El-Assal: How can Canada avoid major immigration backlogs in the future?

2022/05/24 Leave a comment

Reasonable and practical recommendations. We share belief in need for independent review but I would argue for a broader focus than just IRCC’s ability to deliver and implement.

A more fundamental review of the government’s approach, priorities and levels across the whole suite of immigration programs is needed, more on the why than the how:

Earlier this month the Canadian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (CIMM) began a study on IRCC’s application processing times and backlogs.

The purpose of CIMM is to provide oversight of the immigration system and release studies that contain recommendations for improvement. CIMM invited me to Ottawa to participate in this study, which I did on May 5th. I would like to use this article as an opportunity to elaborate on my recommendations.

The backlog has doubled since the start of the pandemic to 2.1 million people. This includes applicants for permanent residence, temporary residence, and citizenship. Needless to say, the backlog is hurting Canada’s economy, keeping families apart, and undermining Canada’s ability to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need.

There is no doubt the pandemic has been a major contributor to the backlog. At the start of the pandemic, Canadian government employees needed to work remotely which limited their ability to process applications. However, the pandemic is not the only reason for the backlog, and at the very least, the pandemic cannot explain why Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has delivered such poor customer service for over two years now.

The following are six steps I feel can help improve the state of Canadian immigration operations.

1) Treat applicants with greater respect

The first step Canada needs to take to avoid backlogs from getting out of control again in the future is by treating all of its immigration applicants with far more respect. When we discuss backlogs, we often think about the number of files in the queue, and sometimes we forget about the number of human lives that are being negatively affected.

Taking a more human-centric approach to our immigration system is a necessary step towards progress. There is no justification for IRCC going months or even years on end without responding to enquiries from its clients. The lack of urgency to provide updates also explains why there has been a lack of urgency to process applications.

For some reason, we do not see immigration applicants as worthy enough of getting quality customer service, even though IRCC has a legal mandate to process applications. It is only fair that applicants get quality service given they are required to pay IRCC a fee for their papers to be processed. Imagine how upset you would be if you paid a postal company to deliver a parcel, only to discover they have yet to ship it and are not responding to any of your calls or emails.

Just like companies putting customers front and center of everything they do, so too should IRCC. Every decision the department makes should be through the lens of providing the best customer experience possible.

2) Align intake with processing capacity

The second step is for Canada to do a better job of aligning its intake with its processing capacity. We already do this with various programs such as IRCC’s economic class pilots, the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP), the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), among others. Federal and provincial governments work within the confines of the allocation for a given program and ensure they do not solicit more applications than they are capable of processing within the allocation. This is not a perfect model and often leads to disappointment, as is the case with the PGP, but at the same time it helps us limit the potential for excessive processing times.

IRCC made several major mistakes at the start of the pandemic which has made the backlog much worse. It continued to solicit applications even when its processing capacity was slowed, meaning that it had a huge mountain to climb once its processing capacity began to return to normal.

For instance, Express Entry was launched in 2015 to help avoid backlogs by only inviting candidates that IRCC wanted to process. Nonetheless, we saw our Express Entry backlog skyrocket since IRCC continued to invite candidates throughout 2020, before realizing it needed to implement two major pauses in December 2020 and then in September 2021 to manage its Express Entry inventory. This could have been avoided altogether if IRCC simply reduced its Express Entry invitations in 2020 until its operations got back on track.

Unfortunately, IRCC made the same mistake in 2021 by first, continuing to issue very high levels of Express Entry invitations, and then second, by welcoming 90,000 additional applications under the Temporary Residence to Permanent Residence (“TR2PR”) Program. According to the Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024, it will now take IRCC two more years to catch up on all those applications before it can bring its economic class programming back to normal by 2024. Moving forward, IRCC should be more careful and ensure it has the capacity to process incoming applications within a timely manner.

3) Expedite technological transformation

The third step is for Canada to expedite the badly-needed technological transformation of its immigration system. Much of the immigration system remains paper-based, which slows things down. Moreover, it makes it difficult for staff to process applications remotely and to transfer files to other offices. IRCC should strive for all applications to be online within the near future, while at the same time providing accommodations for those who have disabilities, the elderly, among others who may need to submit paper-based applications. Technology is a major asset to the immigration system, and can expedite many processes. At some point we should strive to complete as many immigration processes online, such as changing visas status for those in Canada, and citizenship ceremonies.

4) Be more transparent

The fourth is for Canada to be more transparent on the state of immigration policies and operations. IRCC has kept us in the dark for much of the pandemic rather than fulfilling its obligation to inform the public on its policy priorities and state of operations. For instance, it went between December 2020 and April 2022 before telling Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) candidates when they would be invited under Express Entry again. It did the same for Canadian Experience Class (CEC) candidates between September 2021 and April 2022. Moving forward, IRCC should provide regular public updates, preferably on a monthly basis, outlining what its current policy priorities are, and the state of its backlogs. This will allow all stakeholders including applicants themselves, employers, post-secondary institutions, and more, to be able to plan accordingly.

5) Conduct an independent study

The fifth step is for Canada to be more accountable about its immigration system shortcomings during the pandemic. An independent study should be commissioned to evaluate what IRCC did right, what it did wrong, and what it can do better. While the pandemic is a valid excuse, it is not the only explanation why the backlog has ballooned over the past two years.

