Permanent solution
As immigration grows in Atlantic Canada, processing centres struggle to keep up with permanent residency requests
When Jagmeet Singh — a name he shares with Canada’s NDP leader — first came to P.E.I. from Ontario, he immediately liked the quiet pace of life the Island offered.
“There is no traffic and there are no big city hassles,” he said. “I want to live there or at least in Atlantic Canada.”
Originally from India, Singh came to Canada as a student in 2016 and has been working to gain his permanent residency.
He came to the Island in
2018 but has since moved to Moncton under a work visa, attempting to get endorsed for his residency.
With promises of support, Singh said, call centres in Moncton have told Singh they would endorse his bid for residency if he worked for them.
Singh would have to work through a three-month probationary period, pass rigorous language and writing tests, background tests and medical exams. He passed all the tests but was rejected by the call centre for an endorsement. He said they did not give him any reason for the rejection.
Now he is considering moving back to the Island to find a job to fulfill his work visa, which runs out in 2021.
He said the process has been frustrating.
“I am not the only person going through this, in one call centre, I worked with other 30 somethings other Indians, Nigerians and Chinese people who are struggling to gain their (permanent residency),” he said.
Singh said he has reached out to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) but they have not been able to give any indication on what Singh can do.
“There just isn’t enough supports for all of us trying to become citizens.”
In an email to the Guardian, Remi Larivière,
a spokesman with Immigration Canada, said although
IRCC has hired more employees to work at immigration offices throughout the country, the number of employees in offices can vary as resources are shifted based on “operational needs and pressures.”
“(The) IRCC reopened our office in Charlottetown in 2019, ensuring that there is an office in each of the Atlantic provinces, to provide newcomers with access to services closer to home,” he said.
“Similar to other IRCC offices in Canada, the Charlottetown office offers citizenship, immigration and settlement services. Employees are trained to be able to shift their responsibilities and be responsive to changing operational needs.”
As well, Immigration Canada has centralized processing centres in various locations across the country, said Larivière, that specialize in processing specific programs and immigration streams from across Canada and around the world.
“(Immigration Canada) hired more employees to work at the case processing centre in Sydney, Nova Scotia to help with the processing of the evergrowing volume of applications we have been receiving.”
While the number of employees fluctuates throughout the year to address the peaks and drops within various programs, said Larivière, the Sydney centre has seen a steady growth of approximately 100 employees within the last year.
The Guardian sent a media request for a more exact number of immigration officers in Atlantic Canada and P.E.I., but Immigration Canada did not respond by deadline.
Harman Cheema, who also moved from India to Ontario in 2016 for her studies, has also been looking to move to P.E.I. for work.
Cheema’s friends suggested she look at moving to the Atlantic provinces if she wanted to gain her permanent residency.
“I called the IRCC agents in Nova Scotia, but they weren’t very much help because they told me to just move to Nova Scotia,” said the 20-year-old Brampton, Ont., resident. Cheema works in a dental office near where she lives.
“It is hard for me to move from a stable job in Ontario to a new province where I might not get a job.”
Cheema is also currently on a work visa that will expire in 2021.
She said it has been hard trying to gain her permanent residency and said she wants to be close to her family in Canada.
“It has been really stressful. India right now, isn’t someplace where I can have the future I want,” she said.
“I came here to be with my family and work toward a future. But the way immigration is set up in Canada, it doesn’t guarantee any type of future at all.”