2023-07-08 04:08:02
From one day to the next, on June 22, the delays for sponsoring a spouse from Quebec lengthened from 8 to 10 months. They now reach 24 months for a partner abroad who wants to settle in the province, which represents 10 months more than in the rest of Canada. Hundreds of torn families are crying out from the heart, while immigration professionals are concerned that Quebec’s threshold has already been reached for this category in 2023.
The Family Reunification Program allows Canadian citizens and permanent residents to sponsor a family member by agreeing to support them financially for a period from 3 to 20 years, according to family ties.
On the morning of June 22, immigration consultant Johanne Boivin-Drapeau spoke to her client Jessica Desrochers. “Be strong, we continue, we are almost done,” she told him then. This woman from Saint-Jérôme had a file that had been in process for more than 14 months.
Since Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) told them throughout the process that the delay would be 15 months, they are hopeful that the husband and father of the daughter of this Quebecer will soon be able to take the plane. The federal ministry’s site then indicates delays of 16 months, a number that has changed little since at least December 2022, according to several screenshots over time consulted by Le Devoir.
Ms. Desrochers met her current husband in the Dominican Republic in 2019 and they married in 2021. In May 2022, a baby girl was born from their union after a difficult pregnancy that forced the woman to remain bedridden for several months. The father was unable to support her in daily life, or even attend the delivery, since a visitor’s visa was refused.
“He missed all of his child’s firsts: first word, first step, first meal. They see each other on video, but it’s not the same,” the 38-year-old said.
While she believed that this painful situation was finally coming to an end, she is now devastated. On June 23, she went herself to the IRCC portal and noticed that the deadlines had instead increased to 24 months for applications made from Quebec. “I’m angry, I’m sad. I have a lot of difficulty finding the words because I don’t see the day when we will be together, I just see pitfall after pitfall, ”she said on the phone, her throat tight.
Always longer in Quebec
The sponsors interviewed are also dismayed by the difference in delays between Quebec and the rest of the country. As these lines were written, it took 14 months in any other province to be reunited with a foreign partner.
A difference that feeds “a feeling of injustice”, says one of them. A French-speaking computer engineer who describes himself as “perfectly integrated in Quebec” since his arrival in 2015, the man expresses his “exasperation” and his “deep disappointment” in a letter sent to Prime Minister François Legault.
He does not want to reveal his name publicly, for fear of harming his wife’s sponsorship file, he explained by contacting Le Devoir, which verified his identity. He returns the expression of the Prime Minister during his 2018 campaign: “Take less, but take care of it. “Caring for an immigrant doesn’t also include ensuring that his family can join him within a reasonable time?” ” he asks.
The family reunification program is managed jointly by the two levels of government, but Quebec sets the volumes that he wishes to accommodate. Applicants first obtain a Quebec selection certificate, then their file passes into the hands of the federal department.
There were thus approximately 36,800 people awaiting regrouping at IRCC as of May 2, according to the Quebec Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI). Lawyer Laurence Trempe speaks of a “funnel effect” because of Quebec’s low targets.
The maximum of 10,600 for 2023 is indeed below the average of the last 10 years, at a time when the population has nevertheless grown and “when people are traveling more and more and falling in love abroad”, observes She.
The files may be approved rather quickly by the province, “if Quebec says ‘that’s our target,’ [le ministère fédéral] will stop processing files, ”explains the one who is also co-president of the Quebec Association of Immigration Lawyers.
This bottleneck, at the origin of this pending inventory, exists for all categories of economic immigration, “but when we talk about the sponsorship program, it is even more sensitive. It’s about allowing people to live with their loved ones,” says Me Trempe.
Federal immigration officials have told some people, including consultant Johanne Boivin-Drapeau, on the phone that the sudden lengthening of the delays means that the threshold of 10,600 for 2023 set by Quebec has already been reached, in less than six month.
The MIFI denies this information. It is rather 4800 people who have been admitted, we say at Le Devoir. But this number dates from April 30, 2023. None of the information provided therefore allows us to conclude that the threshold has not been reached since then, that is to say in the last two months.
Last year, Quebec’s target for family reunification had been reached before the end of the year, i.e. September 30 or earlier, according to the 2023 Immigration Plan.
Split lives
The Lavalloise Mouna Eid tells a story in all respects similar to that of Jessica Desrochers. Having exhausted substantial savings, she has not seen her husband, a Dominican, for more than seven months. They have been in contact for almost five years and have also gone through almost all the immigration stages: “He is losing hope of being able to come here. »
Born before the sponsorship application, their daughter is now three years old and, despite many attempts to see where their file is, Ms. Eid deplores “a total lack of transparency” and “automated responses” from IRCC.
“It’s children growing up through phone screens, it’s not human,” said Ms. Boivin-Drapeau. This family reunification consultant represents 219 families with IRCC right now, “and they all desperately need clear answers.”
At Bousso, who asked to withhold her last name so as not to interfere with her application for permanent residence, the long delays caused “enormous stress”, she says from Dakar, Senegal. “Nothing went as we wanted, to the point where I had a miscarriage,” she said, holding the situation responsible. Her husband, who is from Quebec, spent time with her there, but both of her visit visas to Canada were refused. “I find it cruel,” she explains, saying she is “arch-ready” to settle down and start a family.
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