The Canadian Federal Immigration Department have frozen the parents and grandparents immigration sponsorship program starting November 2011.
The department, in its memo, said that it will stay in moratorium for at least 2 years. They pointed to the recent immigration backlog as the reason for this new initiative.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney claimed that due to the present immigration wait times of sometimes 7 years, the department decided to take action by halting the processing of papers effective immediately.
“Action must be taken to cut the backlog.” Immigration Minister Kenney said.
He also said that this moratorium is just one of the stop gap measure his office is implementing to redesign this class of immigration application. There are more than 165,000 grandparents and parents sponsorship application who are still waiting to be processed, according to him.
In lieu of this latest immigration restriction, Minister Kenney have substituted it with a new program called the Super Visa Program for Parents and Grandparents. The new program which becomes in effect starting December 1, 2011 will allow grandparents and parents to stay in Canada continously for 2 years without exiting the country and will be valid for 10 years, for multiple-entries.
However, to become eligible for the Super Visa Program, there are certain criterias that must be met by both the applicant and his/her sponsor:
- The sponsoring grandson/granddaughter or daughter/son must meet income requirement
- The sponsoring person must purchase a Canadian medical insurance for visitors to cover the applicants medical emergency
- The applicant will have to pass the Canadian medical screening procedure
- The applicant must prove that she/he will leave Canada after the maximum stay
The new Super Visa for Parents and Grandparents will take 8 weeks to process, assuming the forms are correctly filled and the requirements above are satisfied.
Immigration Minister Kenney also added that his department will be increasing the quota for parents and grandparents to 25,000 applications when the program resumes, an increase from 17,500 from previous years. He also intends to increase applications for Foreign Independent Workers (Federal Skilled Worker Program), White-collar Skilled Workers and those with PhD who graduated from Canadian universities and also refugee applications.
But on the other hand, other class of immigration applications will be slashed as a result of the above increase. Those which will be affected are the Business class immigration, spouses sponsorship application and live-in caregivers.
Immigration critics are quick to criticize this latest announcement by Canada’s Federal Immigration Department. They claim that Canada in the next five to ten years will depend primarily on immigration to make up for the shortfall in labor requirement and this will not help Canadian businesses and employers in their time of need, affecting the economy in the long run.
Disclaimer: The immigration article posted above does not substitute as a legal advice on immigration to Canada issues. If you need help about your current immigration status or situation, consult a qualified immigration lawyer or consultant in your country or email us if you need representation with one of our lawyers. Use due diligence in doing so.