Canada is failing families

The Canadian government has promised families that they would be united with their loved ones quickly via family sponsorship but this has been overshadowed by the need to gain favour in the eyes of the world by accepting tens of thousands of refugees crossing their borders. Many Canadian families now feel betrayed.

In this article by POLITICO Trump Is Making Canada Great Again they mention that Canada is benefitting from the US closing its borders to immigrants by opening its arms to highly skilled individuals that will help boost various sectors within Canada, especially Technology, but this is only one side of the story. There is one aspect that noone is discussing and that is "what impact has this had on the overall Canadian immigration process?"

There are hundreds of refugees streaming into Canada from the US but to accommodate them Canada has stopped processing applications of US citizens who are NOT refugees and who have applied through normal methods such as family sponsorship.

The Canadian government had previously said that the are committed to correcting issues with family sponsorship and were fully behind family reunification (and this is true for other nationalities) but US applicants are suffering because of the current refugee situation.

Processing times

“Wait times will come down,” Trudeau said back in 2015. However, family sponsorship applications from the United States are incomplete for 12 months or longer while families remain separated. In fact, GCMS application notes confirm that these applications are sitting untouched by a CIC immigration agent for over 6 months while refugees continue to enter Canada daily and be successfully processed. Why you ask? The Ottawa visa office was previously used to process US family sponsorship applications but as of March 2017 this visa office has been turned into a refugee processing centre. This has led to US applications sitting in Mississauga which is the location which receives and opens ALL applications for initial review. Because Mississauga is the receiving centre they have become too overwhelmed with their real purpose to actually process US family sponsorship applications which have been "dumped" on them since the Ottawa visa office was repurposed.

Processing at other visa offices such as New Delhi (NDVO) is continuing normally and persons are receiving positive decisions within 6-8 months. Timelines posted by various applicants show that persons from India who applied in April 2017 have completed processing while US individuals who applied in January, February and March 2017 are still outstanding with absolutely no notes on file for the last 6 months. When contacted, CIC Call Centre agents have no updates or information to help applicants understand what is going on.

Families are suffering

US-Canadian families now have two options: either be separated for an entire year or visit their loved ones as much as they can and go broke on one salary because one partner cannot work in Canada.

There are web forums full of US applicants who are banding together trying to survive the wait by sharing their stories and experiences. There are hundreds of applications "stuck" in Mississauga and families are separated from loved ones because of these changes. Many are now turning to their MP for help but often their complaints fall on deaf ears.

There is a lot of support for welcoming refugees into Canada but another group should not have to suffer to make it happen. That is unfair and unconstitutional, especially when these US applications have followed the process and are ready and willing to make a meaningful contribution to Canada.