For several years, the long processing period for people wishing to permanently move to Quebec was denounced.
Why do these immigrants who want to get their permanent residence in Quebec often have to wait longer than others who have lived in other provinces?
For a rare occasion, Immigration Canada has only revealed a few factual explanations as part of a legal process.
Claimed by a group of Quebec lawyers, the federal ministry of Immigration is producing an old organization, the pandemic or even security checks to justify this discrepancy in deadlines.
Currently, a skilled worker already selected by the Quebec government must wait 31 months, on average, to obtain permanent residence. This delay is 6 months in the federal section that serves other provinces of the country, but recently it has climbed to 27 months, according to data available on the Immigration Canada website.
More than 29,000 files are pending
In a brief filed in Federal Court on April 19, obtained by Radio-Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) shows that it currently has more than 29,000 applications for permanent residence, pending processing, from in Quebec skilled workers.
Nearly 10,000 of these files were sent to Ottawa before 2020. Some have even been awaiting a federal decision for more than ten years. These include, the ministry explained, security and crime issues oa failure of a person to cooperate WHO a file may be delayed.
Immigration Canada, which opposes the request of the Quebec Association of Immigration Lawyers (AQAADI), says it has already processed a good portion of applications for the years 2018 (84.5%) and 2019 (75, 8%), but admits that have to deal with difficulties then.
” The Minister said that in fact, for a certain period in 2020, there has been a significant slowdown in the processing of immigration applications, combined in all categories. “
So the ministry decided thatincrease its targets for the next few years to rectify the situationas already mentioned by the Trudeau government.
No size planned before the pandemic
“There is no injustice or bad faith in the actions taken by the Minister”, it noted.
To justify this inventory, IRCC prosecutors speak of a operational impact on the processing of files processed on Canadian soil [qui] is significant. A “significant slowdown” has affected all “categories” of immigration.
Quebec’s main case processing office, located in Sydney, Nova Scotia, has become inaccessible to its employees at the beginning of the pandemic, in mid -March 2020, can we read this memoir.
Due to the sudden and unpredictable nature of the pandemic, no steps were taken to fill this void.it is defined.
Unlike other federal categories, that records are created electronicallythe requests targeting workers in Quebec are on paper time.
” Due to the information protection issues involved, it is not possible to allow files to be brought to the homes of officers. “
From summer 2020 to March 2021, Immigration Canada has implemented an in-house program to digitize files and allow agents to consult documents through a secure computer network.
This measure allowed agents to process cases, but to a level that did not exist before the pandemic began in March 2020.
Immigration Canada, however, waited a year after the start of the pandemic to climb up a gear. In March 2021, the ministry decided to entrust a specialized private company with the digitization of files sa to increase the number of files that can be processed.
At the beginning of the same year, dimensions also taken to have immigration officers a larger computer screen, then a second screen if necessary.
Because of “restrictions imposed on travelers around the world,” the IRCC also criticized “the files of workers in Quebec“ on Canadian soil ”, in“ August 2020. ”Thus,“ the files submitted in 2021 is being processed faster than usual. However, in January 2022 and to date, the IRCC has continued its practice in starting processing files according to their order of arrival, ”Immigration Canada prosecutors argue.
All of these details came from a testimony-the only one filed to date on file-by an IRCC supervisor in Sydney, Tracey Moore, conducted in English.
Delays which is unreasonableaccording to AQAADI
These explanations did not convince AQAADI, which took over the courts to quickly settle thousands of pending cases.
If the IRCC sees that security considerations involve thousands of these files, which remain speculative, then it can and certainly will finally need to focus on these issues, while requests it has been waiting for a response since 2009 for some files.underline AQAADI’s attorney, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, in the association’s response, which was also filed in Federal Court.
” No security issue could be the reason for the failure to make a decision (whether positive or negative) over 13 years of treatment. IRCC cannot justify its inaction by the complexity of a file in more than a decade of processing. “
In his view, the ministry remains responsible for its own unreasonable delays.
“The Minister explained the fact that the applications were submitted on paper from Quebec and not in electronic format as for the federal program, but this was a choice made by the IRCC. The Minister also submitted that the files were processed in Sydney, an office affected by the pandemic, but again, it became a decision of the IRCC management. “
The Federal Court has not yet decided on this application for authorization and mandamus.
Source: Radio-Canada