An independent study can shed light on the policy and operational causes of the backlog and provide recommendations so the mistakes do not happen again. Being more accountable will also help to restore trust in Canada’s immigration system. Many stakeholders have had a bad experience during the pandemic which has hurt the reputation of our immigration system. Showing the public that the Canadian government is capable of acknowledging its mistakes and rectifying them will likely result in more applicants viewing Canada in a positive light.

6) Form a National Advisory Council on Immigration

Sixth, the Canadian government needs to collaborate more with Canadian immigration experts. Canada has a large immigration ecosystem full of experts from many different industries such as law, business, the settlement sector, research, academia, governments, post-secondary institutions, and more. Yet, there have been few meaningful immigration consultations during the pandemic, leading to avoidable consequences.

Forming a National Advisory Council on Immigration (NACI) would be a positive step towards harnessing all this expertise so Canada can make the best immigration decisions possible. These sorts of expert councils exist among other Canadian government departments. Forming one on immigration would be a major asset for IRCC.

Looking ahead

Looking ahead, we should feel optimistic that Canada’s immigration system will eventually get back on track. Immigration is far too important to Canada’s prosperity for the system to remain disrupted for much longer.

The technological investments Canada is making, plus the hiring of more IRCC staff, and increased public scrutiny from the likes of the media, CIMM, employers, post-secondary institutions, and applicants themselves will hopefully lead to Canada delivering a much better experience to immigration applicants in the years ahead.

Source: How can Canada avoid major immigration backlogs in the future?

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

Canada is leaving some would-be immigrants waiting just to hear whether their application has been received

2022/05/11 Leave a comment

More accounts on backlogs, processing delays and lack of communication:

When Manmeet Kaur applied to sponsor her newlywed husband to come from India to join her in Canada, it seemed like a no-brainer to submit the application online rather than to send the paperwork by courier.

Electronic application through new government portals was supposed to be faster and keep important documents — such as wedding photos and personal identification — from getting lost in the process or mixed up with others’ files.

And so, Kaur applied last September.

As she watched applicants she had met through social media groups, and who had applied around the same time, start to get their acknowledgment of receipt, better known as their “AOR,” the Brampton woman says, she expected that immigration officials would soon open her e-application and that her day would come.

She says she got nervous when others who had applied months after her were getting their AOR, which is only issued once a thorough check by officials ensures an application is complete — with no missing forms, documents and signatures. That’s when an applicant receives a file number and the actual processing starts.

“Many of the September applicants have gotten their passport requests and decisions made in January and February. While we’re still waiting for our AORs, some already have their spouses with them. Now January and February applicants are getting their AORs, too,” said Kaur, 27, a medical lab technician, who last saw her husband in India in July.

“The people who applied first should get processed first. I completely understand each file is different and some take longer than others. But we are talking about just checking if an application is complete or not. It should make no difference. Now, we’re lagging further and further behind.”

Few other federal services have seen so much disruption as the immigration system during the pandemic, with the operation grinding to a halt; staff working remotely with antiquated infrastructure; and travel restricted for newcomers abroad due to border closures.

Inconsistency in immigration processing times has always baffled — and annoyed — applicants anticipating that each application would be processed on a “first-in, first-out” basis.

However, with immigration backlogs skyrocketing — more than 1.8 million across programs — and older applications piling up amid the operational disruptions, the frustration among applicants has reached a boiling point, as Canada scrambles to digitalize the application process.

The digitalization of applications for some immigration programs— up to a total of 17 out of more than 60 by this summer — and proliferation of social media groups has made it easier for people to keep track of files and compare notes to keep an eye on the system for transparency and accountability.

In the past, officials always stated immigration processing times varied depending on complexity of the case and completeness of the file. The Star reached out to the immigration department to ask how AOR is processed and why applicants are seemingly not being dealt with in a chronological order, but didn’t receive a response before press time.

“The immigration department is ignoring files that are old and is processing files that are new,” opined Maninder Aulakh of Abbotsford, B.C., who applied on Feb. 8, 2021 to sponsor his wife to Canada from India.

“It breaks my heart to see this kind of treatment.”

A former colleague and a relative — both submitted the same paper applications from India after his — have already had their spouses in Canada as permanent residents.

“I can give you more examples,” sighed the 31-year-old engineer from Punjab, whose application was finally approved and finalized in May, after 15 months.

“These officials just play by their own rules.”

Ottawa immigration lawyer Tamara Mosher-Kuczer said the department’s processing times are spotty across programs. In March, she and other colleagues with the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association launched their own tracker to trace citizenship and permanent residence processing times.

For instance, she said, spousal sponsors who submitted paper applications have been receiving AORs two months ahead of those who applied online around the same time.

(Due to COVID-19, the immigration department has had to scan paper applications into the system so staff can process files from home. Hence, officials have warned that paper applications are expected to take longer to get into the hand of an officer.)

“It also appears that they’re processing new applications much faster than they’re addressing the inventory,” said Mosher-Kuczer. “The inventory is paper (applications). So they are saying it’s difficult because we have digitized, but that doesn’t make sense because they’re processing new paper applications first.”

She said the same thing also happens to other applications, such as the issuance of initial permanent resident cards for freshly minted immigrants, which is supposed to be an automatic process without the involvement of a decision-maker. Yet, these applications are not processed in the order they come in. As a result, wait time varies.

“So why are these applications not being processed on a first-in basis? What is the rationale for that?” asked Mosher-Kuczer, who has tried to get answers from immigration officials with no success.

“People who are applying to immigration have an understanding that Canada is a fair country, a democracy where everybody is treated equally. They have an understanding that there would be no reason that their application would fall behind somebody else’s application.”

