LEXBASE, Canada’s leading immigration publication under well-known lawyer Richard Kurland, has in an editorial comment slammed the government for the nine-year wait that parents and grandparents face to get a permanent resident visa to Canada.

For a parent or grandparent outside Canada, the wait for a new case at “Step 1” is “45 months.”As of January 1, 2015, more than 40,000-plus persons were in “Step 1” (the ‘inland processing inventory’). After a case leaves “Step 1”, it goes to “Step 2”, which is the ‘overseas processing inventory’.

Based on Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s own method for calculating and reporting processing times, tens of thousands of parent and grandparents in “Step 1” need to additionally wait more than five years at “Step 2” for their permanent resident visa. New cases need to wait nine years.

Lexbase says: “Nine years is too long to wait for a visa, and the possibility of a Super Visa

that can be used to a maximum of two years of time over a ten-year period is not enough to soften reunification delay.

“A Three Year Plan: (i) Reduce the intake of new cases to 2500 per year; (ii) increase the commitment of parent and grandparents to be landed to 24,000 – 26,000 per year in each calendar year; (iii) modify the Super Visa strategy to allow a second period of two years of time during the same ten-year period, if the parent has been absent from Canada a minimum 12 months during the 14-month period immediately preceding an application for a second period of two years; and (iv) in future, after the three year plan; don’t take in more files in a year that can be processed in a year.

“There needs to be a balance between the needs of two groups: people who have been waiting to be reunited with relatives in Canada and have applied to immigrate, and people who are waiting to be reunited with relatives in Canada and have not yet applied to immigrate. The needs of the people who have already applied outweigh the needs of the people who wish to apply.

“The root cause of the parent and grandparent immigration processing time issue is the failure by previous governments to cap the annual intake of applications for parents and grandparents, and not take in more applications in a year that could be processed in a year; and, the policy to prevent disclosure of CIC data showing the massive annual growth in inventory in applications for parents and grandparents. Preventing disclosure of evidence helped prevent a political hit. Delaying the political decision to cap intake delayed the political hit.

“Unhappy Canadian families should look for detailed explanations from the responsible politicians at the time who prevented disclosure of the evidence of massive inventory growth of applications for parents and grandparents, and who would not make a political decision whether or not to cap intake.

“Politicians created the unhappiness. Politicians are fixing it. This is a legacy issue that will require three more years to resolve.”