Immigration Department to speed up Spousal Applications

The Immigration Department has undergone a critical process change to solve this age-old immigration backlog, and with addition resources been allotted, they have effectively resolved this issue with innovative techniques and efficient implementation. The average time it takes for spousal applications to be processed is around 18 to 26 months. The Immigration Department has promised to cut down this processing time into half, approximately 12 months, whether applications are submitted from within the country or from outside, and will also be launching a simplified application kit next week for new applicants. This is Canada’s initiation to unite families and bring them closer. Canadians who marry a foreign national shouldn’t have to wait for years to begin their journey together, or live under the air of uncertainty regarding immigration.

There has been a lengthy list of complains and grievances regarding a long processing time for spousal immigration applications that went unheard by the former government. However, with the new government is place, the immigration department has received the support to reduce the overall processing time, even though they had been preoccupied with clearing up the backlog, and re-settling tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. With the addition $25 million allotted to the Immigration department, they were able to reduce the inland processing time for spousal applications by 15 percent, and overseas applications by 10 percent, during their 2016 budget.

The annual quota for foreign spouses and dependents has been 47,000 people the previous year, which has been now raised to 64,000 people by the new government. Immigration officials estimate to complete all the existing applications by the end of the year 2017, and initiate a more streamlined process for the expanded quota with additional staffing resources. The new simplified kit that will be available post December 15, will cut the prevailing 14 application checklist to just four for all the new applications. This new process has a mechanism to return all incomplete applications back to their applicants as early as possible so they don’t hamper the entire process and clog the system. A special team was formed to reduce the processing time for all applications, and the spousal applications were the first on their list.This new process is the Immigration team’s brainchild with learnings that took place during the Syrian refugee settlement project.

The department aims at clearing 80 percent of the applications in a 12-month period, although complex cases may take a bit longer. Another pilot program will be launched in a month that enables sponsored spouses within Canada to apply for open work permits while they wait for their permanent resident card to be approved, thus enabling families to stay united while their immigration application is processed. Regardless of the shorter time-span of processing, security, medical screening, and full criminal background checks will continue to be of critical importance. The Immigration department is also confident that once this backlog is cleared, the occurrence of another backlog has very low probability, as this streamlined process change will ensure a permanent change in the system.

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