By Mata Press Service

Canada has announced new measures to help new immigrant families come together more quickly, a move that will also help address the country’s chronic labour shortage.

Recognizing the importance of employment for newcomers and their families, Canada has also introduced open work permits for spousal applicants and their dependent children who are residing with their sponsor in Canada and possess temporary resident status.

This means that spouses, partners, and dependents can apply for and receive an open work permit as soon as they submit a complete permanent residence application under the spouse or common-law partner in Canada class (SPCLC) or other family class programs.

The new measures to strengthen family reunification, include;

• faster temporary resident visa (TRV) processing times for spousal applicants
• new and dedicated processing tools for spousal TRV applicants
• a new open work permit for spousal and family class applicants
• open work permit extensions for open work permit holders expiring between August 1 and the end of 2023

“Family reunification through immigration is not only a matter of compassion; it is a fundamental pillar of Canadian society,” said Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship (IRCC).

“We are supporting Canadians and newcomers by reuniting families faster and also allowing them to work and support themselves more quickly once they’re here. By doing so, Canada is helping newcomers achieve their true potential, while also strengthening Canada’s economy and social fabric,” he said.

Family reunification lies at the heart of building vibrant and inclusive communities, said Hedy Fry, Member of Parliament for Vancouver Centre.

“In Vancouver, we know that when families are united, they become stable, put down roots and begin to build a future,” she said.

Fraser said the faster temporary resident visa (TRV) processing and more considerate application measures will be initiated so that families can be together sooner while they wait for their permanent residence to be finalized.

Going forward, most of these applications will be processed within 30 days, and applicants will benefit from processing measures specific to their circumstances as spouses and dependents. “Many applications have already been processed using these new tools. Within this cohort of applicants, we have seen an approval rate of 93%,” he said in a statement.

Once in Canada, newcomers often seek jobs to support themselves and their families. That is why Canada has also made open work permits available for spousal applicants and their dependent children who reside with their sponsor in Canada and have temporary resident status. Spouses, partners and dependants are now able to apply for and receive an open work permit as soon as they submit a complete permanent residence application under the spouse or common-law partner in Canada class (SPCLC) or other family class programs.

The family class of immigrants is the second most common immigrant category, according to Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan.

According to the government of Canada, the country will receive 106,500 immigrants from the family class segment in 2023. It includes 78,000 spouses, partners, children, and parents, as well as 28,500 grandparents. It is estimated that 118,000 new immigrants will be accepted by the year 2025 under the family category.

Meanwhile, Data from Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) shows that the backlog of applications in inventory, across all lines of business, is now just slightly over 800,000, reported CIC News.

The numbers are current as of April 30. There are 2,006,000 million applications in inventory in total.

IRCC defines its inventory as applications that have not been finalized. The department says it finalized more than 5.2 million applications in 2022, double the number it finalized in 2021.

The latest inventory data does not reflect the full period of the recent labour disruption caused by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) strike that lasted 12 days between April 19 and May 1, 2023.

During the final week of the strike, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser told reporters that there were approximately 100,000 applications not processed throughout the strike that otherwise would have been but said that it would not take long for IRCC to get back on track and process any resulting backlog.

Finally, Minister Fraser announced that spousal applicants, along with other open work permit holders, whose open work permits expire between August 1 and the end of 2023, will be able to extend their work permits for an additional 18 months. A similar option was recently offered to many with expiring post-graduation work permits.

Quick facts

• Canada has taken action to improve client service and process applications faster. In 2022, we finalized more than 5.2 million applications across our multiple lines of business, resulting in millions of people getting decisions on their cases.
• Since July 2022, new spousal sponsorship applicants can expect their applications to be processed within the service standard of 12 months (for 80% of cases, for non-Quebec applications).
• Open work permits are available to foreign nationals in a number of different situations, but not all will be eligible for an extension through this facilitated processing measure. It will only be offered to
  • permanent residence applicants awaiting a decision on their permanent residence application and their spouses
  • family class-sponsored spouses with valid temporary resident status and their dependent children
  • spouses and common-law partners of most work permit holders and their dependent children
  • spouses and common-law partners of study permit holders
• Canada issued more than 1,075,000 work permits and work permit extensions in 2022.