonneau-Lacroix. We are really not back to normal, far from it. »
An application filed by his firm in May for a client residing in Ivory Coast, where the official processing time is 518 days, is still pending. “It is a file with a certain risk of refusal, but it is not a problematic file. He’s not someone with a background, she said. It’s really amazing. »
“Before the pandemic, a visa office that had deadlines of one month, we found it abnormally long, she adds. We had people who wanted to travel in three or four months and, normally, we had a decision beforehand. There, a person has to plan a year in advance if they want to travel to Canada. »
IRCC explains
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a significant backlog in processing applications. Several applications from before travel restrictions were lifted in September 2021 have not been processed, and the federal government says it has hired the 1,250 employees it had promised for the end of 2022 to speed up processing.
“It’s also important to note that as we process the backlog of requests, processing times can be skewed by outliers, especially requests from our old inventory that were previously pending for a long period and which are now being processed, writes IRCC at To have to. Once the backlog of these applications is eliminated, we will begin to see processing times that are more representative of reality. »
The time per country is measured on the basis of the time it took to process 80% of the applications filed in the last two to four months.
Minister Sean Fraser’s office insists that there have been “significant improvements in recent months”. “On a monthly basis, Canada is now processing more visitor visa applications than before the pandemic. In November 2022 alone, over 260,000 visitor visas were processed. By comparison, the monthly average in 2019 was around 180,000 requests. »
“No-processing” deadlines
This explanation is half-convincing. The president of the Association of Immigration Lawyers, Stéphanie Valois, finds this extension of the deadlines “embarrassing” for the government. “How can he ask people for rates for processing files when clearly, it is not processed? »
Before the pandemic, a visa office that had deadlines of one month, we found it abnormally long. […] There, a person has to plan a year in advance if they want to travel to Canada.
Me Denis Girard even speaks of “non-processing delays”. The lawyer has been trying since July 28 to help a mother residing in Benin to obtain a visitor’s visa so that she can come and visit her son, a permanent resident. This was still without news as of January 29, six months later. The official deadlines were 167 days in September last year. They then jumped to 209 days in November, only to drop to 160 days on January 25.
Me Charbonneau-Lacroix denounces above all the lack of reliability of the official deadlines displayed. “I tell my clients, don’t buy plane tickets until you have a visa in your passport, because right now, you can expect anything and its opposite,” says she. It’s a bit annoying for people who want to organize a trip, visit their family. They cannot rely on anything tangible. »