Waiting is the mother of all frustration – anyone could tell you that and if you are waiting to start a new life of for a close family member to join you, waiting can be extremely demoralizing and stressful too. Unfortunately waiting is a familiar and unavoidable part of a 100% of all visa applications.
So when we came across a bit of good news about waiting for your Canadian visa we thought we’d share: Canada’s immigration department will from now on be able to give much more accurate processing timeframes!
Immigration Canada has adopted a new way to calculate application processing times to give people a better idea of how long their case may take so they can better plan their move. Essentially this means less stress and frustration normally induced by the long wait for bureaucratic procedures to be completed.
Instead of using time estimates from applications processed in the recent past, officials will now project processing times based on existing backlogs and annual admission targets. The new methodology will take into consideration the number of current applications in the queue and the volume of annual admissions approved by parliament under its multi-year immigration targets.
“Improving the service experience of IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) clients has been a significant point of focus for my department in recent years,” said Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen.
“This update is an important one to ensure our immigration processing times are as accurate as possible.”
Up until recently the IRCC ‘guesstimated’ processing time frames based on the time it typically takes to process 80% of visa applications.
“While historical processing times can be accurate for applications already in progress, they are a lagging indicator and are not always representative of the expected processing times for most new applications received today,” said department spokesperson Beatrice Fenelon.
“The processing times for some permanent resident applications will now be projected, and will tell clients how long we expect most applications to take under normal circumstances if they apply today.”
The improved time calculation will apply to sponsorship applications for parents and grandparents, regular provincial nominee programs, Quebec skilled workers, start-up visa applicants, as well as humanitarian and compassionate cases.
According to the IRCC the new process is already paying dividends, “In June, there were 26,000 parents and grandparents in the queue, down from the peak of 167,000 in 2011, when some applicants had to wait years to get a decision.”
Source: Toronto Star