Seven- year wait frustrates Surrey family
Ottawa accepting 5,000 new applications for parent immigration, despite remaining backlog
Seven years into an excruciating wait for the parents they hope to sponsor for immigration, Sukhdeep and Raj Gill are feeling sandbagged by the Canadian government.
Citizen and Immigration Canada announced last week that it will be accepting 5,000 new applications for parent and grandparent immigration in 2014, ending a two- year moratorium aimed at catching up on a backlog of an estimated 165,000 applications.
Raj Gill, 36, was surprised to hear new applications will be accepted while her family’s application is unresolved.
“It has been so long for my parents in- law,” said Gill, who lives in Surrey with her husband Sukhdeep, 36, and their two children Ranveer, 3, and Parmveer, 6. “I think they should be first. They keep telling us it is in process.”
Sukhdeep is a long- haul trucker, gone for days at a time while she stays home with the two little ones. “It is really hard for me and I need them to be here to help with the children,” said Gill.
The Canadian government announced they had been able to process half of the backlogged applications, but families like Gill’s are still in limbo.
Immigration lawyer Richard Kurland says allowing 5,000 new parent and grandparent applications is inadequate and won’t solve the problem for the estimated 20,000 to 25,000 immigrants who want to apply each year. “It’s a red flag to a bull. It’s meant to create a discussion.”
The number 5,000 — and the impossibility of determining whose application gets in first — makes the admission more of a lottery than a reliable process, said Kurland. C. I. C. made applications available Dec. 31, and will accept them only by courier or mail. The new regulations make it a little tougher to sponsor family members, requiring a 30 per cent higher minimum income and a promise to keep sponsored parents and grandparents off social assistance for 20 years.
Even so, demand will still exceed supply and the process is flawed, said Kurland.
“Even if you meet the eligibility requirements there are no rules on who gets a visa and whose application gets selected from the pile.”
The real issue that needs to be addressed, said Kurland, is public perception that elders will be a drain on the medicare system.
Kurland works with immigrant families every day, and says the majority would gladly pay for their family members to enjoy the benefits of our medical system.
He would like to see officials consider the option of a tweak to the medicare system that would allow for private medical insurance for those families that can afford it.
“The issue of parents and grandparents is really simple: they are not taking jobs from Canadians, there is no criminality or security issue. There is only one issue: Medicare. It boils down to that.”
Kurland knows it’s controversial, but he believes resolving the fear of a financial burden to medicare is “the only way to cut this Gordian knot.”
“Let’s put our emotions away and rationally ask how we can reunite families so everyone wins.”
Raj and Sukhdeep are willing to do whatever it takes. When her in- laws visited, they purchased private health insurance at a cost of $ 1,100 for three months. All the appropriate paperwork for sponsorship has been filed. Yet other friends and family members have had applications processed in half the time.
“It’s been seven years,” said Raj. “I really don’t understand.”