The long delays in being reunited with one’s spouse who lives abroad are indeed caused by Quebec’s targets in the family reunification category, which are lower than in the rest of Canada. If you have to wait 14 months anywhere else in the country, this period now extends to 24 months in Quebec, since Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is forced to set “treatment objectives separate requests”, confirms this ministry to the Duty.
Hundreds of heartbroken families issued a cry from the heart last week, in an online petition and during a demonstration in Montreal on Saturday afternoon. Several had also confided to the Duty the difficulties of being separated from spouses, husbands, or wives, when babies have recently come into the world, for example.
The deadlines changed abruptly on June 22 for sponsorship applications made from Quebec, jumping from 14 to 24 months. While families thought they saw “the light at the end of the tunnel”, says immigration consultant Johanne Boivin-Drapeau, it is rather “calls from crying and desperate people” that she has been receiving since then.
All of these people have already taken the first step, which is to receive a Quebec Selection Certificate. Then, the files already selected are forwarded to IRCC.
“As IRCC receives more family class applications destined for Quebec than MIFI [ministère provincial de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration] allows him to process, a backlog is formed, ”explains a public relations officer from this federal ministry.
With the result, this “disparity in waiting times”, she names.
It is indeed Quebec that sets the volumes it wishes to welcome in the family reunification category, i.e. a maximum of 10,600 for the year 2023. Both the provincial ministry and the federal ministry ensure that the threshold has not yet reached, but the last two months (May and June) are missing from the data provided.
Last year, the target was reached no later than September 30, according to official documents.
A target that remains similar
Year after year, IRCC therefore has “too many files compared to the target allowed by Quebec”, with a backlog of approximately 36,800 people waiting for permanent residence, only for this category, the MIFI told us.
This tendency to accumulate pending applications also portends years to come, since the government of François Legault has announced its intention not to accept more families, even if the overall threshold is increased to 60,000. Indeed, in documents submitted to prepare for a consultation on immigration planning this fall, the number of places in this category remains at 10,400, regardless of the total number of immigrants.
It is also the participants in the regrouping program who shun French, which the Prime Minister had accused of having put Quebec on the path to becoming a Louisiana in 2022. Half of them do not speak French at home. arrival, according to the data he had then put forward. With the reform of immigration programs, the Legault government will add the obligation to present an integration plan which will have to include francization courses.
As for the refusal of visitor visas for these spouses abroad, the federal government ensures that the processing is already accelerated, as announced on May 26, including for “requests in the inventory”, writes IRCC.
The testimonies collected by The duty instead show other disparities in treatment. Several requests are refused on the grounds that the person has “significant family ties in Canada”, according to the responses consulted.