Canada’s commitment to reuniting families and keeping them together

By CIC News |

Canada recently renewed its commitment to keeping families together, a central goal of the country’s current immigration system.

Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has put into practice new procedures intended to accelerate family reunification, ensuring that dependants and spouses who may not otherwise be eligible to come to Canada, now have a pathway to reunite with their families.

Additional measures were announced by the former Immigration Minister Sean Fraser on the 26th of May, and include:

• Expedited processing times for temporary resident visas (TRV) for spousal applicants, with the introduction of new, dedicated tools specifically designed to process spousal TRV applications;
• The provision of a new open work permit scheme for both spousal and family class applicants; and
• Expanding the eligibility of Open Work Permits (OWPs) to spouses and family members of permanent residents, Canadian citizens, temporary workers, and students (currently in Canada).

Expedited processing times and new tools

These new processing tools and measures aim to increase efficiency, especially where non-complex applications are concerned. These measures have already led to favourable results, with spousal TRV applicants seeing a 98% approval rating (including both spouses and dependents). Much of this efficiency comes down to IRCC’s recent implementation of new analytics in processing applications, which can use a multi-factor analysis of applications to help immigration officers determine whether an applicant is likely to be eligible for Permanent Residence (PR).Thereafter, officers can assign this application into a category where it is more likely to be readily approved (depending on the applicant’s eligibility), greatly streamlining processing times.

Read more