Burlington software engineer Tejas Ghutukade has been involved in multiple immigration groups on Facebook and WhatsApp that include spousal sponsorship applicants left behind in the process — some online and others who mailed in applications the old way. They came from Brazil, Egypt, France, Germany, India, the Middle East and Pakistan.

A former international student from Mumbai, Ghutukade said he never had problems with his own immigration applications before and was convinced those complaining about delays must have other complicating issues and were at fault.

“I have gone through multiple stages of immigration. I got my study permit on my own. I got my work permit and permanent residence on my own. I did have a certain level of trust in the system,” said the 31-year-old, who submitted his spousal sponsorship application in January and this week received an AOR after the Star inquired about his case.

“But this time, I can see that it doesn’t always work. If you’re stuck in the system, it’s a really bad situation. There has to be a time limit they take to issue an AOR and process an application.”

Marco Antonio Marques Valim, an immigrant from Brazil, said he still has no idea if the immigration department has received the spousal application he submitted in early December. His worst fear is the file would be returned and has to go back to the end of the queue if screening officials find any missing signature or document.

“We don’t know if they got it and if everything is correct. We’re going to wait to find out, and then wait again. In the meantime, I am not sure if I will be able to live with my wife at some point during my life in Canada,” said the 33-year-old Toronto bartender, whose spouse has been refused a visitor visa to see him.

“Having a first-in, first-out system would provide us some comfort that we may get there by certain time and plan our lives a lot better. At this point, it is just all frustration and uncertainty. It is not a good mental health state to be in.”

Source: Canada is leaving some would-be immigrants waiting just to hear whether their application has been received

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

CIMM Citizenship delays call for Minister to appear [before end May]

2022/05/11 Leave a comment

Will be interesting to see the response, and the degree to which information is forthcoming:

Given that significant delays in citizenship applications (over two years) risk disenfranchising Canadians who are waiting for their citizenship in order to vote, and this issue is particularly urgent in light of the June 2nd Ontario provincial election, the government should move quickly to address this issue so that all Canadians who are eligible for citizenship and who choose to apply are able to participate fully in our democratic life. In light of the situation, the committee requests the Minister appear before the committee for two hours by May 27, 2022 to outline actions taken and further actions intended.

Source: https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/CIMM/meeting-21/minutes

Filed under Citizenship Tagged with , ,

Canada immigration backlog exceeds 2M, applicants in limbo

2022/05/09 Leave a comment

Latest numbers (mid-April). One of the ironies of IRCC’s move to monthly reporting for most data sets (welcome improvement), is that data on inventory (neutral term that includes backlogs) was dropped from public data tables:

Canada continues to be one of the top destinations for immigrants around the world. But the increasing backlogs, exhausting processing times and lack of communication and transparency are causing mounting frustrations among those seeking their Canadian dream.

According to data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) published by the immigration news website CIC News, the backlogs have increased to more than 2 million applications across all categories in April, compared to 1.8 million in March.

CTVNews.ca received over 100 responses to our callout from people caught up in this backlog, from those facing delays in visa processing times to those waiting to become permanent residents.

Source: Canada immigration backlog exceeds 2M, applicants in limbo

Filed under Citizenship, Immigration Tagged with ,

Campos: Canadian Immigration: Will the Improvements Be Enough?

2022/04/02 Leave a comment

Seem like a reasonable assessment, one that will become clearer over the course of the year:

In this feature, Canadian immigration lawyer Maria Campos offers her thoughts on the issue.

Do you think the proposed measure will go far enough to tackle Canada’s 1.8 million+ immigration backlog?

It is uncertain whether the current $85 million budget will have any meaningful positive impact in the short term, on the 1.8+ million immigration backlog. Most of the money was meant to be spent on developing online and electronic processing systems, which in themselves take time to create and meanwhile the backlog only increases. Also, there is a transition period once these new systems come into effect, which requires re-training of officers while many will still be processing applications in the traditional way. The express entry system is a perfect example of the time that it takes for an electronic processing system to become effective.

The express entry system was created in 2015, and in my opinion only started to show positive results within the last 2-3 years. This is because most people who are applying under express entry are finally familiarised with the system itself and the officers are now well aware of how the system works, both technically and legally. The pause in the express entry draws have nothing to do with the ineffectiveness of the electronic system itself, but with the significant number of invitations that IRCC issued in February 2021.

Most technical difficulties under express entry have been dealt with, but even with an already proven-to-work system it was insufficient to handle the backlog after the invitations last February. It does not matter how much technology IRCC uses if they continue to expand on the number of applications taken into processing. Another problem with technology in the immigration field is that there are currently several different portals to work with and multiple areas to submit applications, which may make it more difficult for applicants who qualify under different streams to navigate an ever more complicated electronic bureaucracy.

I do believe that the funds allocated now to improve the current system will have results at some point, but definitely not in the short term. The government of Canada has increased the number of targeted immigrants year after year without being ready to process all the applications.

It is uncertain whether the current $85 million budget will have any meaningful positive impact in the short term

Recently, what are some of the most common concerns you see from clients wishing to enter the country?

It is obvious that younger immigrants are usually the best candidates. Clients in their late thirties or early forties often feel discouraged by the fact that they will most likely have fewer opportunities to qualify under the various programs available. That being said, with the current backlogs and potential applicants getting older, they are concerned about not getting invitations on time or before they continue to lose points because of their age.

