Canadian government plans to shorten the processing delays

By the end of the year, Canada intends to employ an $85 million budget to restore to regular processing standards for several immigration programmes. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser has unveiled Canada's intentions to re-establish the country's immigration system.

Canada budgeted $85 million in the 2021 Budget to decrease processing times across all IRCC lines of business. In the minister's mandate letter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also urged Fraser to shorten processing times. Fraser now claims that the budget will allow Canada to revert to typical processing times for study permits, work permits, and permanent residence card renewals by the end of the year. In addition, Canada aims to shorten its time to process tourist permits and evidence of citizenship.

Canada budgeted $85 million in the 2021 Budget to decrease processing times across all IRCC lines of business. In the minister's mandate letter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also urged Fraser to shorten processing times. Fraser now claims that the budget will allow Canada to revert to typical processing times for study permits, work permits, and permanent residence card renewals by the end of the year. In addition, Canada aims to shorten its time to process tourist permits and evidence of citizenship.

Internal IRCC papers have recently shown that the department's real projected processing times for economic immigration programmes are far longer than what is stated on the government website. Fraser stated that Canada would update the online processing times tool in the coming months to provide more up-to-date estimates of how long it will take to process applications for IRCC customers.

According to a November 24 document, IRCC was anticipating Foreign Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) application processing to take 20 months at the time, well above the six-month processing threshold for Express Entry-managed programmes. The same document said that processing for Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates would take roughly eight months.

Get a Free Express Entry Assessment

The document further said that Express Entry draws for the first half of 2022 will not include FSWP and CEC applicants. Fraser did not specify when these drawings would restart but stated that the steps announced today were meant to expedite immigration processing. He claims that by suspending these draws to process the Express Entry inventory, IRCC will be able to hold draws without further aggravating the backlog finally.

More than 1.8 million people are now awaiting judgments from Immigration Canada. Citizenship applications, temporary foreign workers, families, students, refugees, and guests are all included. As of December 2021, the Express Entry backlog was around 119,000 applications. For Express Entry applicants in Canada who may be forced to quit their employment or return to their home countries while IRCC puts off on draws for specific candidates, Fraser stated that they are looking at methods to retain workers in Canada, but they have not yet found a perfect answer.

"I understand that processing delays have been extremely upsetting for many people." "Assisting clients to come to Canada promptly, with predictable processing timelines and effective communication with IRCC, is a major goal for me," Fraser stated in a press statement. "Immigrants benefit all Canadians because they help expand our economy and enhance our communities across the country."

Many people are selecting Canada as a destination to visit and develop their future, and in order to remain competitive, we have implemented real measures to ensure that individuals who wish to visit Canada get the client experience they deserve."

The epidemic underlined the importance of modernising IRCC operations. As a result, IRCC has employed around 500 new processing personnel, digitised applications, and shifted work across IRCC locations worldwide in response to pandemic-related issues.

Since public health precautions have restricted in-person services, IRCC has made several paper-based immigration processes available online. IRCC previously stated that it anticipates the online application gateway to be completely operational in the spring or summer of 2022. According to IRCC, so far, these initiatives have allowed typical processing times for spousal sponsorship applicants to revert to the 12-month service standard for new applications.

IRCC has also created a site that allows permanent residence candidates in Canada to complete their applications and acquire their permanent residency cards without meeting in person. This portal was utilised by 225,000 permanent residents between June 2021 and December 2021. In a recent media release, IRCC stated that it employs advanced data analytics to expedite Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) applications. The system does not decline or propose application denials; according to the IRCC, only immigration officials are authorised to do so. It was initially used in 2018, and it allows applications to be evaluated 87 percent faster.

IRCC has established online testing for citizenship candidates, built an online application tracker, and conducted virtual citizenship ceremonies. Since April 1, 2020, Canada has sworn in 170,000 new citizens. Canada is expanding the use of virtual ceremonies. In the future, Canada hopes to allow people to self-administer their Oath of Citizenship by signed attestation and then celebrate their citizenship at a later date. This would reduce the number of times folks would have to wait towards the end of their citizenship process.