Ottawa, May 7: Canada continues to be one of the top destinations for immigrants around the world. But the increasing backlogs, exhausting processing times and lack of communication and transparency are causing mounting frustrations among those seeking their Canadian dream.
The backlogs have increased to more than 2 million applications across all categories in April, compared to 1.8 million in March.
Meghrajsinh Solanki, a business and compliance analyst based in Windsor, Ont., is one of the two million applicants still in limbo. He’s been waiting nearly three years on his family’s permanent residence application. In September 2019, he and his wife applied under the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) program designed for skilled workers with Canadian work experience.
But Solanki hasn’t heard any updates from immigration officials on the status of his application for more than four months and has no idea how much longer he’ll need to wait.
CEC invitations remain paused since September 2021 but IRCC plans on resuming them in early July of 2022.
“We saw so many dreams together to have a good life here in Canada, raise our kids, et cetera. But it’s just been delayed, delayed and yet, we have nothing in hand at all.”
While Solanki is living in Canada under a work visa, his wife is still living in India and they can’t be reunited until they receive their permanent resident status. He applied for a visitor visa for his wife in September last year but says it was denied. He has applied again this month and is waiting to hear back.
Solanki says his experience with the Canadian immigration system was so frustrating, he even considered giving up on his application and moving back to India permanently, despite having already bought a house in Canada.
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