In your experience, which groups are most heavily impacted by the backlog?

Citizenship applicants are the most heavily impacted group. However, they are not necessarily in a rush, as most are already established permanent residents in Canada. The delays of the processing in the citizenship applications indeed help to prove intent to reside in Canada because applicants are “patiently” waiting for their citizenship applications to be processed.

How have IRCC operations attempted to address the increased demands of the pandemic?

There are some candidates across the world who would have not thought to come to Canada in the past, and the response by the Canadian government during the pandemic made people more aware of how incredible it is to be here. Those people who never thought of immigrating now look to Canada as an option. As a result, IRCC has more and better candidates to choose from.

However, the government has been missing out on this opportunity by not issuing invitations under the FSW program because they also have a responsibility to the applicants who are already in Canada, which might be the reason why they decided to issue thousands of invitations early last year under the Canadian Experience Class instead. It could be said that Canada has attempted to respond to this increased demand by facilitating more permanent residency options to immigrants who are already here.

Those people who never thought of immigrating now look to Canada as an option.

How has the IRCC started to reduce processing times?

The first move shown by IRCC to reduce processing times happened in the middle of the pandemic when the minister committed to processing family class applications within the regular processing times despite the initial backlog created at the beginning of the pandemic. Right after his statement, IRCC started issuing temporary file numbers to most applicants in the backlog. It was noticeable how within a few days, I started receiving dozens of emails from IRCC, all regarding family class applications providing their temporary file numbers.

Another obvious move was seen in the spring of 2021 when IRCC processed entire express entry applications within 3-4 months. Something that is definitely helping to reduce the backlog is the electronic landing system, which means applicants do not have to book appointments to perform their landing. They also do not risk missing their landing date deadline and are able to complete their process electronically.

It has been suggested that express entry draws would not invite FSWP candidates or CEC candidates for the first half of 2022. In your opinion, what are the major pros and cons of this?

A pro is that better candidates will submit their profiles for the next several draws once express entry resumes. Also, not issuing as many invitations helps reduce the backlog.

But the major cons are that in-Canada applicants are now turning to provincial nominee programs which are starting to show a backlog as well, and some applicants are relying on invitations to continue remaining in Canada, which makes their futures uncertain.

What is your opinion about the public policy permanent residency programs for international graduates and essential workers? Did these programs contribute to the backlog?

The essential workers program was great, because not many of those people had options to become permanent residents. The areas also cover industries in high demand and the program provided certainty for those immigrants.

The program for international students was good in substance as well, although badly planned. There are hundreds of thousands of international students in Canada and it was obvious that the program was going to fill up within hours, meaning that over 40,000 applications contributed to the backlog in one single day. Not to mention that many self-represented applicants rushed into submitting their applications without even understanding the basics, and while those applications have the right to be processed, their relatively poor quality puts an added burden on the system.

How do you foresee these changes to immigration processing times impacting your firm?

We have had to accommodate our cases remaining active for a longer period of time. Invicta Law is taking on new clients and addressing their immigration needs, but at the same time focusing on active files and addressing the statutory stages of the processing, replying to procedural fairness letters and ensuring clients keep their legal status at all times until they become permanent residents.

Source: Canadian Immigration: Will the Improvements Be Enough?

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

U.S. immigration agency moves to cut 9.5 million-case backlog and processing delays

2022/03/31 Leave a comment

Not only Canada that has backlog problems:

The Biden administration on Tuesday is announcing three measures to reduce a growing multimillion-case backlog of immigration applications that has crippled the U.S. government’s ability to process them in a timely fashion, a senior U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) official told CBS News.

The agency plans to expand the number of applicants who can pay extra fees to have their immigration petitions adjudicated more quickly, propose a rule that would provide relief to immigrants waiting for work permit renewals and set processing time goals, the official said, requesting anonymity to detail the measures before a formal announcement.

USCIS adjudicates requests for work permits, asylum, green cards, U.S. citizenship and other immigration benefits, including the temporary H-1B program for highly skilled foreign workers and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy for undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children.

The agency, which is largely funded by fees, has struggled with application bottlenecks and processing delays for years. But the COVID-19 pandemic, which initially led to a shutdown of most global travel, a drop in applications and a suspension of in-person interviews and other services, greatly exacerbated those issues.

As of February, USCIS was reviewing more than 9.5 million pending applications, a 66% increase from the end of fiscal year 2019, according to agency data.

The growing case backlog has dramatically extended application processing delays, trapping many immigrants — from asylum-seekers and green card applicants to would-be U.S. citizens — in a months- or years-long legal limbo that can force them to lose their jobs, driver’s licenses and sources of income.

“USCIS remains committed to delivering timely and fair decisions to all we serve,” USCIS Director Ur Jaddou said Tuesday. “Every application we adjudicate represents the hopes and dreams of immigrants and their families, as well as their critical immediate needs such as financial stability and humanitarian protection.”

The new measures

Among USCIS’s new measures is a rule to expand “premium processing,” which allows certain applicants to pay $2,500 in extra fees to have their cases reviewed on an expedited basis. Currently, the service is limited to certain applications, including H-1B petitions and some employment-based green card requests.

The rule, set to take effect in 60 days, will expand premium processing to additional employment-based green card applications, all work permit petitions and temporary immigration status extension requests, allowing applicants to pay $2,500 to have their cases adjudicated within 45 days.

