FAMILY REUNIFICATION

It would be appropriate to say that Canadian Immigration is very welcoming when it comes to people migrating from different parts of the world. Is Canadian Immigration doing good enough to reunite the family members of Canadians or Permanent Residents outside Canada?

Before the pandemic, the quota decided by the IRCC for the family class applicants was around 91,000 annually. However, the IRCC could not achieve this target last year due to the rising concerns about the Global Pandemic. The numbers showed significant growth during 2015-2018 especially in 2017 when IRCC raised the age bracket of a dependant child to 21.

Not only this, the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) have also been through significant changes over the past few years, from the first come first served method to the lottery system. This is another topic of debate as to which method is better because some of the Canadians/PRs favor one while some favour the other. The draw for the PGP is conducted once in every 12 months and there are so many Canadians/PRs who are left disappointed after the certain number of invitations are issued as they must wait for another 12 months. However, the Parents and Grandparents Super visa applications are another great alternative to reunite with the family members but unfortunately due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the processing of these applications have been delayed to a great extent.

In this period of uncertainty, the government is making every effort to keep the Canadians/PRs motivated about reuniting with their immediate family members, be it approval of authorization letters to travel to Canada temporary to meet immediate or extended family members or be it family class applicants migrating permanently to Canada to live with their family members. Recently, on March 5, 2021 the IRCC announced the expansion of the Case Processing Centre in Sydney, Nova Scotia in order to accelerate the processing of family class applications. The news released by IRCC this month announced hiring of 62 new employees by IRCC and more additional space so that the processing time of family class applications can be reduced.

This certainly validates the fact that the government is doing everything it can, to support the Canadians to reunite with their family members.

Stay Tuned for more updates.

R. Kaur

rkaur.writer@gmail.com