CIMM – Temporary Public Policy to Facilitate the Processing of Temporary Resident Visa Applications in the Inventory – February 7, 2024
Key Facts and Figures
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) recognizes that many people around the world have experienced delays with obtaining a temporary resident visa (TRV) to come to Canada due to an unprecedented volume of applications in our processing inventory, which is an important issue we’re committed to resolving.
IRCC has been working to reduce this inventory while continuing to process new applications, and is pursuing a number of innovative policy and operational solutions to address the inventory in an effort to ensure Canada remains a destination of choice for tourists, business visitors and those wishing to visit family.
One initiative that IRCC has put in place to reduce the inventory is the creation of two temporary public policies (TPP) to expedite and streamline the processing of the majority of visitor visa and parent and grandparent super visa applications in our inventory on or before January 16, 2023. Our efforts have been successful; of the 240K eligible applications in the inventory, 227K applications received final decisions prior to the end of the temporary public policies. The remaining applications are being processed according to regular requirements.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CSBA) has seen an increase of asylum claims at Ports of Entry in Canada – most significantly at the Montréal Pierre Elliot Trudeau and Toronto Lester B. Pearson airports.
IRCC has been taking action to reduce processing times and tackle the accumulated inventory in our system. We are continuing to process TRVs as quickly as possible to respond to the growing number of people who want to visit Canada.
To help reunite families faster and support economic recovery through business travel and tourism, IRCC introduced two policies to streamline the processing of thousands of TRV applications in our inventory that were received on or before January 16, 2023.
As of December 7, 2023, the policy to streamline visitor visa applications is no longer in effect, as it has been successful in clearing most of the older TRV cases in our inventory. This has helped IRCC deliver on its commitment to speed up the processing of TRV applications.
IRCC continues to explore a variety of solutions to provide faster and better client service. We’re digitizing applications, hiring and training new staff, and harnessing automation technologies to increase processing capacity and efficiency. All these efforts will ensure that Canada remains a destination of choice for tourists, business visitors and those wishing to visit family.
Supplementary Information
IRCC is continuing to track outcomes from the temporary public policies. In the current reality of increasing global migration, Canada, like many other countries, is experiencing a rise in the number of people claiming asylum.
The number of arrivals between ports of entry (i.e., irregular arrivals) has significantly declined since we expanded the application of the Safe Third Country Agreement in March 2023.
However, claims made in other modes, particularly those making a claim upon entry at Air Ports of Entry, which began rising in 2022 when travel restrictions were lifted, have risen since the spring of 2023.There is an increase of asylum claimants at ports of entry and at inland offices.
Asylum volumes are difficult to predict and are driven by a number of factors, including persecution, instability and war.
