OTTAWA –Surrey North MP Jasbir Sandhu questioned senior representatives from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration on the lack of funding allocated in the Supplementary Estimates for 2014-2015 to address the problem of long delays for family reunification.
During the 35th meeting of the Standing Committee of Citizenship and Immigration, Sandhu stated that “under this government, we have seen long line-ups for family reunification. It’s a constant issue in my community, especially when you are waiting for your parents. According to my math, it takes at least eight or nine years to bring your parents from another country to Canada. Has there been an increase in funding to ensure that we speed up this family re-unification process?”
Long delays in the application process for family reunification continue to be a problem. To sponsor parents, it currently takes 41 months to complete the assessment of the sponsor stage in Canada. Subsequently, once the file gets transferred to the appropriate visa office overseas, families must continue to endure long wait times, which may take as long as 73 months. In New Delhi, for example, the second phase of processing takes an additional 66 months. In spite of these outrageous wait times, the government is not planning to allocate any new funds to address this problem.
“I see the frustration and anxiety that my constituents face on a daily basis as a result of these long wait times,” Sandhu said. “My office tries to help our constituents by following up on these applications to ease their concerns. However, it has become impossible to even get updates from many of these visa offices. They are refusing to provide us with updates unless the file is outside of processing times, but my office has caught many processing mistakes as a result of following up. How can my constituents even be sure that their applications are being processed correctly when my office cannot get information for them?”
Sandhu calls upon the Minister of Immigration to remedy this issue so that families can be united in a faster and more efficient way.