Premium processing will expand gradually, starting with work-based green card petitions for multinational executives or managers and professionals with advanced degrees or “exceptional ability” who are requesting a waiver that allows them to immigrate to the U.S. without having a job offer, which is typically required.

The senior USCIS official said the phased implementation will ensure other applications are not delayed by the premium processing expansion, which was authorized by Congress in 2020, when the agency faced a fiscal crisis that threatened to furlough 13,000 employees.

“We can’t just shift all our resources to premium filers, while everybody else suffers,” the official said.

USCIS is also unveiling another rule to provide temporary relief to immigrants affected by the work authorization delays by extending the period of automatic work permit extensions for those who apply for a renewal, the senior agency official said. The rule was recently submitted to the White House for review.

Currently, most work permit holders who apply for renewals are eligible for an automatic 180-day extension if their authorization to work lapses. However, many immigrants are waiting for their work permit renewals longer than that, often beyond 10 months, USCIS figures show.

“We’re regularly unable to adjudicate these renewals, not just by the expiration date, but by those 180 days past the expiration date,” the USCIS official said.

USCIS’ third measure includes hiring more caseworkers and improving processing technology to meet new timelines for adjudicating applications, which it believes it can achieve by September 2023. USCIS currently has several thousand job vacancies, according to agency data.

The agency will instruct caseworkers to try to adjudicate requests for temporary work programs, such as H-1B and H-2A visas for agricultural workers, within two months. Requests for work permits, travel documents and temporary status extensions or changes should be reviewed within three months.

According to the new processing guidelines, USCIS officers should adjudicate other applications, including those for U.S. citizenship, DACA renewals and green card requests for immigrants sponsored by U.S. family members or employers, within six months.

“It’s pretty unprecedented for the director of USCIS to say to the entire agency, to the entire workforce, ‘Our processing times are too long, it’s inhibiting us from delivering on our mission and so here are the goals that the entire agency is going to pursue and is going to achieve,'” the USCIS official said.

“You’re always worried”

Jairo Umana, a political dissident from Nicaragua seeking U.S. asylum, has been waiting for his work permit to be renewed for nearly a year. Because his permit expired, he’s working as a roofer in the Miami area using the 180-day automatic work authorization extension. But that is also set to expire on April 14.

As the sole provider for his two children, Umana said he’s worried about losing his work authorization and driver’s license, which is tied to his work permit.

“It is stressful. You’re always worried,” Umana told CBS News in Spanish. “Being out of work triggers a chain reaction: there’s no income, there’s no money for rent, there’s no food.”

The backlog of applications before USCIS is part of a broader logjam plaguing the immigration system. The Justice Department is currently overseeing 1.7 million unresolved court cases of immigrants facing deportation, while the State Department is handling a backlog of over 400,000 immigrant visa applicants waiting for interviews at U.S. consulates, which limited operations during the pandemic.

The Biden administration has vowed to reduce these backlogs, which it partially attributes to Trump-era policies that cut legal immigration and placed more immigrants in deportation proceedings. USCIS has made bureaucratic changes aimed at speeding up processing, but it still relies on paper records and forms.

As part of a massive spending bill passed by Congress earlier this month, USCIS received more than $400 million to address processing delays and application backlogs. On Monday, President Biden asked Congress to give USCIS another $765 million in fiscal year 2023 to finance the backlog reduction effort.

Conchita Cruz, co-founder of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP), an organization that works with more than 280,000 immigrants who requested U.S. asylum, called USCIS’ proposal to prolong automatic work permit extensions a “huge victory.”

“This extension will not only help ASAP members, but will benefit asylum seekers, other immigrant workers, as well as their employers and the communities that rely on their work as doctors, construction workers, truck drivers, software engineers and more,” Cruz said.

Lynden Melmed, the top lawyer at USCIS during the George W. Bush administration, said Tuesday’s announcement shows the agency recognizes the urgency of its case backlog and processing crisis — and its humanitarian impact on applicants and economic consequences on U.S. employers.

“At a time where every company is struggling to find workers, it is rubbing salt to a wound to have to terminate a worker because the government can’t process a four-page application in over a year,” Melmed told CBS News.

Source: U.S. immigration agency moves to cut 9.5 million-case backlog and processing delays

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , ,

IRCC continues to evaluate Express Entry options, but will resume FSWP and CEC invitations in 2022

2022/03/19 Leave a comment

Useful and good analysis of memo and strategy. Backlog in citizenship processing will likely be much longer, looking at most recent operational numbers.

Remarkably short turn-around time for an ATIP request – less than two months:

CIC News obtained the memo today via an access to information request to IRCC.The memo was submitted to IRCC’s Deputy Minister on January 21, 2022. The Deputy Minister is the most senior non-political official in each Canadian government department. Unlike the Minister, who is an elected official tasked with carrying out the government’s political agenda, the Deputy Minister is responsible for providing the government with technocratic advice.

Key components of the memo include:

  • Invitation to apply rounds for Federal Skilled Worker Program, Canadian Experience Class, and Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) candidates will resume later in 2022.
  • IRCC will extend its temporary pause on invitations to FSWP, CEC, and FSTP candidates until March 31st, while continuing Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) invitations.
  • The continued pause will allow IRCC to address its inventory backlogs. The full length of the pause will need to be determined by IRCC’s evolving priorities.
  • IRCC will return to the Deputy Minister in March with a plan on the future of Express Entry invitations to determine what timeline and volume will align with the Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024 and processing time objectives.
  • IRCC acknowledges candidates in the Express Entry pool, including those holding work permits due to expire, will continue to face uncertainty in the short term.
  • The backlog growth of Express Entry applications is due to the pandemic and IRCC focusing on landing in-Canada candidates to achieve its 401,000 immigration target in 2021. The backlog has caused IRCC’s average application processing times to exceed its 6 month service standard for Express Entry.
  • IRCC would need to reduce the Express Entry backlog by more than half in order to achieve the 6 month service standard for new applicants.

