The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Sean Fraser announced on January 31, 2022 some of the measures to improve and modernize Canada’s immigration system. He also announced the measures on how to tackle key challenges faced by the clients and achieve more stable application processing times.
In February 2022, the government will introduce a new Permanent Residence Application Tracker for applicants’ spouses and dependents. This will allow them to easily access status updates on their case files.
The Minister also mentioned the achievements of the last 2021 year and promised to address delays that have been impacted by COVID-19. The government proposed $85 million in new funding in the Economic and Fiscal Update 2021 to reduce application inventories.
This investment will allow the government to employ additional staff who can help address labour shortages, as well as return to processing services in various programs including study permits, work permits, and permanent resident cards renewals.
Also, the government is also working to reduce processing times for visitor visas and proof of citizenship. As part of these efforts, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will hire approximately 500 new processing staff, digitize applications, and reallocate work among our offices around the globe.
IRCC claims to be committed to a fair and non-discriminatory application of immigration procedures. They say they take their work seriously and their officers are trained to assess applications equally against the same criteria.