While Israeli bombs are closing in on his village in Lebanon and people are fleeing by the thousands, Charbel Nassif is still waiting for the green light to join his wife in Canada. Married to a Quebecer, he has had no news of his visitor visa application for a year, a delay which far exceeds normal processing.
This is without counting his request for family reunification, which has also been in progress for almost two years. “What are they waiting for? A bomb falling on his head? » deplores Marie-Josée Kassab, who can no longer bear this anxious wait.
“Every day, Israeli planes break the sound barrier and our house shakes,” says Mr. Nassif. Over the past week, the war has gotten even closer. »
The neighboring country dropped bombs 7.1 km from his village, Ain el Delb, in the district of Saïda, he said very precisely. Basic necessities are still available in this locality located less than 50 km south of Beirut, but “everything is decreasing day by day”.
On Friday, the Israeli armed forces claimed to have carried out airstrikes on buildings in the region, claiming that they were used by Hezbollah.
The looming death is just a “note in the file” of stagnant immigration, indignant Mme Kassab. “Despite all our communications with Immigration, we have no update. Why doesn’t it unlock in an emergency context like this? »
The two lovebirds met for the first time in 2011 through a cousin. They only began real exchanges, initially friendly, in 2018. Born and raised in Quebec, Marie-Josée regularly visited Lebanon, her parents’ country of origin, over the following years. Engaged since April 2022, the couple married in August, then filed for sponsorship in October of the same year.
Longer and longer
“When we submitted our sponsorship application, the deadline displayed was 14 months,” recalls Charbel Nassif, what Duty was able to check on the Internet Archive site. Rather, it is now 35 months that are displayed by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to sponsor from Quebec a spouse living abroad. These delays are more than three times longer in the province than in the rest of the country due to the Legault government’s immigration targets.
There are approximately 38,000 people waiting in this category, according to the latest updates from IRCC, and the Quebec target sets the maximum at 10,600 people per year. This congestion has been denounced by many couples and families separated by migration processes. “I know a colleague who has already left for Canada faster than me, because his wife is in Alberta,” says Charbel Nassif.
But there is no question for the couple of moving to another province and starting everything from scratch. “I’ve lived here all my life, I’ve always worked, I have my family, I don’t want to uproot myself. It’s as if I had no rights,” rages Mme Kassab.
Francophone, the Laurentians resident resents these obstacles which arise while her couple is “at the stage of starting a family”. Her husband also speaks French, and they are both in their early thirties.
Hopes dashed
“If, at least, we could be together during this wait,” Marie-Josée Kassab now begs. In addition to sponsorship, the couple began a parallel visitor visa process for Charbel, which has been underway for more than a year. When they ask the IRCC service for news, “it’s the same answer: we will send you the information in due time,” she says.
Since 2023, a public policy has allowed spouses sponsored by Canadians to apply for a visitor visa and an open work permit while their file is being processed. “Families are supposed to be together, especially during life’s big moments,” said the official press release announcing this measure, promising treatment in 30 days. The couple is waiting more than 400 days for this visa.
“So it’s just me who can visit it, but I can’t put my own life at risk in the context. How are we going to see each other? » asks Mme Kassab.
A difficult context
In both cases, the process gets stuck at the background check stage. Charbel Nassif is part of the Internal Security Forces, a Lebanese police force comparable to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It’s an office job, the man explains: “I answer emergency calls from civilians or I make reports if they want to file a complaint. »
It is impossible to know if it is indeed these security checks that are holding back the two requests, or if the processing time is rather due to Quebec thresholds for family reunification.
“We understand that Canada has a duty to protect its interests and national security,” explains immigration lawyer Maxime Lapointe, who was aware of this file without being able to do much about it.
“IRCC will seek a security report from a third party or intelligence services to make sure everything is in order, but in a country where it is exploding, there is no official to make this kind of report” , he notes. Advancing such situations in the context of war can therefore be “very long”. The couple believe that an “emergency mechanism” could be put in place to at least protect people who find themselves in an armed conflict zone.
“There is already a basic mechanism for reuniting families which should resolve a large part of the problems,” recalls M.e Lapointe, referring to the policy introduced in 2023. But the deadlines are not respected – not to mention the refusals that many people face, according to him. “Sponsorship will take as long as it takes, but at least you are here with your family, and with a work permit. This is the best we can do at the moment,” he concludes.
Distress and feeling of helplessness in the face of the bad news pouring in from Lebanon. Anger at the bureaucratic ambiguities on this side of the planet. The contrast is strong and ends up undermining the couple’s morale: “I don’t know how to overcome all this and go to work while he sees bombings”, illustrates Mme Kassab.
As the online interview progresses, heavier and heavier questions arise: “Will he be able to leave the country when the time is right?” Will there still be flights? Will it be too late? » “Our project is to live in Quebec,” slips Mr. Nassif to bring some balance to the conversation.
A few minutes after the end of the interview, new Israeli strikes were announced in the suburbs of Beirut.