It is important to note the IRCC website continues to tell applicants the processing standard for Express Entry is 6 months.

How we got here

Up until this year, Express Entry was the main way Canada welcomed economic class immigrants. Prior to the pandemic, IRCC typically held biweekly Express Entry draws inviting the highest-scoring candidates, irrespective of their eligibility program, to apply for permanent residence. Most invitations went to FSWP and CEC candidates, while only about one per cent went to FSTP candidates. IRCC aimed to process the permanent residence applications within 6 months.

At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, IRCC initially held draws where it only invited CEC and PNP candidates. The rationale was that in light of COVID-19 disruptions including Canada’s travel restrictions, IRCC felt it made sense to invite CEC candidates since they were mostly likely to be able to transition to permanent residence given they mostly lived in Canada. PNP draws occurred to help support the labour market needs of provinces and territories across the country. Later in the year, IRCC also invited FSWP candidates in its Express Entry draws.

However IRCC then stopped inviting FSWP candidates in January 2021, and issued large numbers of invitations to CEC candidates. We learned later the rationale for this change was because IRCC wanted to transition as many in-Canada immigration applicants as possible to permanent residence to achieve its ambitious 401,000 immigration goal for 2021. CEC candidates comprised one-third of the 405,000 immigrants Canada landed last year.

IRCC also implemented a Temporary to Permanent Residence (“TR2PR”) program between May and November of last year to allow more international graduates and essential workers living in Canada to apply for permanent residence. This was meant as another way to support its levels goal for 2021.

The focus on CEC candidates and the launch of the TR2PR program caused IRCC’s backlogs to swell, and has seen the department fall behind its service standard of processing Express Entry applications within 6 months. This resulted in IRCC also pausing invitations to CEC candidates in September 2021.

Last month, IRCC announced its new Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024, which will reduce Express Entry admissions in 2022 and 2023 so the department can process all TR2PR program applications over these 2 years. This will relegate Express Entry to the second leading economic class admissions pathway after the PNP. In 2024, IRCC aims to return Express Entry to the leading economic class pathway by targeting over 110,000 immigrant admissions.

As noted in the memo, the pause in FSWP and CEC candidates is creating uncertainty for many prospective immigrants. The FSWP was Canada’s main source of skilled worker immigrants between its launch in 1967 and the start of the pandemic. Meanwhile, CEC candidates risk losing their status and being forced to leave Canada. IRCC has not provided indication if they will introduce a special measure to allow CEC candidates to extend their temporary status until Express Entry returns to normal.

IRCC has processed 4,000 people in the FSWP backlog in the past 2 weeks, something that took 7 months in 2021

Recent IRCC data obtained by CIC News indicates major progress is being made in tackling Express Entry backlogs. Based on its recent rate of application processing, IRCC could see the Express Entry backlog fall to half by this May. This does not guarantee Express Entry invites to FSWP and CEC candidates will resume by then, but it would represent a milestone IRCC continues to note as one they want to achieve to be able to more strongly consider resuming FSWP and CEC invitations.

IRCC has processed more FSWP applications over the past 2.5 months than it did in all of 2021. In February, it processed the FSWP applications of over 4,300 people, compared to the roughly 600 people it was processing monthly for much of 2021. As of March 15, 2022, there were about 41,300 people in the FSWP inventory, a decrease of 4,000 people over the past two weeks. To put this figure into context, in the past 2 weeks, IRCC achieved what it took it 7 months to do in 2021 (i.e., process 4,000 people in the FSWP backlog).

Its current processing rate suggests it could bring the existing FSWP backlog to an end by the close of 2021, if not sooner.

CEC backlog could reach 0 by this spring

Meanwhile, there are just over 10,000 people left in the CEC backlog. IRCC processed 2,000 people in the CEC backlog over the past two weeks. At its current rate, IRCC could draw down the CEC backlog by the spring.

Minister Sean Fraser: Express Entry draws to resume in the “near term”

While this latest IRCC memo remains coy on when Express Entry will return to normal, there are some positive signs out there for FSWP and CEC candidates. IRCC is planning to resume invites to them this year, it is processing FSWP applications more quickly, and Immigration Minister Sean Fraser has gone on the record to say the draws will resume in the “near term.” In the meantime, Express Entry invitations to PNP candidates continue biweekly. Yesterday, IRCC invited 924 PNP candidates to apply for immigration through Express Entry.

Source: IRCC continues to evaluate Express Entry options, but will resume FSWP and CEC invitations in 2022

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Immigration Canada’s backlog stands at 1.8 million people, but there are signs of improvement [citizenship numbers]

2022/02/11 Leave a comment

But not for citizenship :

Citizenship backlog has grown by 20,000 persons

IRCC reported the backlog for citizenship applicants was standing at about 468,000 on December 31, 2021. On October 31 of last year, there were around 448,000 citizenship applications in the inventory. In 61 days, the citizenship backlog grew by 20,000 applicants.

In its email to CIC News, a spokesperson from IRCC said in all of 2021, Canada processed more than 206,000 citizenship applications. Compared to 2020 when IRCC processed 80,000 citizenship applications.

