That Canada's immigration system is in crisis is no longer news. Serious problems began back in the late 1990s, when the processing times for immigration cases grew from 6-8 months to several years. The inability of immigration offices to process incoming cases in a timely manner resulted in the so-called backlog.
In June 2002, the federal government of Canada (then formed by the ruling Liberal Party) adopted a new immigration law, IRPA. Its main news was that the pass mark was set so high that few could hope to successfully go through the process. After a series of court proceedings and protest actions, the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration Canada lowered the pass mark from 75 to 67, which is still in effect today. A period of relative calm ensued. Perhaps its cause was the power struggle between the Liberal and Conservative parties, which ended in 2006 with the victory of the Conservatives. During this period, immigration issues were not properly addressed, leading to an accumulation of problems.
Processing times for immigration cases in China, India, and the Philippines currently stand at 5-6 years or more. The ministry has accumulated about 900 thousand applications, of which 600 thousand are in the Skilled Worker category. In 2000, there were only 374 thousand applications in the Skilled Worker category; in 2004, already 524 thousand; and by the end of 2007, over 600 thousand. If no measures are taken, by 2012 the total number of unprocessed applications could reach one and a half million.
The problem is also that due to long waiting times, specialists who are needed right now cannot enter Canada. According to forecasts from the Ministry of Labour Canada, in the next decade, the need for qualified specialists will be covered exclusively by immigrants.
Amendments to the law Bill C-50
As mentioned above, the Canadian government made serious amendments to the immigration law by introducing Bill C-50, which successfully passed hearings in May 2008 and was approved by parliament on June 18 of the current year. According to these amendments, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada received the right to give instructions to embassies regarding which categories of workers to process first, which to put on a "waiting list," and which applications to return.
Now officials of the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration Canada can select from among the submitted applications those that meet certain parameters and process them on an accelerated basis, or postpone them indefinitely, or return them to the applicant. This is not about refusing to issue an immigration visa for Skilled Worker, but about refusing to process the application.
Let me remind you that until now, immigration applications were processed in the order they were received (i.e., a "live queue"). At the same time, the embassy was obliged to accept and review all applications submitted for immigration. According to the new rules, applications from specialists for whom there is the greatest demand in Canada will be processed first. The country's immigration services are no longer required to review all submitted applications. At the same time, the quota for the number of immigrants accepted annually into Canada will not change and remains within 240-265 thousand people.
The amendments to the immigration law were criticized by the public, human rights groups, political movements, ethnic communities, immigration lawyers, etc. The main reason for the protest is the uncontrolled influence of the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration on decision-making. In addition, the possibility of appealing the decision in court has disappeared.
Currently, applications submitted after February 27, 2008, will not be processed until instructions are received from the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, which are expected in early autumn.
What will Bill C-50 change?
The main goal of the adopted changes - eliminating the backlog of applications in embassies - is unlikely to be achieved. First, the green light for certain categories will only be given for applications submitted after February 27, 2008. The problem of accumulated documents from previous years will remain. Second, by selecting certain categories, all others will be set aside, thereby creating new accumulations of unprocessed cases.
Third, it is unclear how, among the huge number of submitted applications, those meeting certain requirements will be selected. This involves preliminary scanning of each case, the need to delve into it - the workload for embassy staff will only increase. The only thing the ministry can do is limit the acceptance of new applications, i.e., repeat the experience of the Liberals in 2002 (immigration law IRPA).
And most importantly, the changes adopted now are not at all related to the problem of application backlogs. To solve it, only additional qualified personnel are needed in those embassies where such a problem is relevant (mainly Delhi, Hong Kong, Manila), and an increase in quotas for the number of visas issued for the next few years.
There are also strong doubts that the adopted changes will solve the problem of labor shortage in Canada. Immigration policy is too inflexible to promptly meet existing demand. It is hardly reasonable to lump together immigration issues and meeting the demand for certain groups of workers. It would be better to accept educated and qualified specialists who can quickly adapt to a new life as immigrants. And to meet the demand for workers of certain specialties, simply ease the process of obtaining work visas and give more freedom to employers.
By the way, as experts note, the situation in the embassies of Moscow and Kyiv is unlikely to change dramatically. Things are relatively good at these embassies (especially in Moscow), there are no backlogs or long queues there.
Elena Ryabinina.
«Russian Toronto»