IRCC Once Again Emphasizes their Priority on Family Reunification
On September 24, 2020, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, the Honourable Marco E. L. Mendicino, announced initiatives being taking to speed up the processing of spousal sponsorship applications. Family reunification is one of the pillars of Canadian immigration and it is evident that COVID-19 has created much uncertainty for spouses abroad. In their efforts to do so, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is:
- Increasing staff, who render decisions on spousal sponsorship applications, by 66%
- Leveraging technology to digitize paper applications so that they can be processed more efficiently, especially with IRCC staff working remotely/various worksites
- Implementing facilitation bio-metrics measures
- Conducting interviews virtually with applicants
These improvements to the current processing system are supposed to help finalize close to 6,000 spousal sponsorship applications, each month, from October 2020 until December 2020. If IRCC is able to meet this goal, they will have processed close to 49,000 decisions for spousal sponsorship applications in 2020. IRCC has acknowledged that they will keep improving their processes and continue towards innovative solutions, while following the advice of public health officials, during COVID-19.
For further information or assistance with obtaining permanent residence through the Spousal Sponsorship Program, please contact pinaz@prmlaw.ca.
