Family reunification in Canada is the core pillar of immigration strategies. A report offered by IRCC states that the department seeks to fulfill the Prime Minister’s mandate to reunite families. This will be done by implementing a program wherein they can issue TRV. Temporary Resident Visas are issued to spouses & children as they wait for the processing of their PR application to reunite with their families as soon as possible.
On May 26, Sean Fraser declared that numerous new measures would be taken to help expedite family reunification in Canada. The new measures are:
- Rapid TRV processing time for married applicants.
- New & dedicated processing tools for married TRV applicants.
- A new open work permit for the family class as well as spousal applicants.
- Extending open work permits for holders expiring between August 1 – December 31, 2023.
The new processing tools enable IRCC to streamline application processing for non-complex applications. The immigration minister asserted that the technology adopted by IRCC in the last few years enabled the department to check data on an individual’s application to help determine if they are eligible for PR or not. In addition, this consists of family sponsorship applicants & this approach has an approval rate of over 98% for married/ spousal TRV applications.
The minister further asserted that the backlog of visitor TRVs for spouses of applicants who have already applied for PR status had been eliminated. Additionally, these kinds of applications will carry a service standard of 30 days. Therefore, applicants will definitely benefit from processing measures specific to their situations as dependents/ spouses.
Additionally, on June 7, the open work permit holders whose current permit expires between August 1 – December 31 are eligible to extend their permit for 18 months. As a result, this is expected to impact around 25,000 people & includes dependents as well as spouses of temporary workers, spouses of foreign students & permanent inhabitant applications.
Open Work Permits For TFWP & IMP
On January 30, open work permits became temporarily available for spouses of applicants in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.
The measure will last till 2025. In addition, IRCC asserts that by temporarily issuing work permits to the spouses, common-law partners, & dependents of TFWs, the stress might be lifted off workers by improving financial stability. As a result, this will make it simpler for numerous families to live together & integrate into the communities.
The measure also consists of working-age children who are 16 or older. Moreover, IRCC calculates that this program will make it feasible for families of more than 200,000 foreign workers to enter the workforce of Canada. Thus helping to boost the economy & lower the national labor shortage.
Family Reunification In Canada: Sponsoring A Spouse, Partner, Or Child
Family-class immigration is the second-most popular approach to Canada immigration after economic-class immigration.
According to the Immigration Level Plans 2023-25, Canada will welcome 118,000 permanent inhabitants yearly via family class sponsorship by the end of 2025. This includes spouses, dependent children, partners, parents, & grandparents.
In order to be eligible for sponsoring a family member, the sponsor must be:
- A permanent inhabitant/ Canadian citizen
- Around 18 years or older
- Able to support the sponsored individual for some years
The amount of support needed varies depending on the number of people who are being sponsored. Moreover, sponsors must sign a financial/ monetary undertaking that makes them legally responsible for supporting their family members for some years. This includes partners & spouses, even if the relationship breaks down.