Search the Internet          Tips

Immigration pilot project fails in Canada

The Canadian Immigration Department will discontinue centralized processing of applicants from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Singapore and a few other nations from August 31.

This follows the failure of the pilot project launched in July last year to test faster ways of processing Family Class sponsorships from these nations.

In fact, the processing unit in Toronto has already stopped accepting new applications under the family reunification clause, and will only process sponsorship applications received before May 31. All applications received after that date will be forwarded to the Canadian Visa posts in New Delhi and other relevant capitals.

Under the pilot project, a joint application kit allowed Canadians wishing to sponsor their family members to submit their sponsorship application and Immigrant Application Form for the relative they were sponsoring to the Case Processing Center in Toronto.

According to the pilot project manager Sidney Frank, the kit also contained medical instructions and the applicant was required to complete his or her medical examination before the sponsor submitted the joint application to the Immigration Case Processing Unit.

This centralized processing of all documents was expected to result in quick decisions, particularly for applicants under the family reunification clause.

But instead, the processing time in fact increased with poor handling and other complications at the centralized processing unit.

"After reviewing the pilot project we found that the applicants faced so many problems. The processing time became even longer than (time) originally taken," said Gian Paul, manager Worldwide Immigration Consultancy Services in Toronto. The firm has has several branches in India and brings in large number of immigrants to Canada.

The filing of the application alone was taking more than two months as all documents had to be prepared in India or elsewhere, he said in an interview on July 11.

Besides, a clause that required the would-be immigrant to undergo a medical examination before even the visa application was filed " created confusion in the minds of applicants, as there was no file number and (no details) as to where the doctor had to send the medical," Paul said.

"Another limitation of the pilot project was that if in any case the sponsorship application was not approved the immigration application was rejected on this ground only and the submission of second part and the medicals were of no use," he explained.

Medical services are not cheap in India and entailed a great deal of hardship, particularly for people living in remote areas of the country, concurred other immigration experts.

But there are still many family class visa applications in the pipeline as many people don't even know that the pilot project has been discontinued, said sources.

Applications received after May 31 "will have the sponsorship assessed at the Case Processing center in (suburban) Mississauga (near Toronto)," Sidney Frank said. "Once the assessment is completed, the immigrant application will be sent by courier to one of the pilot visa offices (New Delhi or Singapore) for assessment."

Canadian sponsors of applicants or their representatives "will be advised in writing when and where their files have been transferred," he added.

In the meantime, Frank said, "an independent evaluation of the pilot will be completed by the end of December 2001. We look forward to sharing the results with you," Frank said.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report