Source: Immigration Canada’s backlog stands at 1.8 million people, but there are signs of improvement

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with ,

Canadian citizenship application delays causing uncertainty for Calgary immigrants; ‘There’s nothing left to do’: Soon-to-be Canadians slam long waits for citizenship oath ceremonies

2022/02/04 Leave a comment

Funny that on the same day, we have stories in Calgary and Montreal on the impact of delays on citizenship applications.

Significant delays in the approval process to become a Canadian citizen due to ongoing staffing shortages and widespread travel restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic have forced some immigrants to wait nearly two years to take their oath.

The extra wait times are now impacting hopeful Canadians like Amani Kaman. who immigrated to Canada as a refugee in 2013 to escape from war. Sadly, his father was killed by rebels in the process.

Source: Canadian citizenship application delays causing uncertainty for Calgary immigrants

From Montreal:

When Rakhee Barua and her family’s permanent residency (PR) cards expired last year, she said she didn’t even consider renewing them.

After all, the Bangladesh-born family, who came to Canada in 2016, had passed their Canadian citizenship exam months earlier, and had just one last step to take before becoming full-fledged Canadian citizens: being sworn in at an oath ceremony, typically scheduled three to four months after passing the exam.

But almost a year later, Barua and her family are still waiting for an invitation to take their oath from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

“We were thinking, ‘we’ll get it next month, we’ll get it next month, we’ll get it next month,'” said Barua’s husband, Jewel Debnath, of the torturous wait for the invitation.

The uncertainty weighs heavily on Barua, who can’t travel to Bangladesh to be with her mother — who has breast cancer — due to her expired PR card and the delay on her status.

“My mother is sick. I cannot wait because I don’t know what will happen.”

Barua said her mother has been pleading for a visit before undergoing more treatment.

IRCC delays in scheduling the simple ceremony, which has been moved online due to COVID-19, has left thousands of Canadian hopefuls like Barua and her family in limbo — waiting months, and even years, to become citizens.

“There’s nothing left to do,” said a frustrated Debnath of the citizenship process.

‘I’m just waiting for that oath’

Because her PR card has expired, Barua would not be allowed back into Canada after travelling overseas to visit her mother. Renewing the card costs $50 per person, and after looking into the process, she said the wait time is between five and six months due to the backlog at IRCC.

“Like us, many people are suffering,” she said.

Oleksii Verbitskyi, a software developer from Ukraine, says his family has been waiting for more than two years for their Canadian citizenship, and he’s spent 11 months of that time period waiting for a date to attend the oath ceremony.

“It’s ridiculous, I have everything completed, I’m just waiting for that oath,” said Verbitskyi, who came to Canada with his wife and daughter in 2016 and passed the citizenship exam in March 2021. His youngest son was born in Montreal.

“It’s important … but it’s [a] formality, to be honest.”

After contacting the IRCC through online forms and emails, Verbitskyi says he still only receives boilerplate responses from the department. He says the lack of communication is frustrating.

“We live in the 21st century, you have online tools and everything,” he said. “Give us something, some feedback, like some way to know.”

60,000 approved applicants awaiting ceremony

Last year, Canada announced it would spend $85 million to plow through the backlog of immigration applications caused by COVID-19. On Monday, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser said the government hopes to expand virtual citizenship ceremonies, as well as introduce an electronic oath of citizenship to help speed up the process.

Fraser said there are currently around 60,000 people approved for citizenship who are waiting for a ceremony.

“We will be having conversations to ensure that we administer the system in a way that improves efficiency, but at the same time doesn’t deny those people who want to take part in a formal ceremony and be welcomed into the Canadian family in that traditional way,” the minister said.

But the president of Quebec’s association of immigration lawyers, which goes by its French acronym, AQAADI, says there’s no reason the process should be taking this long.

“The oath is the end of the process, it’s not a question of deciding anything, it’s just to receive the documents,” said Stéphanie Valois. The process took only a few weeks before the pandemic, she said.

“[People have] been waiting a year, more than a year, a year and a half … It should definitely be addressed because there are no reasons,” she said.

A responsibility to make Canada better

Both Barua and Verbitskyi immigrated to Canada with the hope of giving their children a better life, and are eager to obtain citizen status.

“It’s a very peaceful country … It’s known as the best country in the world,” Barua said of Canada, smiling.

Verbitskyi says he loves living in the quaint suburb of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue in Montreal’s West Island, and he touts the expertise of doctors who he says saved the life of his youngest child.

“For eternity, I will be grateful to Canada,” he said, tearfully.

But Verbitskyi says calling out the inefficiencies in the country’s immigration system is his civic duty, and he hopes it will make the process easier for other prospective immigrants and citizens.

“It’s our responsibility as loyal citizens to make [Canada] even better.”

Source: ‘There’s nothing left to do’: Soon-to-be Canadians slam long waits for citizenship oath ceremonies

Filed under Citizenship Tagged with , ,

Applicants to Canada’s skilled-worker immigration program will soon face 36-month wait times, documents reveal

2022/01/29 Leave a comment

Yet another article on the delays in the federal skilled worker program, reflecting in part the government focus on meeting its target of 401,000 by giving priority to those already in Canada (TR2PR):

Kartikay Sharma has a master’s degree in civil engineering and works as a researcher in building energy efficiency — knowledge and skills that are highly sought after in Canada these days.

In fact, Canada had selected and invited the Indian man to apply for permanent residence back in December 2020.

