Becoming Canadian
Immigration Canada says backlog in processing new immigrants has improved
Immigration Canada says there are no backlogs in processing permanent residency, citizenship or other applications in the Atlantic provinces.
In a recent Guardian article, many newcomers to Canada voiced their concerns on the permanent residency application process and the seeming lack of support from Immigration Canada.
Béatrice Fénelon, a spokeswoman with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), says offices in Canada are open to clients and offer citizenship, immigration and settlement services, mostly by appointment.
“The IRCC has centralized processing centres in various locations across the country that specialize in processing specific programs and immigration streams from across Canada and around the world,” she said.
“These offices receive mailed-in applications, but they are not open to the public and do not offer assistance with the application process.”
The P.E.I. IRCC office reopened last year and currently employs two intake officers who take in citizenship or permanent residency applications, making sure they are complete and putting them into the system.
But those officers do not process the applications themselves. Processing is done at the Case Processing Centre in Sydney, N.S..
There are currently 10 intake officers across the Atlantic provinces.
“We would (also) like to point out the process of the Atlantic Immigration Pilot,” said Fénelon.
“The pilot helps hire qualified candidates for jobs the employers have not been able to fill locally. These candidates can be overseas or living in Canada temporarily.”
The Atlantic Immigration Pilot (AIP) is a partnership between IRCC and the Atlantic provinces to test approaches on attracting and retaining skilled immigrants in Atlantic Canada.
The program was launched as a three-year pilot in 2017 to respond to “acute demographic and labour market challenges”, including slow economic growth, an aging workforce, and difficulty attracting and retaining immigrants.
“Increasing the retention rate of immigrants in the Atlantic region is one of the primary objectives of the Atlantic Immigration Pilot,” said Fénelon.
Another spokesperson with the IRCC said members do their best to make the immigration process as simple as possible, but because Immigration Canada processes applications, it can create a conflict-of-interest if IRCC is also giving immigration advice to clients.
Immigration Canada said it makes the deliberate decision not to give advice, but not because of a lack of resources.
For advice on the immigration process, the department said there are lawyers whose job it is to give advice on immigration, as well as consultants who are registered to give advice on the application process and what’s the best way of going from a temporary resident to a permanent resident or citizenship.
IRCC’s client support centre agents can help immigrants with general and case specific enquiries, but cannot make decisions on applications, they cannot help process applications faster (unless an immigrant meets the criteria for urgent processing) and cannot provide immigration advice.
The IRCC processing centre in Sydney, N.S., process applications regionally, which can take several months, but the IRCC said it has the streamlined the process as much as possible to make it easier for applicants.
Immigration Canada said they are hitting all of their economic categories and meeting their immigration targets.