Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - January 2007
800,000 would-be Canadians are held up by red tape, province and lawyers claim
The new five year plan by the Ontario Citizenship and Immigration Minister, Michael Colle, asks the federal government to increase from 250,000 to 350,000 the number of immigrants being accepted in Canada. The increase would help to clear a backlog of 800,000 cases, many of whom are parents who've been waiting for years to reunite with their families.
Colle has commented on the wait period as frustrating and unfair; he stated that the backlog can also result in a lose in the number of educated and highly qualified immigrants applying to Canada. Canada needs the influx of immigrants to address the flat population growth and an aging workforce, and although Canada is a popular destination, shorter processing times by European Union, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa may result in the applicants deciding to go elsewhere.
Colle says that Ontario would be willing to accept more than the 140,000 newcomers yearly as long as there is federally funding. In his five year plan for the Conservative Government, Colle sets as his objective to “get rid of the backlog and clear the books”.
The Federal Immigration Minister has yet to comment on the issue.
Immigration lawyers in Canada state that they are concern about the backlog; in sponsorship cases for parents, some firms estimate that about 25% of their clients had their cases started more than four years ago, paid the fees, and are still waiting for responses.
While 40,000 parents are sponsored to Canada yearly, there are still and upwards of 300,000 others waiting abroad for processing. Clients don’t want their money back; they want to see action on their cases.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/01/22/3425232-sun.html
