CIMM – Family Reunification – May 12, 2022

Key Messages

Family Reunification

• Canada’s family class program granted permanent residency to 80,993 individuals in 2021. The family reunification program allows for the sponsorship of spouses, common-law partners, dependent children, children to be adopted, parents, grandparents, and other eligible relatives. In 2022, the Department aims to accept 105,000 permanent residents under the family classes.

Modernizing Processing

• The Department has introduced several measures to support and accelerate the processing of family class applications. Efforts to date have allowed average processing times for spousal and common-law partner in-Canada and overseas sponsorship applicants to return to the service standard of 12 months for new applications.
• These measures include file digitization, remote processing, conducting remote interviews, the use of Advanced Analytics, the introduction of an online application portal for clients and representatives and an increased number of decision makers assigned to family class applications.
• In February 2022, the Department launched a new digital case status tracker that allows for spouses, common-law and conjugal partners and dependent children, as well as their sponsors and representatives to more easily check their application status online.
• We are continuing our efforts to support family reunification, by improving application processing times and developing a program to issue temporary resident visas to permit travel to Canada for spouses, partners and children during the processing of their application for permanent residence.

2021 Parents and Grandparents Program Intake

• The number of individuals interested in sponsoring their parents and grandparents always significantly exceeds the number of applications the Department can accept.
• For the 2021 Parents and Grandparents Program intake, potential sponsors were randomly selected with a goal to accept up to 30,000 complete applications. This random selection model ensured that the process was fair and transparent, and that all interested sponsors had an equal opportunity to be invited to apply.
• IRCC acknowledges that many families living in Canada have experienced financial difficulties because of the pandemic. For this reason, we implemented a more facilitative income requirement for the 2020 and 2021 taxation years.

If pressed on next intake:

• IRCC continues to process parents and grandparents applications that have already been received, including from the 2021 intake, in order to meet our immigration levels targets for the 2022 calendar year.
• Information on the next intake of applications is not yet available; however, details will be posted to our website as soon as they become available.

Background

Processing Applications Under the Family Class

• While restrictions on on-site presence limited processing capacity in the early months of the pandemic, IRCC has ensured to put in place various initiatives to enable remote processing.
• Previous and ongoing international travel restrictions, border restrictions, limited operational capacity overseas, and client behaviour (clients unwilling to travel in the current environment) have created barriers within the processing continuum, hindering IRCC’s ability to finalize applications and land clients, which in turn impacts processing times.
• In March 2021, the Department launched the Permanent Residence Digital Intake portal to enable certain applicants and representatives to submit applications electronically for the first time. Since June 2021, IRCC has been conducting all virtual landings for clients that are in Canada through the Permanent Residence Portal.
• The Department has devoted additional resources to speed up processing, including the expansion of our office in Sydney, Nova Scotia by hiring of new staff to help in reuniting families faster.
• The Department has also started conducting limited remote interviews for eligibility purposes, using telephone and MS Teams, for in-Canada spousal applicants who would have otherwise required an in-person interview in order to help address processing issues.
• In April 2021, the Department launched an Advanced Analytics pilot project for Spouse and Common-Law Partner in Canada Class (SCLPC) applications. Advanced data analytics is used to determine that an applicant meets the eligibility criteria for certain low-complexity applications. While it is premature to report on the processing efficiency gains of in-Canada SCLPC Advanced Analytics, officers have identified value in the model, which has allowed a reallocation of resources in an effort to meet IRCC’s objective of reducing processing times for all cases. Ongoing quality assurance continues to be undertaken to identify and close gaps as well as mitigate program integrity risks.
• Due to processing delays on spousal applications for permanent residence, there were public campaigns and advocacy groups who flagged issues around the issuance of temporary resident visas to those with spousal applications in progress, which namely included high refusal rates. In 2019, top refusal grounds for a temporary resident visa for spousal sponsorship applicants were due to the inability to establish that the person would leave at the end of their authorized stay, related to either purpose of travel, family ties, assets, travel history, or current employment. In response, the Prime Minister’s mandate letter sets out the commitment to implement a special program to issue temporary resident visas to permit travel to Canada, for spouses, partners and children during the processing of their application for permanent residence.

2021 Parents and Grandparents Program Intake

• A total of 34,500 Invitations to Apply were sent out by October 5, 2021, with the goal of accepting up to 30,000 complete applications into processing. Potential sponsors or foreign nationals with a disability had the opportunity to submit their interest to sponsor in the fall of 2020 and if invited for the 2021 intake, their application, in an alternative format, which included paper, braille or large print options.
• Since many sponsors may have been affected financially by the COVID-19 pandemic, the income requirement to sponsor a parent or grandparent for the 2020 and 2021 taxation years has been reduced to the minimum necessary income, instead of the minimum necessary income plus 30%.

Assessing the Genuineness of a Relationship for Family Class Permanent Resident Applications

• Applicants may establish their relationship to the sponsor by providing a birth certificate, a baptismal record, a marriage certificate or other evidence of a common-law partnership. Dependents may provide similar documents to establish their relationship to the principal applicant and/or the sponsor.
• An applicant or dependent must make every reasonable attempt to provide satisfactory documentary evidence to confirm a relationship. If they are unable to do so, an officer can counsel them that they have the option to undergo DNA testing at their expense.
• To assess that a spousal/partner relationship is genuine, supporting proof of relationship is requested and reviewed (e.g., proof of contact, proof of visits, photos, etc.). Interviews can also be conducted if deemed necessary by an officer.