Sean Fraser, the minister of immigration, gathered other working group leaders on August 29 to inform Canadians and immigrants of the government’s initiatives to decrease the delay and enhance the immigration process.
IRCC services have been improved, according to Fraser, by:
- To enhance processing capacity and short-term address backlogs, up to 1,250 more hires may be made by the end of the fall.
- To make Canada’s system more long-term sustainable, modernize and streamline IRCC operations.
- As of August 22, there were about 300,000 new permanent residents that could be accounted for.
- A total of 349,000 new work permits were released in Canada between 1st August to 31st July in the present year. And in 2021 there were 112,000 new work permits issued.
- Between January 1 and July 31, 2022, more than 360,000 research permits were completed compared to over 306,000 permits during the same period in 2021.
- Between March 17 and August 24, 2022, the Canada-Ukraine authority accepted over 216,000 requests for essential transportation for Ukrainians and relatives and friends looking for a better life in Canada.
- In order to provide applicants for citizenship and some types of permanent residence with timely information regarding their files, application status trackers have been implemented and will soon be made available to more clients.
- The IRCC regularly publishes data to keep Canadians informed of our advancement.
Fraser remarked that “families, communities, and businesses deserve a migrant system that is effective for everyone” in a press release from the government. “We will keep our pledge to Canadians by making targeted investments, recruiting 1,250 workers to deal with the backlog, and enhancing our online systems and processes. As we continue to assist communities around the nation in accessing the talent they require, we will decrease wait times and make a strong effort to attract and keep qualified individuals.
The press announcement stated that at any given time, IRCC manages approximately 1 million submissions from its inventory and that in 2021, IRCC finalized 1.7 million proposals across all business areas. According to the IRCC webpage that tracks the backlog, there are currently 2.4 million applications awaiting review across all IRCC inventory, down from 2.7 million in July. 1.1 million of the items now in the IRCC inventory meet service standards, whereas 1.3 million are still in the queue.
Karina Gould, Canada’s minister of families, spoke at the conference as well and discussed how her country is streamlining the passport application process. Specifically, by increasing the number of employees at Service Canada, extending simplified passport renewals to adults who received their passports within the previous 15 years, putting in place a new triage system to help manage lines, expanding passport pickup to nine more Service Canada Centers, and extending passport services to 24 remote and rural communities in Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada.
Omar Alghabra, Canada’s minister of tourism, said the country is working to shorten wait times for passengers and ease congestion at airports by increasing staff, working with airlines, airports, and Additional eGates and primary inspection kiosks were installed at Toronto Pearson International Airport, screening officers were permitted to work while undergoing training to increase the number of officers on the ground at airports, and the number of officers was tripled. The Canadian Border Services Agency and other pertinent government organizations participated in the endeavor to remove bottlenecks.