Yet more than a year after that offer, the 27-year-old is still waiting for Canada to complete his application and let him into the country.

Sharma is among thousands of skilled immigration applicants overseas whose lives and plans are in limbo, as Canada has halted the federal skilled immigration program since then in order to prioritize applicants already in Canada and to address Afghan refugee resettlement.

“Whenever anyone is talking about backlog, no one is talking about backlog for federal skilled applicants overseas,” Sharma told the Star. “As all of us are awaiting our permanent resident visa, we face huge uncertainties.”

Canada’s skilled worker program, introduced in 1967, was the first in the world to recruit the best and brightest immigrants as permanent residents through an objective system awarding points to candidates points based on their age, language proficiency, education achievements and job experience.

Despite updates through the years, it has been a signature economic immigration program that brings in people based on their general skills, knowledge and experience, in order to fill Canada’s labour market needs.

According to an Immigration Department internal memo, processing time for skilled applicants is already at 20.4 months — more than three times the six-month target — and that’s expected to climb to 36 months this year.

Anyone interested in becoming a skilled immigrant to Canada must put their names in a pool; Canada normally makes regular draws from the pool and those who meet the threshold scores in each draw will be invited to apply. However, the number of skilled immigration candidates was forecast to grow to 207,000 by last December and, said the memo, the backlog must be reduced by half before any new invitations are issued.

Due to travel restrictions and lockdowns affecting visa posts and foreign government offices, the Immigration Department has struggled to process applications in a timely manner. In the face of the reduced capacity, new entries for future draws continue to arrive.

“This will continue to drive processing times up,” said the undated memo obtained under an access to information request.

Experts say Ottawa has an obligation to promptly process these applications. They also question whether the pause on the intake further devalues the effectiveness of the skilled worker program in addressing Canada’s labour needs.

“Three years is extreme. The system is designed to select for skilled immigrants Canada wants. And now it’s saying it has too many of them, and it’s not going to process them quickly and it’s not going to process many of them,” said Surrey, B.C.-based immigration lawyer Marina Sedai.

“That tells me that the way it is designed is not achieving what the Immigration Department said it would. They need to design it so that if somebody qualifies, they then have a reasonable likelihood of being able to immigrate to Canada.”

Since the onset of the pandemic, Canada has prioritized the processing of skilled applicants already in this country, such as international students and temporary foreign workers.

Although the strategy helped the Liberal government to welcome a record 401,000 new permanent residents — 62 per cent of them as economic immigrants based on the skills and education of the principal applicants — in 2021, the backlog of overseas skilled applicants has ballooned.

The Immigration Department’s internal memo said the current inventory of high-skilled candidates — in skilled workers, skilled trades and Canadian experience streams — has provided enough candidates in the pipeline to meet its 2021-23 targets.

Officials say immigration is essential to Canada’s short-term recovery and long-term prosperity and the government is committed to welcoming newcomers who bring the skills our economy needs.

“The already existing robust inventory of skilled candidates to process means that there won’t be a reduction in 2022 of the number of new skilled permanent residents arriving in Canada to work and settle,” said department spokesperson Rémi Larivière. “It is a temporary pause on issuing invitations to apply to the inventory.”

Larivière said Canada’s labour market needs have continued to be met through candidates recommended by provincial governments and the temporary foreign worker programs, and added that the 2021 federal budget commits $85 million to addressing the backlog and reducing processing time.

“Invitations to apply under the FHS (federal high-skilled) streams will resume once the processing inventory is reduced enough to create space for new intake,” he said.

Candy Hui, a Regina-based immigration consultant, said the pause of the federal skilled program has forced some applicants to scramble and submit new applications under different programs, moving the backlog from one stream to another.

“This halt on FHS is going to increase the processing times of all other permanent and temporary programs as people seek alternative strategies to come to Canada. So will this really help with the already big backlog?” asked Hui.

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said the skilled worker program is an important immigration stream for Canada and the current pause “will not only put people’s lives in limbo, but result in missed opportunities for Canada, risking that applicants may choose to emigrate to another country that recognizes their talent and experience.”

“Failing to address the backlogs will ultimately create more work for immigration as documents expire and the circumstances of applicants change. It will also fuel additional inquiries by applicants because they are concerned about a lack of progress in their applications. All of this serves only to further tie up the department’s resources.”

Conservative immigration critic Jasraj Singh Hallan said the overall immigration backlog had reached 1.8 million applications by December and the Liberal government still doesn’t have a plan to tackle it.

“It’s not just as simple as we’re going to throw this much money toward it. We want to see a plan. We want to see how they are going to actually reach that. Again and again, we keep seeing great announcements, pretty words, but no plan,” said Hallan.

“These applications are stuck in the mud right now. The Liberal government needs to take the backlog seriously and help families reunite, help businesses fill the labour shortages and help Canada succeed through immigration.”

Sharma is one of 500 people abroad who applied after being invited to do so, only to find their applications on hold. He said that’s forced him and many others to put their lives — starting a family, taking up a new job and seizing new opportunities — on hold.

“We understand that this pandemic is not an easy time and it has disrupted so many lives and systems. All we are requesting is to clear the backlog of (overseas) applicants,” he said.

“Please show some compassion towards us. We will be Canadians in the very near future.”

Source: Applicants to Canada’s skilled-worker immigration program will soon face 36-month wait times, documents reveal

Filed under Immigration Tagged with , , , ,

← Older posts

Newer posts →