A French family who recently gained permanent residency are stuck in their home country and unable to return to Canada after a vacation due to card printing delays.
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“We had confirmation in June that we were permanent residents but we are not allowed to return to the area [canadien]just because we haven’t printed our card yet [qui officialise la décision] ‘ said Frederic Brett, who moved to Quebec in July 2018 with his wife Karine Arnaud and their two daughters Lena, 17, and Julia, 13.
The family is on holiday in France this summer to look for their relatives, whom they have not seen in more than three years, and are unable to return to the country. However, the Canadian government has granted permanent residency to its members.
“The problem is that to fly you have to apply for an ‘electronic travel authorization’. Except that you don’t have to do it as a permanent resident, you have to show the residence card, which you haven’t received yet, so block it,” explains the mother.
A vacation that turns into a nightmare
In 2021, after three years on Canadian soil, the family, originally from Vaucluse in south-eastern France, decided to apply for permanent residency.
Once the file is ready, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) website will tell them to have a response by October 2023, explains Ms Arnaud.
“Of course we organize our lives around this date,” says Mr. Brett, who works at a car dealership in Quebec.
Given the turnaround times, there was nothing to suggest her vacation, which she had been planning since February, would turn into a nightmare.
But contrary to all expectations, the processing of their application suddenly accelerated, which is why they finally received their new status in June.
“Once the decision is made, it can typically take four to six weeks for the card to be printed, so we had to be right. But the person in charge of our file didn’t validate our photos, so in fact the cards still haven’t printed,” Mr Brett sighs.
Work visa still valid
An IRCC agent reportedly warned Mr Brett by phone last week that he and his family would not get their tickets until 9/11.
“The crazy thing is that if we hadn’t had permanent residence in June, we could have returned to Quebec with our work visas that expire in 2024,” explains Ms. Arnaud, who is a daycare teacher.
Due to the situation, everyone fears losing their jobs if they don’t return soon.
“We have everything in Quebec! We have our house, our cat, all four of us work and our daughters go to school here,” says the couple, who are now questioning their immigration.
Immigration, Refugees, Citizenship Canada did not respond to our interview request.
Endless Delays
Disparities and delays in processing applications by Immigration, Refugees, Citizenship Canada (IRCC) are experiencing significant delays that can have serious consequences for applicants.
“Delays are really problematic everywhere in immigration, be it for residency, citizenship or humanitarian assistance. It creates problems, real problems in people’s lives,” laments Me Stéphanie Valois, attorney and president of the Quebec Association of Immigration Lawyers.
After the fiasco of passports, airports, or processing files for unemployment benefits, the federal government does not appear to be picking up the pace or catching up on immigration applications.
Thousands of applicants cannot then know what their future will look like.
According to the IRCC website, an H&C application can take up to 20 months.
Work permit applications can take more than five months to process if the individual is in Canada and submits the application electronically. However, the deadline is reduced to 10 weeks if the same application is made from France for an “essential” job, such as health workers.
Applying for citizenship can take up to 26 months.
And even for Canadians today, passport applications still experience significant delays, ranging from 10 days to 13 weeks.
Explanations
In addition to the delays, the files sent to IRCC are treated in a completely random manner, Me Valois regrets.
“We found that old files are put aside while newer files are dealt with first,” she says.
Result: Individuals who submitted a file in 2021 may have already received a response, while applications submitted in 2020 contain no news from immigration.
However, it is impossible to know how the ministry works.
“That does not make sense! At first it was because of Afghanistan, then it was COVID… but everyone managed to adapt and function,” she chimes in.
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